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! ;)
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