Final build day and some R&R.

Hey everyone! I know it's been a few days but I've literally barely had time to even sleep let alone catch up all of my loyal followers! 

I left you with quite the cliff hanger last time... Has the suspense gotten to you yet?! So we were standing in a circle and Leslie was doing our closing ceremonies. Up pulls a taxi can and suddenly there is chaos as people get excited and start pulling out their cameras. I turn around and there are two really good looking guys. I was like "uh, cool, I guess." Turns out they are the twin brothers from the Property Brothers show on HGTV. Their names are Drew and Jonathan. They talked with us for a bit and were really appreciative of the work we'd done for Habitat (which was one of their favorite charities). They left soon after and we got back to the festivities. 

Yeah that's right, we got tweeted! ;) 

The next surprise was John and Garrett putting on a spoof about all of the people on the worksite and all the things that happened over the week. It was hilarious. 

We received our official polar plunge certificates. Leslie wouldn't give me mine until I would agree to lead a build. They don't call her the velvet steamroller for nothing! 

Tuesday night we went back to the church and scrounged for food for dinner.  We packed up our belongings and the first group of people started to leave for the airport. It was sad to see them go but  I also was feeling relieved. Having 23 people around all the time has been really challenging. 6 people left that evening. 

The next morning we slept in. Nope, still not true. We were up at 5:30am to finish packing, take down air mattresses, vacuum the church, clean bathrooms, put the rooms back together with tables and chairs, scrub the fridges out, etc. it was a frenzied morning! Two people left for the airport at. 7:15. We loaded up the vans at 8:30 and went to the habitat affiliate to drop off the habitat 15 seater vans. Cassandra and Laura volunteered to go pick up the rental vans for us to start our journey down to Homer, Alaska. Leslie (the host) lives in Homer and agreed to drive down at the same time so that we could follow her. Little did we know what a lead door she has!!! When it was my turn to drive (there were 2 of the 11 passenger vans and two drivers per van... I volunteered to be one of the four drivers) I could barely keep up with her. Let me digress a moment here... Who reading this thinks I am a slow driver? Who here thinks I have a lead food? Yep, it's a little known fact that while I am a very good driver, I also tend to like to drive a teensy bit over the speed limit. So while I was following Leslie, eventually I just gave up and didn't worry since there is only one road to Homer and it's only one lane. Eventually we would catch up! Our first stop was at a beautiful waterfall/rushing river. It was a beautiful blue/light gray/clear color. It's a glacially fed river (which most up here are) so they have this really pretty slate color due to the silt from the glacier. Leslie even showed us the first Eskimo disposable diaper... Moss! They would carry the babies on their backs. And before they would put them in, they'd set some moss /clump of dirt right beneath the babies bum. Once it becomes saturated, they'd throw it to the side and grab another clump.  Ta-da!! 

From there we stopped in this little town of Ninilchik. It's a Russian orthodox neighborhood on the coast of the Kenai Peninsula. There are maybe 120 people that love there. They still attend the small Russian Orthodox Church set high on the hillside. The church was built back in the 1800's and was very quaintly decorated with Russian orthodox decorations. 

Ok, I'll try to update more later! 

Sorry for the delay, here I go...

Happy Wednesday everyone!!! Is it really already Wednesday? Today is the official end of the build eventhough many of us are continuing on to Homer for the next few days. 9 of the 24 have already made their way to the airport. We've spent the morning (up at 6!) cleaning the church. Vacuuming, scrubbing toilets, cleaning out the fridges (and more!) taking down the air mattresses and packing up. With 15 eager hands to help, it's taken us about 2 hours. One of the things I love most about these Habitat builds is that everyone is always willing to lend a hand. 

One of the things that has been really different about this build is that there are many people and very little privacy. There were 24 of us sleeping in 5 rooms with most of them being about 10x10ft. Tight quarters! There is one main common room/kitchen. My Ghana build was similar in tight quarters but finding some quiet time was so much easier... Maybe just because there were much fewer people? The affiliate here has also kept us quite busy... We are literally running from about 6:30am until 9 or 10pm every day. I don't think we've had any real down time. 

Today we have a 5hr drive over to Homer Alaska so I'm hoping to get some down time to catch you all up on the week. They were looking for volunteer drivers as they wanted two drivers per van (2vans). So I might spend some of the time driving. 

Ok, now where did I leave off? Oh yes... Our R&R!!!  We slept in and woke up well rested on Sunday... Oh wait, that's not how it happened! ;) we woke up at 5am, had to move all of our stuff out of the rooms and get out the door by 5:45am. Now that sounds more like it ;) 13 of us got dropped off at the train station and the remaining 11 took the van to drive down to Seward. The train was amazing, it is about a 4 1/2 hour train ride down to Seward. All along the way were the most beautiful views of glaciers, rivers, waterfalls, and lush greenery.  It was a nice relaxing ride, many of us are sleeping, but I just couldn't stop looking at the view! :-) upon arrival in Seward, we embarked on the van marked Kenai Fjords. 

We boarded a boat for our wildlife tour. It was pretty cold that day, maybe 58 at the high and it was rainy/drizzly. That makes for a chilly boat ride! The indoor part of the boat was nice and about 68 degrees but soon after embarking on our journey the large swells began to make a good many of the passengers sick. We had 3 people on our team throwing up, 3 more looking incredibly green, 2 that tried to appear like they were sleeping so as not to have people hovering over them to ask if they were going to puke and one person who adamantly watched the horizon line for 4 solid hours. That left 15 of us to enjoy the ride and take care of all of them. ;) I managed pretty well except for one or two moments with some really big swells. No motion sickness, just a dropped stomach when we dipped down in the water. Before we'd even gotten out of the harbor we had spotted a few sea otters laying on their back in the water... They were just chillin!! One even raised his paw as if to say "oh hey there, welcome to my living room. The view is great!"  We next went to this rocky area where we saw puffins... They are those cool little black birds with the bright orange beaks. At that rocky outcropping we saw seals and a bit further down we saw harbor seals. From the rocky outcropping we crossed the mouth of the Seward Inlet. They asked us all to come inside since it was so choppy (hence the sea sickness). About halfway through the crossing the boat suddenly slowed and the captain said "wow, you guys are in luck today, we've for our first sighting of a Humpback whale!" We all threw on our warm clothes and rain gear and clambered outside. We saw him breech a few times... VERY cool!!!  We started our journey again and some of us stayed outside. I had on three layers plus a rain jacket, gloves, scarf and I STILL was cold. Brrrr!!! Pretty soon the boat slowed again and the incredulous captain said "wow, you are a lucky bunch. If you look out at 2 o'clock from the boat you'll see some or a whales." I could see the fins above the water as they'd come up and get some air. One even made an entire flop out of the water!!! My first thought was "Shamu!!! These whales look a lot like killer whales." Aaaaaaand I'm moron. Turns out Orca whales ARE killer whales, it's just the official name for them ;) we saw 4 different Orcas. SO magical to see them in their natural environment. 

Sorry the view is so small, it's the closest I could get on the iPhone without zooming in (my hands were gloved). 

It got REALLY chilly and wet so all of us went back inside for a bit. It got really misty and wet outside... Reminded me of the "moors of England" in the Secret Garden. Diana, Garrett, Quinn, Tim and I went to stand on the now and we started seeing ice chunks floating on the water. It was BITTERLY cold... I don't know if I've ever felt such cold. It was like standing in an icebox eventhough we were outside. BRRRRRRR!! Suddenly we were upon a tidal glacier. Tidal glaciers are a glacier that makes it's way all the way down to the sea. It was a beautiful blue color and radiated cold. The mist/fog layer was low so we couldn't see the entire thing but we got a great view. 

L-R, rear: Garrett, Tim, rusty. Middle: Quinn, tanner, me, Diana. 

We sat idle for a bit to see if we could see and hear some calving (not sure if that is how it's spelled). Calving is when the ice near the shore breaks off and falls into the ocean. It's LOUD, and sounds a bit like thunder. We were indeed a lucky bunch and we saw/ heard a lot of calving. Part of me was thrilled by the experience and the other part was thinking "OH NO, global warming is true!" ;) I have some videos (which I can't post on here) so if any of you are interested in it, let me know and I can email it to ya. 

On the way back to the harbor we were cruising at full speed and the captain says "for any of you interested, we have a group of Dalls Porpoise in front of the boat, swimming with us and it looks like they want to play." I throw the rain fear back on and went outside to see whatever a Dalls porpoise was. I'm ashamed to call myself Sea World veteran... Dalls porpoise is basically a dolphin ;) there was a group of about 5 of them just swimming around on our bow. They were in and out, back and forth, leaping out of the water and pacing the boat. It was great fun!!  I have a couple of awesome videos of that as well so let me know if you are interested!!! 

We returned to shore about 5:15pm. The people who'd driven down this morning then hopped on the train and the rest of us stayed in Seward for dinner. We are at a nice restaurant called "chinook". Did you know that there are 5 different types of salmon?! And that each type has 2 names??? Ok, play along with me here. Hold out our hand, palm down. Your thumb starts the process... Your thumb= "Chum" or "dog". Index finger="Red/sockeye", middle finger= "King/chinook", ring finger="Silver/coho" and your pinky finger= "Pink/humpies". And now you know ;) at the restaurant Diana and I split an appetizer and a dinner meal. Our appetizer was Alaskan Crab sliders, and the dinner was rockfish and horseradish mashed potatoes.

YUM!!! Our drive back was quiet as most of us were completely exhausted. We arrived back at the church at 10:30 and had to move all of our air mattresses/stuff back to our rooms. 

Monday was back to the job site. Only one day of rest for the wicked! That morning I ended up on the landscaping crew with Charlie, Sam and Connelly. One of the other crews, the siding crew had less people than they'd asked for so I mentioned to Harry that I'd be willing to work wherever they needed me. He said for me to start on the landscaping and he'd come get me if they needed me elsewhere. We grabbed rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows. Connelly was assigned to go behind the houses and pick up rocks where we would be spreading the topsoil. Within an hour I was ready to cause bodily damage to both Sam and Charlie. Charlie is 19years old and this cocky, know-it-all guy. He spent the entire first hour bragging about  what a good listener he is and all the drama that happens in his group of friends. Every little minute piece of college drama. *eye roll* Sam (19yrs also) just stood there twirling the shovel around. When he did pick up a rake he picked up the smallest one and raked about 3feet in front of him. *sigh* I started praying, asking that God would help me with patience and peace. I was becoming frustrated at how little work both were doing. I'd raked topsoil over half the entire front lawn and they both had done an area of 5 feet. Then they both disappeared. I thought to myself about how frustrated I was getting that they weren't working at all, and how they should've been working harder. And then it came to me. Who cares how much they work. It isn't about them and how much work they do in comparison to me. I should so my work to the best of my abilities and not worry about them. Every inch of topsoil I spread is on less inch that someone else has to spread. And I can be proud of my actions simply because I am the one that did them. And wouldn't you know it, the second I had that epiphany Harry came walking over and said "where's the rest of the crew? Did they leave you here to do all the work?" I shrugged and he said "I could really use you on the siding crew. I've heard you have an eye for getting measurements just right and we could really use that up there."  Ask and ye shall receive. I immediately dropped that rake and bolted out of there!

It'd been raining all morning so we were all pretty wet and cold. I walked over to Bob's siding crew and he said "go ahead and hop on up there. I looked up... And up... And up... Diana and Tim were all the way up near the roofline of the THREE STORY house!!! That's a long way up! I started scrambling, trying not to look down on the wet ladders and planks. We worked the rest of the day in the rain and managed to get the siding all the way up to the peak!! 

Once finished we started taking down all the levels of the scaffold. It was a lot of work!! 

On Monday evening we hosted a BBQ for the construction crew, the pastor of the church, and all of their families. It was really fun (but also a lot of work!!! ) Halibut and Salmon were the biggest hit! 

We also had reindeer sausage. It reminded me of summer sausage but with a game-y flavor. 

Some of the people on the trip are getting sick (a cold) and so I was passing out airborne to everyone. A few minutes later Connelly comes into our room laughing hysterically... Turns out Cassandra normally gets the chewable airborne and so she tried to chew the one I have her. The kind I have fizz in water before you drink it. Turn out it will fizz in your mouth too! Her sinuses were screaming in pain and she was crying with laughter. Good times ;) 

Tuesday was our last day on the build site and it was only a half day. We got there around 8am and I spent the morning framing interior walls on the houses we'd poured the concrete into. Framing. How it makes my heart sing ;) we took a break for lunch and then the festivities began! Leslie started by giving each of us a sock. Only one sock. She told us that these are our socks to "sock away $" for donations. She said to hang it somewhere at our work, in our homes, etc and to make it accessible for people to drop in money to donate. She also kept mentioning our "surprise". She was VERY excited about it! 

Well, it's time for me to go to bed now... I'll finish the rest of the story tomorrow! Good night ;) 

The team..

Hey everyone! How's it going? Today was another busy day up on the scaffolding installing 2x8 beams ontop of the concrete walls. Yesterday, before the concrete set we stuck metal screws in the concrete. Today we laid the beams flat and had to drill holes that would line up with the screws (not necessarily an easy task!). It went went well and today I worked with Garrett, Christina, Becky, Sue and Leslie. After work we hit the showers at the gym and then had a "free evening." We drove to downtown Anchorage and they have us $ for dinner. I ended up hanging with Tim and Rusty. They are super cool guys and we had a great time! We ended up at the Snow Goose Brewery. John (the boss on site) has recommended it. I ordered a hamburger and it was amazing! They mix up the meat with bacon. Yum!!! The sauce was a root beer (brewed fresh on site) and aioli sauce. It was really good! For a beverages had.a "snow dog." It's made with Kahlua, vodka, cream and freshly brewed root beer. Tastes just like a root beer float!!! 

After dinner we walked a bit along the shoreline and caught up with Connelly, Garrett, and Christina. 

This is Chrisina, my work partner in crime: 

Oh, and we hit a tree tonight. Nothing big, just when we were backing up. Poor Brian was driving the van and took a lot of teasing for it. 

Off to bed now. We have to be up at 5am to pack up our stuff and move it i to one room so the church can use our bedrooms while we are gone. I'm REALLY NOT loving this whole pack everything up every couple of days thing :( we'll hope on the train to Seward at 6:15. The train is about 3hrs. From there we'll take a glacier cruise. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow so hopefully we'll still get some good pics. Wish me luck! 

Two new posts.. Yesterday's post never posted

Concrete pour, GB Packers crazy house and respect...

Today we played with concrete ;) I guided the boom into the walls, used wheelbarrows to pour door steps, cleaned up scaffolding, raked topsoil, watered trees and installed metal brackets on top of the walls. A busy day! At the end of the day, John, the lead came up to me and mentioned that the superintendent will not be there tomorrow and he's in charge. I've worked with him two days now. He said that he would need someone he trusted to step up and be a lead and he wanted to know if I'd be interested. I was sincerely flattered and he was very sweet the way her asked. So tomorrow I'll be leading a team up in the scaffolding doing some stuff and the. Eventually taking down the scaffolding. 

After work we went to a woman's host as she hosted us for dinner. She and her husband are SERIOUS Green Bay Packera fans. Their entire house is completely decked out in packet gear. Cheese heads and all.

So now it's 8:30pm and we are chilling at the laundromat. $5 dollars for wash and $1.00 for dry. Yikes!!! Luckily they are big so Diana and I shared a load. 

Have a good night!! 

ReStore

Today is going to be a short post. It's been a pretty rough day for me. It began with a phone call from home with some disconcerting news. It really shook me up and I've had a hard time dealing with trying to me present in two worlds... My world here with 23 people around me constantly (with zero downtime) and my world back home. Today was a late start for us and we didn't have to be at the site until 10am. Today was my day to work at the ReStore so I went with Connelly, Garrett and Laura. The restore isn't very big (about the size of two trailers) and they have to pay $7000 a month in rent! Apparently rents in Alaska are at a premium and The Alaska ReStore ranks third in the country ReStores for the highest rent costs. The other two are in southern CA. The restore was basically controlled chaos. Everything you can imagine for your house is crammed in there. It's like a garage sale in crack. We were only there from 10-3:30 but we unloaded three Uhaul size trucks FULL of everything from railroad ties to washing machines. It's by far the most heavy lifting and manual labor alive done here. 

Dinner was at the Native Hospital and we got to try native foods. Of course I'm always game. I had moose stew, Eskimo salad (whale skin& blubber, seal and walrus) and herring eggs.  The moose stew was good, the herring eggs have me goose bumps both times I took a bite, the walrus and seal were fishy but good... and the whale skin? That ended up in my napkin. It was really chewy/dense and the blubber felt like trying to chew through gristle but was also almost as hard as a bone. No thank you. 

The black stuff is the Eskimo salad. The twig looking thing had the eggs on it. 

We got back to the church at 8:30 and decided to go for a hike. Yep, a hike at 8:30pm. It was like the middle of the day out there. 

Good night everyone! 

And then there were stairs!

Greetings all you contiguous states people! It's now the end of day 3 on the build site, day 4 of the trip. I'll get ya started on today's activities later on but for now, the promised updates from yesterday. After getting back to the job site, John, my leader on the site brought a drill over to me that had a bit stuck in it someone had used it and the bit had gotten twisted. He asked me to help him. We spent the next two hours taking the drill apart, putting it back together, trying to grip the bit with pliers, gripping the bits with wire cutters, pulling, twisting, you name it. That darn bit wouldn't budge. We finally tried using an angle grinder to shave off part of the bit and then pull it. Triumphant!!!!! I really like working with all the Alaskan crew guys here. They are really cool to talk with and they firmly believe that I can do everything the guys do. If I show any hesitation to work a circular saw they simply go over the safety with me and then make me do it. If one of the guys on my team offers to step in, they firmly and protectively say "nope, Sheri's going to do this." I'm really liking that. 

After the workday we went to someone's home for a BBQ. Her name is Shelly and she's a wonderful hostess! Her daughter set up the beanbag toss, we played horseshoes and badminton. About 20 of her friends stopped by and there was lots of mingling to be had by all (prompted only ever so slightly by the Margarita slushee... Holy crap, I think they put the entire bottle of tequila in there. We were told by our team leaders to show gratitude and appreciation for our hosts so I slowly gulped it down). Freshly caught Salmon and hamburgers were in the menu with a strawberry rhubarb dessert chaser. 

When we got back to the church around 9pm a couple people asked me to lead some yoga/stretching. About 15 people came upstairs! We didn't all fit into one room so we opened a door into another room. Some people came up halfway through so they just did hallway yoga. It's a new thing, hallway yoga. ;) 

This morning was another early morning. Up at 6 because we had to break down our mattresses again, pack up all of our stuff and move it out of our rooms so that the church could use the space. It might be ungrateful of me, but part of me feels like "this church is great for lending us their space to sleep in the basement" and the other part of me thinks "and then every Sunday and Wednesday we have to pack up all of our luggage, move the air mattresses, put the tables/chairs back in the room and be out much earlier... Can't you just meet at the Starbucks around the corner for the week?!" Lord please don't strike me down for being annoyed with the church about this. 

Today's work was amazing! I worked with Becky and our new lead Kaleb. He's a sweet teddy bear of a guy. Reminds me of my brother. We got to work on building stairs. We cut the stairs/the risers and later the part the looks like a zig zag that the stairs sit on. Becky and I wanted to get the entire two sets done but only made it up to the first landing. Stair building had to be REALLY precise. I also got REALLY good at using the table saw and the powerful circular saw. Never fear, all body parts are still attached! 

I loved it all!!! Leslie is the host up here and it's been such a blessing to talk with her about Habitat. Today she was trying to convince me to lead a trip up here next summer. Her nickname is the velvet hammer... She's smooth and grooms ya softly and then... WHAM, she gets ya to do whatever she wants :) 

After work we went to the Van Zyle house. They are two artists who live in a eagle creek (just outside of anchorage). They have a bit of land and also have sled dogs. Jon has raced in the Iditirod two times and has quite the experience with the dogs. They still have about 7 dogs but most of them are about 13yrs old and don't sled anymore. We learned all about dog racing, mushing, etc. it was really interesting!! 

They have SO much energy!! His wife Jonna also has many stories about racing dogs. They are both artists... Jon does paintings and Jonna does beadwork and makes jewelry with dried salmon skins. Jon is actually the official artist for the posters for the Iditirod!! 

Here is the upcoming one for the 2015. Cool huh? 

We got back to the church around 11 and had to put our rooms back together. It's late now and I am off to bed. We have a late start (10am)tomorrow since tonight was a late night. Hooray!!! I'll be working at the ReStore tomorrow so I will not be out at the build site. Good night everyone! 

Build site, safety orientations, styrofoam walls & broken iPhones.

I Yesterday (Monday) was our first day out at the build site. We met Harry who is the site superintendent. He's a sweet, yet rugged Alaskan with a heart of gold. One thing I'm learning here is that Alaskans LOVE to talk! They are quite the chatty bunch and love to tell stories ;) Harry have us the most thorough safety talk I've EVER had at a HFH build. It pushed 2hours long! Luckily the trailer didn't have heat so the chill kept us all awake ;) 

The build site it big. They've already cometed about 8 homes. And they have provisional certificates of occupancy. In Alaska the winters are long and brutal so construction outside is often put off until the summer. With those 8 homes, the families were able to move in eventhough parts of their homes weren't yet painted. Alaska also requires that the yard be landscaped in order to get the certificate of occupancy.  I spent most of the day working with a crew on ICF. it's basically two styrofoam (2inches wide) pieces held together with plastic braces inside. They stack up like Lego blocks. Once they are stacked they fill it with concrete. They were done stacking so we worked to cut boards to secure at the open ends so that the concrete doesn't spill out the side. We spent the nail cutting boards, nailing and using the impact screwdriver to secure metal straps around the edges. 

A picture is worth a thousand words here. ;) after the job site we loaded back into the vans and headed off to the two local gyms that will be letting us use their showers. The gyms were REALLY nice... Pristine! 

We went back to the church and another volunteer had made us dinner, yum!! We all relaxed and played some board games (I managed to beat Joan and Cassandra at Rummikub! Yea!! 

Rise and shine at 6:10 this morning and off to the job site we went! We used my phone for GPS as we took the scenic route. When we got to the site, Brian have me back my phone and I went to close out the program... Dun dun dun... My clumsy fingers dropped the phone. Busted. 

I tried my best to be a good sport about it and laugh it off. Bummer. It's our navigation, my connection to all of you AND my camera. Luckily there is an Apple store in Anchorage!! I asked Joan if there was any way I could get dropped off there sometime this week. Within an hour she came over and said she needed to run an errand and I could get  dropped off at the store. I left the site around 10:30am. Joan dropped me off and I went into the mall. Luckily I have Apple care so it was only $50 to replace the phone. The bad news? I didn't have a credit card on me and only had $25 in my pocket (ok mom, this is where you get to run in the whole "you should always have cash on you."  I've got more money back at the church but didn't want to bring too much with me to the site. I started explaining to Agron and  Oscar (the two apple employees) that I was working with habitat, etc and could they use my credit card number that I know from scratch? No luck. Joan said she would let me use her credit card but that would mean waiting for her to run her errand and then come back to pay before they would even start the transfer to the new phone. Agron said he wasn't even sure if they'd have the phone in stock. Luckily they had ONE iPhone 5 for Verizon. Meanwhile I'm texting Amy my dilemma (through the broken glass). She remembers that she has an apple gift card somewhere. I run back up to the counter and sure enough, if they can see the gift card (email or texted) they can use that!  Gift card texted and we are in business! My hero!! While I was waiting for my phone to download Joan calls and says her credit card was declined at the store because the card thought it was fraud. She was frantically trying to call her bank. Meanwhile I just chummed it up with Oscar. He's from Barcelona Spain and moved here after meeting his wife while she was on vacation in Spain. Such a sweet guy!!! Joan calls again and asks if they have a connector for her iPad to be able to read camera SDHC memory cards. They sure do but it's $29. Gosh darn it! I have $25 and her credit card had been declined at the other store (where she is waiting for Cassandra) to drive out a different card. Oscar, my new pal, offers a suggestion. Buy it online, type in my credit card info (which I have memorized) and instead of having it delivered I should mark "pick up in store." Brilliant! I ordered it online, hung around talking to Oscar (they have to process the order and take the inventory from the back warehouse which takes about 20minites) and the twenty minutes later I walk out with a new phone and a lightening connector card reader. And today's lesson ladies and gentlemen is called "how to buy things when you have no credit cards or enough cash." 

Phew, that was a lot wasn't it? I'm off to bed now, remind me tomorrow to tell you about the stuck drill bit, tonight's BBQ and hallway yoga! 

Moose roast, polar plunge, fish heads, walking on glaciers and more!

Top of the morning to you all!!! Yesterday was an amazing day! We landed in Alaska around midnight and were met by our team leaders Cassandra and Joan. En route to the church where we would be staying they have us the information about the plans for tomorrow morning. We would need to be up by 6am, and then pack up all of our stuff (air mattresses and bedding included) and be out of the church by 6:45 so that the church members could come on and set up for their Sunday services. Upon arrival at the church we were shown to a little room where Diana and I were told the two empty beds were. We opened the door and someone is sleep talking "mom I wish that I could go to..." Awesome. We fumbled in the dark for the two empty beds and tried to go to sleep. I was a bit disoriented walking into a dark room, not knowing how many people were in there and who they were. I think my evolutionary instincts kicked in and I had a hard time falling asleep. At 5:54 Cassandra storms into our room, flings on the lights, sings "good morning" and closes the door. Uh... I still had 6 minutes to sleep yo! I got to meet my roommates... Christina and Michelle (the talker). We rushed around packing stuff up and I tried to dig through my suitcase for all the things we would need for the day (we wouldn't be allowed to return to the church until after 5pm. We left and went to the habitat affiliate for breakfast. The hosts (the people who live here in town) are Leslie and Bob. Leslie is SUPER organized and really passionate about her work. They quit their jobs as teachers 20 years ago and went to work for HFH (Habitat). Their job was to SET UP all the global affiliates that I have had the pleasure to visit! They really were the ground breakers for HFH international. Wow. Bob spent the day with us and man is he an adventurer! He told us all kind of stories about the 4 months he kayaked around Alaska and how he worked for two years teaching Russian Orthodox people in the Alaskan wilderness. You name it, this man has done it. 

We took the day to get to know a bit more about Alaska and do some touring. We started at a place wherewe learned about bears and what to do WHEN we encounter them. Yep, you read that right... Not IF we encounter them but WHEN. Gulp. Here's the basic gist... Black bears=try to look big and powerful until they back down. Brown bears= start praying and try to give them a wide berth. Black bear attacks you=fight back (uh... Not sure how that works). Brown bear=curl into a ball on the ground and pray that he only gnaws through your butt. Uh, got it. I think. Unfortunately I've never seen a bear in person though and apparently brown bear cubs looks similar to the black bears (which are smaller). Fingers crossed that I just don't need to use the info. We saw a pretty waterfall and then went and had sack lunches by the water/inlet. Anchorage is on an inlet between the mainland and the Kenai peninsula. During high tide/low tide the water level can change up to 30 feet!! Yikes!! This rise and fall happens twice a day. When the tide is out it almost looks like you can walk (or drive) across the muck to get to the Kenai peninsula. Bob assured us that this is NOT possible. The muck is like quicksand and will suck you in. If it doesn't suck you in, the rising tide will kill ya since you can't move. He told us that happened last year to a newlywed couple on their honeymoon. Only one made it out :( 

After lunch we drove further south to Portage lake. It's a glacial lake and the glacier is still up above it. Bob shared with us some information about salmon in the river that connects with the lake and we even saw one come up to the surface. He was saying that the amount of salmon is so dense that you can literally walk into the river at certain times and get bumped around constantly by them swimming past you. Bob had asked us to bring out swimsuits with us for the day and we changed into them. It was time for our polar plunge!!  Eek!!! The water was this beautiful ice blue color. ICE!! On the count of three about half of us ran full speed into the lake. Holy guacamole batman was that water cold! The first sensation feels like pins and needles all over your skin. The next moment your brain kicks in and says "get me the hell out of here!" I swam hurriedly back to shore and ran up to grab a towel.

After a few frozen moments your skin suddenly feels like it's on fire. It's warm and tingly. Kinda nice actually. Bob then informed us that this is one of the "warmer lakes" where they do the polar Plunge. A balmy 41 degrees. 

After the plunge we continued further south and parked at a trailhead. We hiked about 1.5 miles and ended up at the most amazing glacier!! We were able to climb on it, feel it's coolness and see two caves with crevasses. Really cool. Literally! 

We started heading back to the hotel but there was an accident on the road. And when there is only one road, and only one lane, you're in for a long wait. 

When we got back to the church we were met with many of the church members (they had prepared our dinner for us). They were very sweet and wanted to know all about us. I was pretty exhausted as I'd only slept about. 3hrs the night before and we'd had a busy day. I did my best to be entertaining ;) 

Some of the foods were local delicacies so OF COURSE I had to try them!!! Moose roast and Smoked salmon fish head!! The moose roast was good, not really my thing though. The fish head was unbelievable!! It was SO good!!!! It takes like smoked salmon but a thousand times better. Only a few team members tried it and the guy who brought it came over (impressed!) and talked with Diana and I for awhile. 

An early night to bed and up early this morning to head to the worksite. I'll try to write more tomorrow about our work days ;) have a good night! 

 

Alaska? Really?

Ok, ok I know... Alaska might not be the most daring or adventurous destination I've been to but let's be honest here... I thought maybe I'd keep my trip a bit more low key. You know, only bears and wolves and the occasional Eagle. Wait, what?! Did you know that Alaska is the only place you will run into the three different types of bears? Brownie points to any of you who can figure out what the three are! Never fear, I'll be staying in a church basement, bears know not to disturb the sanctuary. Right? Right?! Right?!?! 

But I digress... As many of you know, this little trip to Alaska came up quite suddenly. If your asked me two months ago when my next trip would be I probably would have shrugged and said "I dunno." But Alaska has been on my mind for awhile. Do you ever feel like a place is calling you? Like every bone in your Southern Californian body is screeching to go somewhere that never gets above 70 degrees? Yeah, me neither. But Alaska is calling me none-the-less. For a few years now I've wanted to take an Alaskan cruise. I've watched just about every Alaskan show you can think of (ice road truckers, Era Alaska, Buying Wild Alaska, etc). I can't get enough of them!! 

As many of you also know, Habitat has been my love and also a big thorn in my side for the past few years. I've loved my international builds in different ways but have ALWAYS grown during and after them. Bali was the one that helped me grow the most, and was also (BY FAR) the most difficult. After taking a little break, I'm ready to get back into that tool belt and swing some concrete! 

Habitat Alaska is considered part of the International builds because it has a host that is willing to host non-local teams for 1-2 weeks. There are actually quite a few builds in the U.S. (I know for sure there are also ones in Hawaii, New Orleans). The host at Habitat Alaska is one of the "old timers" as the husband and wife couple have been hosting teams for many many years (and have also led teams to other countries). Their organization and attention to detail have been a welcome breath of fresh air to my Habitat cautious heart. From what I've heard they are inspiring and amazing. 

We'll be staying in a church basement on air mattresses. For our showers they said something about hosing us down on the worksite. Uh, ok, sounds like fun to me. 

On to the team... It's a big build, 24 people! I think the largest team I've been on was 15 (the one I led to Bali). There are two team leaders and many of the people going on the trip are related to the leaders. That should make it interesting! I'll be reuniting with my first Habitat roommate (Diana) on this build... Kind of makes it feel like I've come full circle. 

We'll be building in a neighborhood that Habitat has been building in for years. Many of the homeowners are refugees that found Alaska as their new home. On of the families spent 20 YEARS in a refugee camp after fleeing Bhutan. Wow. I'm really looking forward to the community there and seeing if it had the same sense of unity that the local (OC) builds I've done have. 

The team will all arrive today (Saturday) & then have an all day orientation tomorrow. Building starts Monday and continues through until Saturday. Sunday we will be taking a train to Seward and then taking a cruise out to the Kenai peninsula. Hoping to see some glaciers!!! We'll get back to building on Monday and wrap up in Tiesday. About 15 of us will then be taking a 6 hour drive up to Homer for some R&R. While there we hope to do sea kayaking, bear watching and halibut fishing. 

I think that's about it for now. I'm currently on the plane (kudos for free wifi for the first hour (quick Sheri... Type faster!) I'm officially off to the land of the midnight sun! ;)