Corpus Christi

It’s been a busy week here in Corpus Christi. I’m on a Habitat build with 18 other Care-A-Vanners. We started with nothing more than a concrete slab and now have all the interior walls, outside plywood and the roof joists up. We’ve been working with a group of about 20 high school kids from the Baltimore area. Several in my group have only been working partial days since there are so many of us.

I really do like working with the kids. Usually if I find something to do and notice one of them standing around, I’ll show them what I’m doing and move on. They really want to work and I want them to have a good experience so they continue to volunteer. The first day on the build, one of the kids came to me with an injury. She hit her thumb with a hammer. Luckily she missed her nail and just had a nice cut. I had a first aid kit and patched her up. The kids can’t use power tools, so I spent a lot of time on the power saw. I think that’s all I did on Friday, I was covered in saw dust.

The first few days here were really windy, but that seems to have disappeared and now it’s just still and muggy. When you go outside in the morning, everything is wet. Some mornings you can actually feel mist in the air. It’s not that hot, but everyone has their air on instead of open windows because everything gets so wet. The job site has no shade, so the wives chase their husbands around with sun screen. Even I used it on Friday the sun was so bright. We’ve been eating pretty well, a local church fed us 3 days, 1 day our group leader’s niece brought us lunch from her church and 1 day we had lunch provided by Schlotzsky. The group I’m with is really fun, every day we meet in the RV park for happy hour. Someone usually brings food to snack on. Twice one of the wives stayed home and cooked.  I like working for food! 

The Habitat office in Tennessee let me know they got approval for an AmeriCorp volunteer starting in Sept. I loved working with them, the position would be an assistant to the construction supervisor. The drawback is that its 40 hours a week for 10 months. I don’t really want a full time job, I would rather volunteer and set my own schedule. Eventually I’ll have to go back to work, but not right now. I’ll wait till the winter and find a temp job.

Today I’m going for a bike ride around South Padre Island. Apparently even though we're on the coast, there's no scuba diving nearby. The water is too shallow and murky. One of my neighbors has been kayaking and she and her friend bottomed out on one trip, puncturing the inflatable kayak. I should have asked her how they got back

I’ve been listening to the Hunger Games on audio book as I drive.  I’m about ½ way through the last book. The job site is about 30 min away. In the mornings I drive by myself, but in the afternoon, anyone else cutting out early will often ride back with me.  It’s not that I don’t want them to ride with me, or don’t enjoy their company, but man I sure do miss hearing what happens next.  It’s a really good book, sometime I take the long way just to have more time to listen!   I’ll have to find something just as riveting before I head back to LA next week. 


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