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 ;)
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