Reflections thus far--Graham

I, as many people know, have an eerily good memory. However, I don’t’ remember it being quite this hot last year—even in the glory of Air Conditioning, a sweat is still being worked up. Other than the heat, though, a lot of things are still ultimately the same from last year. The work is hard, the culture is amazing, and showers continue to be a blessing.

I’ve been working in the Newport house, doing a big smorgasbord of different jobs. I’ve done a bit of sanding, held drywall once or twice, and some sweeping. Lots of sweeping. I spend most of my time, though, in a small little utility room, putting up insulation everywhere. On Monday, Karen, Steve and I put insulation up in the only wall without it. Today I worked alone on the ceiling. It’s not hard, really, just sort of repetitive. The air conditioning (Yes, you read that right) doesn’t really get to that room, and every move kicks up dust and fiberglass. I can’t stay in it for more than ten minutes or so at a time before I need a drink of water from breathing in the fiberglass. We’re doing more construction than destruction, which means that the room is filled with the sounds of electric drills, hammers, and scraping, rather than the sudden collapse of old drywall and insulation.

The French Quarter, as advertised, was really incredible. If you hear music, it’s being played live and on the rare occasion it’s not, somebody’s bound to be performing some sort of awesome dance to it. I did manage to do a bit of shopping, and will show off my wares when I return. Most of my money, it seems, is being reserved for fifty-cent sodas from the church’s vending machine. At the end of the day, after dinner and devotions, there’s really nothing better.
My group made dinner last night—pizza. Eighteen pizzas, to be exact. The Taco pizza went over very well. The brie/portabella/red pepper one… not so much. Alas.

Ultimately, this trip is amazing. Outside of working, the weather is relatively nice. Everybody’s working hard, and there is always some sort of job to do. I always think I’m about to fall asleep where I stand, but something gives me some kind of energy to run off and do something else.
Dinnertime, now. Auf Wiedersehen.

-Graham Barr