Build Day #1

For the uninitiated, it may seem odd that we are building at a Habitat for Humanity site in lovely and prosperous Andover, Mass., but just over the rolling hills of Phillips Academy is Lawrence, one of the poorest cities in New England. The houses that we were working on came with a bit of a backstory. Three houses were being prepared on a given site, one of which was two weeks away from being completed and having the family move in, when a fire devastated the entire block. Luckily, the generosity of the community and Habitat for Humanity in Lawrence has allowed them to rebuild -- or at least, be in the process of rebuilding. So we worked on these houses. With the careful supervision of the Habitat for Humanity staff, we raised two walls on one of the houses! It was a very satisfying feeling. Like an Amish barn-raising, but better. I spent most of my day acquainting myself with the hammer, hauling plywood, and getting blisters. I imagine that the one on my thumb will be fairly unpleasant tomorrow on the bike.
Tomorrow we are eating at Chris Webber's family's house for the second night in a row. I can't remember if I wrote this yesterday, but Chris was a program director for Bike and Build who was hit by a car several years ago. The Webber family has been very very nice to us, feeding us, amusing us, letting us play whiffle ball in their backyard, etc. Tonight they are allegedly cooking us THANKSGIVING DINNER!! For me, my thoughts go straight to pumpkin pie, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. With the amount of activity that we do here (biking and building, generally. As the name implies) food has never been so appreciated. Or consumed in such vast quantities.

On an unrelated note, I realized that the stream of consciousness style in which I write this is barely comprehensible. Yikes. Well, I promise I graduated. Sorry for the awkward syntax.