A lot of steps of building a house are really simple if you know all of the tips to doing it well. Being with so many different staff people over the past week has allowed me to see what methods are used to build the house and choose for myself which one I prefer. A few things that I learned this past week are how to fill out cut sheets (sheets that we use to determine what lumber needs to be cut depending on what the family wants done with the house) and I learned how to wire an entire house!
A big step for me was learning how to put stucco on the house and being confident at it. Two weeks ago today Kevin asked me what job I dreaded doing this summer and I readily replied stucco. I've tried many times before and failed and learned last week how to properly stucco and it was kinda alright. This week I actually enjoyed stucco and was able to jump right into it without precaution and more stucco actually ended up on the wall than on the ground!
The family we built for was very kind and brought us snacks out both days. The first day I got to try pig rinds for the first time... let's just say I won't be adding that to my grocery list any time soon. The second day they brought out round cookies that tasted like animal crackers, YUM! It is so humbling to see a family spend the little the have to live on to give us food while we are working.
On our few days off we got to hang out around El Paso and continue to get to know each other better. One night I went to a Zumba class and I loved it! A few of us went to a local coffee shop named Kinleys House (it reminds me of Greyhouse so much!) and got frozen yogurt and sat and hung out and we told all of our stories about how we reacted when we learned that we weren't going to be interns this summer. It made me really glad to know that I wasn't the only one who was originally super upset about not being an intern. Then I went hiking (or more like mountain climbing) with Kevin and David yesterday morning. The mountains in El Paso are so beautiful and it was just really cool being able to see both El Paso and Juarez from the mountaintop. Two totally different cities separated by a small river.
Today us interns went out to help a team from University Presbyterian Church El Paso and it was my favorite day of building by far. Everyone was so kinda and welcoming to us. Building with a group today made me kinda upset that I'm not an actual intern this summer. I won't get to meet a new team every week and get to know them and have the excitement of seeing how the group will interact with each other. I'm a people watcher and today was cool to see how the team interacted with each other and were all readily available to help if someone needed it. I won't get to see different personalities and senses of humor and be able to build new jokes with the teams every week. I just love people so much and right now I really do wish that I'd had the opportunity to be an intern with Casas this summer. BUT God has something so much bigger for this summer and hopefully 10 families who originally weren't going to receive homes are going to have a warm place to live this winter because God called us to be a team instead of interns.
It makes me sad that I was only able to spend one day with the beautiful family that we built for today. The mother and father both were so happy to meet us when we got to the work site this morning and the kids were such a help around the work site and a joy to be around. The kids all wanted to be involved and helped us throughout the day on various little jobs. When we stopped for lunch the kids came out and passed out mangos and watermelon to the team. Miguel, the Mexican Casas Rep, sat by us during lunch and I learned that Mango in spanish is a slang term for someone that you are interested in. Oh the random pieces of information that I learn everyday. Miguel is so funny. Today he asked if David was my brother and when I said no he asked me which one of us was too ugly to be related to the other (it was probably one of those you-had-to-be-there moments). I got to play with the most beautiful little girl Jasmine today. She had the most adorable little laugh and was so outgoing and playful.
Well I need to be up in 4 hours to head back into Mexico to build for the next 6 days but more pictures and stories to come.
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