So Far...

Instead of writing a ton of little blogs about all the projects I have worked on during my first month (yes, I have already been here for over a month - crazy!) in Kentucky, I decided to just post one all encompassing post to try and sum it all up for you.

Here it is, my life in Kentucky so far.

7.26 - 7.29

My first week in Housing was a little off because my entire program was being utilized in another area - Disaster Relief. About a week or so before I arrived, there were terrrible flash floods in Pikeville County that completely destroyed homes and were the cause of a few deaths. Over 600 homes were affected, and half of those affected were completely destroyed. I couldn't believe the destruction I saw when we went out to my first work site. Houses completely destroyed and pushed off their foundations. Cars pushed into the hillside or washed into the creek. I took some pictures on my cell phone of the devestation, these are some of the worst.

Disaster relief efforts (http://www.christianapp.org/2010/07/pikeville-flood-disaster-relief-2/) had been going on since the previous week, but I was able to spend a week helping out. Relief work is not what some may consider the most appealing. It is really hard, dirty work. Mucking out basements and homes, tearing up flooring and walls, disinfecting crawl spaces, etc. And all in 'dirty water'; that is water that has been contaminated with sewage.

One of the more interesting jobs, I got to do was to muck out and disinfect underneath people's homes witha few other people on my crew. The first trailer I did this to we were able to crouch and walk through most of it and then at some points, we had to crawl on our hands and knees. However, the second house we went to there was about a foot and a half space for us to work with. Kate (who works on my housing crew) and I spent what felt like an eternity crawling on our bellies underneath the house disinfecting with bleach to try and prevent the growth of mold that can destroy a home. At one point we looked at the supports holding up the house above us and noticed that the house was being held up by a combination of cement blocks, posts, and old tree stumps. Not the most reassuring feeling ever. The picture shows the hole we climbed in to get to the space and is probably the height of the area we were working in.

8.2 - 8.26

The month of August meant the beginning of my actual work in the Housing Program with CAP. I was placed on a crew with another volunteer, Kate, who lives in the same volunteer house as me. She just recently signed up for a second year with CAP and we will most likely (hopefully!) be on the same crew for the entire next year. Our crew leader, Tony, is a CAP employee who moved to Kentucky from Chicago in order to work with and for CAP. This is all of us (plus another volunteer from Disaster Relief): Kate, me, and Tony.

So far in housing, I have been doing a sort of crazy amazing assortment of jobs. A lot of the jobs we have now are ones that are in the final stages and are down to the final loose ends. My first week we had a volunteer group come down from a church in Virginia and they helped us finish a house that Tony and Kate had been working on. We replaced a porch roof, put up Soffit and siding, and touched up some paint. The next house we worked on just needed a window trimmed and to have some caulking done so that only took a few hours to accomplish and then we were able to cross that house off the list as well.

Since then we have been working on a house that was a job that was started during WorkFest (CAP's alternative spring break trip program). It still needed: the gables to be finished, soffit and fascia put up, windows need trimming, caulking, porch handrails, two concrete pads to be poured, the back deck to be finished, and a laundry room to be finished including flooring and walls. We've been going out to this job almost every day and we're making a lot of progress, but there's still a fair amount of work to be done, mostly on the back deck and inside.

We also spent some time one week helping move furniture from a 5o ft trailer that was parked on our property into the upstairs of our volunteer home. Kate and I spent several days hauling dressers up and down stairs, disassembling and reassembling bunk beds, and carrying desks into storage. By the end of the second day, we had had enough and decided to climb on top of the closets to the very back of the trailer and rest (aka escape) for a little. Unfortunately, Tony and his camera found us.

8.27 - 8.28

This past week I was able to undergo chainsaw training and am now certified to operate a chainsaw. Yes, I know - scary. But no worries. The very first thing I ever did with a chain saw was cut down a 35 - 40 ft tree and drop it in the right direction without killing myself or anyone else. I wish there were pictures to prove it, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Well, that is my life up to this point.

I'm sure the adventures will only get more ridiculous and crazy as time goes on.

Or at least I hope so.