Frustrated in Jonesville

Today was a day of frustration...

Outside we battled potential rain in the morning, which for power tools spells sure delay... and then in the afternoon we battled the sun and many of us didn't apply enough sun screen. So the weather frustrated us...

We chewed through an entire metal cutting blade on our saw, which put our work at a stand still. We found a few other tasks to do on our outside construction to get ahead on other projects but unfortunately we ran out of things to do. With a 40 minute drive to and then from the hardware store getting supplies during the day doesn't work. So lack of worksite accomplishment frustrated us....

Then we helped out our fellow IU Bloomington crew inside the house. The IUB crew was working on putting down flooring where more hands wouldn't help. We sanded some drywall mud, to help with the future project of painting the walls. We didn't bring drywall supplies so we really weren't able to make an impact and just limped a few things along until quitting time. Not having the supplies to do our jobs frustrated us...

In the evening we cleaned up, had dinner and had an educational activity and learned about Lee County Virginia. Here over 50% of the population lives in poverty. That is defined for a family of four as less then $22,000 per year. We had some activities to learn about educational issues in the area, factors impacting the employment rate, and then talked about ways to help break the cycle of poverty in areas such as this... Knowing that issues like this exist right in our own country and that few people know frustrated us...

So needless to say it was a long, hard and frustrating day.

Today reminded us that just because we have disposable income doesn't mean we should dispose of it, but how can we help others with it? Or just because we were born into a certain position in life doesn't mean we don't need to care about those born with less.

Tomorrow the promise of new tools, new metal cutting blade, and new hope that our hands are making a difference will motivate us. Hopefully by educating ourselves about these issues we become part of the solution and a little less frustrated.