Day 3 Build

It becomes much of a routine after a few days, but also very exciting! Today was filled with different tasks for me. I started off the day by cutting plywood for the bathroom counter and 1x12s to build shelves for the five closets in the house. In the afternoon I painted the trim around the kitchen doors and around the bottom of the kitchen walls. We accomplished a lot in the kitchen already; it's nearly finished! All it needs is one more cabinet installed, another coat of paint on the walls, and the floors finished. Other than that, I cut tiles for the bathroom, which is almost finished as well. We should complete the house by the end of the week! It'll be great to look back on my before and after pictures. Tomorrow is our recreational day though, so we'll be doing some things around town for our free day and we'll return to the build site on Friday. Tonight we all went out for dinner at La Cocina de Taos so we could try authentic food. I got a Mexican fish and also tried sopapilla, which is a fried pastry served with honey. It was so good! Afterwards we all went back to the church and stayed in for the night. I'm hopefully going to get some good sleep tonight so I can wake up early and help cook! We're having breakfast burritos tomorrow so I'm already looking forward to that. 

Day 2 Build

Today was much like yesterday but with different tasks. We started the day off with breakfast and made our lunches. Shortly afterwards we headed over to the build site. Half of us worked there until noon and the other half went to the restore. I worked at the house all day doing various tasks. I sanded five closets in the house and also painted trim on the doors. We installed more cabinets in the kitchen and moved the stove and fridge in. It looks nearly finished! We've already made a lot of progress since we got here, which is easy to do with 30 people. Once we were done for the day we headed back to the church for dinner; it was taco Tuesday. Right after dinner I asked anyone if they wanted to go see a movie. I got a group of a few of us together to walk to the nearest theater. It was a two mile walk but it was definitely worth it. We ended up seeing Taken 3 at Storyteller Cinema 7. We all thought it was a fantastic movie, and the fact that they sold Dippin Dots at the theater made it even better. Now I'm finally back laying in bed ready to relax before another workday. We should be adding the final touches to some rooms and then we'll see what's left to do before we finish up the house!

Yesterday Evening & Day 1 Build

The Packer game was great yesterday! The place we were at was called KTAOS. We all ate lunch there and stayed to watch the whole game. Afterwards we went to the church we're staying at, showered, ate dinner (chicken alfredo), then explored the city. I got a few souvenirs and walked around the city center where they still have beautiful Christmas lights displayed. 

Today was our first build day. Early in the day I was moving adobe bricks to pallets, preparing for the next house to build. The house we're currently building is almost complete. We finished up a lot of the painting for it and some of the Habitat members also installed cabinets for the kitchen. Later on in the day I was sawing plywood for the cabinet countertops and moving cinder blocks. I also traveled along to Taos Middle School to pick up doghouses that were built and donated to Habitat. We delivered them to the high school where they would paint them and add the final touches. Now we just had dinner made by the woman whose house we're building. Her name is Adriana. She has two kids, Danica and Daniel, who also joined us. They made frito pie, which I've never had, but it was delicious. I'm not sure what's planned for the rest of the night, but we'll probably play a few different games as a group. So far it's been a successful build day and I'm excited to see how much we will accomplish this week!

Arrival to Taos

24 hours later, we have finally arrived in Taos. We traveled by bus through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, and then to New Mexico. There were a few stops along the way - one for dinner at Cracker Barrel in Clive, IA, and another for a quick McDonald's breakfast in Alamosa, CO. Although it was a long haul, the bus ride wasn't terrible. I slept for a few hours off and on, but I'm too excited for the playoff game that it doesn't even phase me. It's currently noon here and we're at a local restaurant to watch the game. Half the building is a radio station, with an attached bar & grill. The place is a really nice overlook of the mountains. I love watching the Packer games from the stands at Lambeau, but it's definitely cool to watch from a cozy building overlooking the mountains!

Pre-Trip Thoughts

It's that time of year again! I'll be participating in my second Habitat for Humanity build. Last summer I traveled to the Philippines to help with reconstruction in Quezon City; this time I will be traveling to Taos, New Mexico. Departure is tomorrow at 10:00am sharp, and although I'm very eager to get started, it'll be a long trip to endure before I arrive. We're taking a bus to cut travel costs that need to be paid out-of-pocket, so we won't arrive in Taos until about 10:00am on Sunday. On the plus side, this gives our Habitat group an ample amount of bonding time on the way there! It's a larger group this time - 30 students rather than just 10 who participated in the Philippines build. I'm sure this build will be much different than what I experienced in the Philippines and I'm really excited to see what kind of work we have ahead of us. I will likely post to my blog again either tomorrow or Sunday. Until then, feel free to revisit my earlier posts from the Philippines if you haven't already!