June 25, 2005

Habitat for Humanity

Today started of at 5:30 A.M. I woke up and made sure everything was ready for out big trip today. Well, as I was packing everything up I noticed that I had forgottten to buy ice, so I had to drive all over Korea looking for ice. I found one really nice lady who sold me some even though she didn;t open her store for another hour. At 7:30 I got everyone on the bus and we rolled out. The place we were going to be working at today was about 1 1/2 drive away.

I was bored on the way up there and had forgotten to pack my MP3 player, so I took a few self-pictures.

We got there and got our equipment and the first thing they had us do were some wierd streching exercises. I just kept thinking how funny that would look in the states seeinga bunch of construction workers doing jumping jacks and whatnot. I could just picture my brother now! Hahaha.

This was one of the building we were constructing, There were two buildings, so I took the group and split us into two teams. I took one and Jung took the other and we went to work.

A lot of the people that came out to volunteer have no construction experience. I am no carpenter myself by any means, but at least I know how to build a house. We mostly did easy tasks like having everyone nail up the plywood siding to cover the frame of the house and whatnot. It's a little hard to mess up nailing a board to a stud.

Here is Jung and PFC Kim taking a break. It was incredibly hot out today and I was sweating like crazy.

We always have a lot of females who like to volunteer too. It's not all guys out here doing all of this. This is our S-1 clerk out sweating away with the rest of us. After a few hours we split for lunch. They tried to feed us some white rice and leaves and bean sprouts with very spicy hot meat strips. I think that was just about teh worst thing I could have tasted in the heat that day. I didn't eat any of it. Lckily we brought a bunch of food with us, so I wound up having a wholesome candy bar and soda for lunch. Mmmmmm!

Another strange sign I saw. I have no idea why there is a rabbit sitting on a toilet with a plunger stuck to the back of it's head, but I found this on the toilet paper roll in the bathroom.

This is a group photo of all the people that came out today to help. We had almost 30 people come out today, which is a little smaller than usual. I haven't done any construction work since I was a teenager working for my dad and doing roofing. I forgot how tiring it can be. I was really worn out at the end of the day and my wrist hurt like hell form pounding nails all day. I just kept thinking about my brother all day and wondering how he does it every day. I definetely have respect for him. I think I'll relax with a cold beer and watch a movie for the rest of the day. I have to go to work tomorrow too. I'm working at the chapel from 7 AM-3 PM, so I don't get a day off this week either. I can't wait for the Chaplain to get here, so I can finally take a day off. Working two jobs sucks! And especially when you're not getting paid any more money for it! Well, toodle loo. Until next time....