Icing brick layer cake

May 25
Reading: Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Songs on repeat: Disney medley sung by brick laying crew

I´m beyond tired tonite so don´t know how coherent this update will be. It was rainy and cold, which added a degree of difficulty. We worked on site all day, mainly getting the bricks for the outer walls up. This is not exciting work, but there is a precision to it. I have a whole new respect for people who do construction professionally. We´re working with a team of local construction workers, who I think are donating their time and supplies. I´m not sure, as none of them speak English. Could tell they were starting to get a little frustrated with us. Little disheartening to work on laying bricks and painstakenly ice the cement in between the layers, only to have one of them come over, shake his head, then take down all your bricks, scrape the cement off and put it up again in a quarter of the time. But by the end of the day, we got the hang of it.

Besides working on the site, I did a little (very little) shopping with a few of the girls and then we had dinner at the local youth center. Alfredo, I learned, works with the youth center and the center works with Habitat, which is why he´s been driving us and providing lunches. It´s the only location in town that has an all vegetarian menu. Lucky for me, seitain with cheese melted on top is delicious.

Our team had low energy today. Must have been a combo of the cold and rain. Hoping for a more upbeat, energetic team tomorrow.

I realized I haven´t said much about the team, who I´m really starting to appreciate.

Erick- the team lead and an old friend of mine from high school. He´s the one who told me about Habitat.

Janet-a project manager from Boston. This is also her first Habitat build.

Rosa-I haven´t spoken much with Rosa yet but I know she lives in DC and works in diversity. I learned tonite she has 4 grandchildren, even though she looks about 35.

Lillith-pronounced "Ly-lith." She works for Butler University in Indiana on medical research in gene therapy. Some of the work she does is on the foreground of cures to cancer and Parkinson´s disease. She´s fascinating to talk to and has run over 12 marathons.

Steve-a documentary photographer/videographer. He is documenting every minute of the trip and I´m a little scared of what he´s been catching of everyone when we´re not watching. You can´t go 2 feet without his camera aimed at you.

Dan-From Portland, OR, Dan is a tech designer for pacemakers and other heart machines. Very interesting to know that if you have a pace maker, it´s probably because Dan designed some part of it.

Melissa- aka "Frik", a college sophomore from NY, who goes to GW University.

Carolyn- aka "Frak", a college sophomore from NY, who goes to a school in PA. She and Melissa have been best friends since they were kids and they are hilarious together. Carolyn is also my roommate.

Samantha-Just graduated from USC.

Holly-works at Augusta State University in GA as the VP of International Studies. She has been and lived literally all over the world. If you can think of a country, she´s been there.

I don´t know a great deal about our local crew, but there is:

João- the local Habitat for Humanity coordinator

Paolo-the build arcitect who I think works for Habitat as a job now. He´s also very handsome and every girl has a massive crush on him.

Alfredo-our man about town who helps with everything. He works for the local youth center.

Vielo-I believe he is the construction crew leader, although it´s hard to tell. He reminds me a little of my grandfather for some reason, although they look nothing alike. Maybe it´s something about his eyes. I introduced myself to him when he was sighing over my brick work and now apparently, I´m his personal assistant on site. I think he just likes that he can understand and pronounce my name and yell it across the site.

Carlos-one of our construction guys. Day one I worked on rebar with him. He would show me what to do and I would give him a thumbs up to show I understood. That, apparently, was hilarious to him, and now he gives me a thumbs up whenever he sees me, no matter what I´m working on.

There are two or three other construction guys I am slowly getting to know. One was laughing at me when I couldn´t scale the scaffolding like a monkey the way he did.

As we worked today, one thing struck me. I´ve been involed with non-profits for a long time. I like staying active. I´ve volunteered with Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Girl Scouts, Young Storytellers and a few others I can´t remember right now. But they have always been local. What struck me was how many walks of life have lead us all to this place, this build. We´re all so different, but still we are all working on the same thing. Working on something like this makes you realize that a unifier of the human spirit is our desire to help. We´ve all come together and put aside our own lives, troubles and agendas to achieve something. It´s an empowering feeling.

That´s as coherent as I can be tonite. Boa Noite.