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! ;)