While attending the Disaster Rebuild course, we stayed in Plains, Georgia.   We were lucky enough to be there on a day when Jimmy Carter was teaching Sunday School so several of my classmates and I walked next door to the Maranatha Baptist Church.   Prior to the service, we were briefed on our expected behavior by Miss Jan.   While she was a very nice southern lady, Miss Jan left no doubt in anyone’s mind about exactly who was in charge.   She has lived in Plains her whole life, is a retired teacher, even teaching Amy Carter in 3 rd grade.   We were instructed on when we could take pictures, not to call President Carter, Mr President, (not sure what the difference is between Mr. President and President Carter, but if Jan said it, it was law).   She briefed us on what we were to do when we had our pictures taken after the service.   She said the Carters will be holding hands because they have been married for decades and do not want you to stand be...

I spent the past week with the most awesome group of people in a Habitat Disaster rebuild course here in Americus Georgia.   Habitat has a sub group called Care-A-Vanners or CAV.   We’re a group of people who travel in RV’s to build Habitat houses and have fun doing it. http://www.habitat.org/rv   Within that group, some of us are interested in going into disaster areas specifically and rebuilding.   This course covered such topics as emergency management, psychology of disaster, volunteer self care, safety, safety, safety, conflict resolution and managing volunteers.   The Care-a-vanner desk is manned or supported by the most amazing people Mary, Lu, Kristen, and Brenda just to name a few.   I’ve dealt with them via email for so long I felt like I knew them.   I was so excited to finally meet them and I was not disappointed.   They were even better in person, if that’s possible.   OK, Lu wasn’t here, but I met her several years ago in Michig...

Albany week 2   My 2 nd week in Albany was just as much fun as the first.   This time we had 95 kids from 3 schools.   The first week we worked on the trailer that housed volunteer supplies and house items.   The 2 nd trailer contained building materials and the 3 rd trailer is the tool trailer which we worked on as well.   Week two I had a group students take everything out of the materials trailer, sort it and put it back in an organized manner.   They went back and forth between the 1 st and 2 nd trailer making sure one contained building supplies and the other contained house items and volunteer supplies.   Once they had everything like they wanted it, they went to house building and I turned my attention to the tool trailer.   I spent the rest of the week organizing the final trailer with an awesome helper David.   It turns out it was very helpful having someone in the trailer full time because many of the people coming in fo...

I’m staying at a beautiful Methodist church camp here in Albany, Georgia.   It’s a 70 acre retreat complete with dorms and large kitchen/dining room/lodge.    The grounds are well maintained;   wooded with several large ponds, a playground and volleyball court.   There are several RV full hookups sites.   This week we have 65 young adults from 3 colleges.   Sacred Heart University in Fairfield Connecticut, Ohio Northern University in Ada Ohio and University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg Virginia.   During orientation Conor and Steve approached me from Sacred Heart.   I worked with them last year in Oak Ridge Tennessee.   Conor made a video and posted on YouTube, check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCVW6L5Glis .   This is already starting out to be a great build! The build is about 15 minutes from the camp, with 2 lots next to each other.   One house had the outside walls up and the other was just a concre...

This week we were joined by an awesome group of high schoolers from Holy Trinity High School in Melbourne Florida.   One girl in particular stood head and shoulders above the rest.   Her name was Lauren and she is one of the sharpest young ladies I’ve seen in a while.   The rest of the kids were lots of fun to be around.   One of my favorite was an exchange student from Hong Kong named Chang.   He’s been in the US for 2 years.   I told him he reminded me of a 2 nd grader, always getting into mischief, but he had a great heart.   There were several other boys on my crew including Reid and Jose.   I’m ashamed to admit I’ve forgotten the names of the other 2-3 boys, but they were all awesome workers!   Together we raised the outside walls and put up plywood around ½ the house.   Another crew including Lauren and the adult chaperone Mr. B worked on the safe room.   They were joined by Neil and John from the Presbyterian Disaster Re...

I arrived in Tuscaloosa Alabama during a rain storm, that continued for the first 3 days of the build.   That’s OK, it means inside work. There are 6 RVers here, this is my first time as team lead.   What a great group!   2 couples and a single guy I met at the FROG rally and convinced to join a build.   Also with us is the team lead from the last group.   They were supposed to go to Aniston Georgia for their next build, but were rained out.   It’s nice to have his experience added to our group. Joining us for the first week are two church groups from Illinois and Missouri.   We couldn’t have asked for a better group, everyone is so easy to work with and a pleasure to be around.   Camp Y is a YMCA camp, I’m not sure if Habitat took it over or just gets to use it.   One of the site supervisors (Peter) lives here in a house called the Lion’s Den.   There are two bunk houses that the church group is occupying.   We have a b...

I was in Ocala for the about 3 weeks.   I love all the hiking and biking the area has to offer!   I stayed at Santos Campground, which is also a trail head for the Florida Trail as well as miles and miles of mountain biking trails. I used to do a bit of mountain biking, but it can be pretty tough.   When I was a member of the Virginia Air National Guard unit near Richmond, we used to bring our bikes to drill and go riding after work.   More often than not, on Monday morning I would report to the clinic to have something x-rayed.   The trails we rode were pretty technical, with lots of obstacles, rocks, moguls, hills and ditches.    In one spectacular wreck, I went flying over the handlebars, landing elbow first.   I burst the bursa, (a fluid filled sack) and it swelled up very nicely.   To add insult to injury, I bent the end of my handlebar. That required some minor surgery to saw off a little from both ends to make them even.   ...