Is Murray There?

One thing we loved in the South, that you can't capture on film is the accent. One day someone came by the house asking for Murray, and we told them there was no Murray here. So I went and told Mary, the homeowners mom that someone stopped by asking for a Murray... well it turns out that people around here say Mary, but it sounds to us, like Murray. Just one example of the many times we got confused down here...

We are driving today, but wanted to post out a photo roll of a few fun shots from our trip. We have a lot more photos we will share with the group later, but hope you enjoy these shots of our trip and time for Alternative Spring Break 2012 at Indiana University South Bend.









We will miss you ASP... until next time, GO TITANS

Drumroll Please

Well warm up the drumroll... get it in high gear... a little faster now... our project is finished!

They didn't think we would get our project done and that a weekend crew would have to finish our job because it was such a large project. We had solid teamwork, made sure everyone was included in the project, and had a great time along the way. We covered some of the details before but here is a recap of the project.

This home was damaged in a fire, and our family purchased it at a mega discount. They sunk all they had into the house, but it looked like it might not be enough and they could possibly have to walk away. So here comes team IU... IUSB tackling outside projects, and IUB tackling laying down floors. The IUSB job would be helping keep wind and water from under the house and house to keep it warm, the IUB crew would be getting the house ready for the family to move in. I don't have many pictures of the IUB portions except in areas that we helped out (like when we killed our saw blades and work outside stopped) in the afternoons.

Here is a chronological look at the home and our work...







We also want to highlight a little of our time with the IU Bloomington crew. They were all from the Kelly School of business and were a great work team to be paired with for the week. We bonded over lunch time, struggled on projects, and helped each other. We wish them well on their travel home, and the time spent working on flooring built great memories.



We hope this home is a great foundation for a new young family and that it creates opportunities for the children to have space to play, to study, to explore their world and create a solid future. It was our pleasure to help, to learn, and to leave with a feeling that we helped make a difference. So here is the before and after shot... we are really proud...


Tomorrow we hit the road nice and early for home... See you in South Bend!

Appalachian Time

Several people have asked about how our schedule is daily so today's post is all about our normal day.

Each day a team has a chore... some help with breakfast, or clean the grounds, organize tools or other random jobs needed around the camp. So each day we have a chore to do, those are sprinkled throughout the day. Our camp has around 100 people here, we have Univ Minnesota, St. Louis University, IUB, IUSB (Go Titans!) and then two youth groups here and a couple other random volunteers. The camp is run by 5 staff who live here full time and a couple other part time/seasonal staff, and two cooks... Kay and Serita take great care of us and our stomachs!

Here is our typical routine:

7:15 AM - Optional Devotion Time (this is a religious camp)
7:30 AM - Breakfast
8:00 AM - Lunch Prep (make sandwiches and pack lunch)
8:30 AM - Tool Shed (get more tools/supplies)
9:00 AM - Leave for the site (we have a 35 min drive)
12:15 PM - Lunch break
1:00 PM - Back to work
4:00 PM - Pack Up and head home
6:00 PM - Dinner Time
7:30 PM - Nightly Activity (Educational or Cultural)
11:00 PM - Lights Out in cabins (people can stay outside as long as they want)

So here are a few pics from us from throughout the day. One morning we caught a rainbow, our crazy drive through the mountains to our site, lunch breaks, of course a pic each time we finish a project, nighttime music or bonfires, etc.







It has been a great trip so far, hopefully tomorrow we will have some great before and after shots to show. I think even if we don't finish, the powerful conversations we have been having each night about poverty, politics and how to help make the world a better place will make a ripple effect on these issues...

Play Us Some Mountain Progress

Today we made progress... we worked hard, and then played hard as a BlueGrass band came to camp and we enjoyed some down home country music.

We made a lot of progress at the house today. We took three metal cutting disks, and did manage to mangle the last one, but not until after 3PM. So we got a full days worth of work on the underpinning. Then we helped the IUB crew inside the house with their flooring job. Progress inside the house was also really noticeable today, and everyone left in high spirits. Enjoy a few pics of our crew hard at work:

Each night we do something educational. Last night was the educational programming about the area, which as I wrote about added to our frustration of an already frustrating day at the work site. Tonight was once again the perfect blend to our day, local BlueGrass music. We got to dance, hear some traditional southern music played on a banjo a bass and just got us in a good southern mood.
We heard some mountain music, we made progress on our mountain home, and now we have two days to bring our mountain sized projects to the finish line. May the force be with us....

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.

No Pics from Jonesville

Last night the slow internet took me about 30 minutes to upload pics... so today I will skip pics and just post a quick recap.

We are working on a house that was nearly destroyed in a fire. The gutting was all done already and some of the rebuilding. We have one crew working inside the house helping with the drywall today and prepping the floor for new flooring to go back in. They will put in a floating floor and baseboards hopefully in the next few days if we stay on schedule.

Then we have the bigger crew working outside on the the mobile home underpinning. You might ask what that is... so here is our quick construction lesson. When a mobile, or modular home, is placed on site it has spaces all around under it. So once the house is in place they frame (or some even do brick) around it and hammer up material (vinyl or metal) to cover all the space. It is done for a few reasons, one is to help insulate the house so the cold air (it does snow here) doen't get in around the bottom of the house. The other reason, of which we are all too familiar at my house (stupid groundhog) is to keep animals out from around the bottom of the house. Partially because animals are annoying, but also because they can chew up wires, tear out insulation, etc. Here is a picture of what underpinning is (thanks Google): Many of the homes around here are missing many of these detail items. Which means they are harder to keep warm, which for people on a tight budget can mean they can't keep their homes warm. Or for those who have animals destroy parts of their home, which they already could already not afford to upkeep sets them down a vicious cycle.

We got to work along side our home owners today and learn more of their story. They have three young children under the age of 6 and have struggled back and forth to find work. They currently live in a tiny apartment and last fall came upon the opportunity to purchase this home which had a fire. They sunk their life savings into it and planned to flip the home for them to live in... well one thing after another, costs of materials, building problems put them way behind. Nearly to the point of having to walk away... and continue to stay in an apartment that doesn't meet their needs and they can barely afford.

So here is where ASP and we come in... they pay for the materials and we provide the labor. The family has just over a month left on their lease and they need to move into the home they paid for... I hope that we can help provide this family a home where their kids can do homework, play in their yard and have more opportunities.

Our fingers hurt from skills (or lack thereof) with the hammer, and shoulder hurts from swinging a sledgehammer or running a saw. Tonight we rest... tomorrow we do it all over again.

Live from Jonesville, VA

My Alternative Spring Break class has arrived safely in Jonesville, VA at our Appalachian Service Project (ASP: www.asphome.org). We had a great drive down and are ready for a powerful week of volunteering here in the Appalachian Mountains. I will try to Blog from here as best I can about our trip, what we are learning and how we are helping the community.

We left South Bend with packed vans and started our trek... our fearless group of 11 Titans hit the road! We had some fun plans for the trip down and we wanted to try and enjoy some sites en route. Our first adventure was fitting all our stuff in two small mini-vans... luckily it all fit and we learned a lesson in space management (not originally part of the curriculum).
Our dinner was a typical southern stop at a Waffle House in Kentucky. Our waitress Rita was entertained by our Hoosier antics and the story of where we were going. "Well isn't that nice!" she said when she heard about our trip. Everyone enjoyed dinner and a break and we continued on...

After another stop for gas we got to visit Richmond, KY. Not the biggest tourism spot in the south, but it was on our route. It made for an interesting stop to see some historic buildings and we checked out the campus of Eastern Kentucky. We snapped a lot of photos and then got back on the road.
Just before leaving the state of Kentucky we made our final pit stop in Corbin, KY. For those not familiar with the city, it is home of the Colonel.... Colonel Sanders. We could not pass up the opportunity to eat Kentucky fried chicken, at the original Kentucky Fried Chicken.

A few hours later we drove through a tunnel, got dizzy on some winding mountain roads, and of course got a little lost... we arrived at our host site in Jonesville, VA. We got our orientation, made friends with fellow college participants from IUB, Minnesota, St. Louis University, Slippery Rock and a few other volunteers. The site leaders went and checked out our work sites, made plans for our work week, and then turned our vans into work trucks instead of family transports.

Tomorrow we will be working up in the mountains. We have been paired with a work team from IU Bloomington. The home we are working at was nearly destroyed in a fire and needs help to be rebuilt for a small young family. Hopefully we can help this family get settled back into their home and moving forward with their life soon enough.

Wish us luck... tomorrow we get to work.