on the bayou

We've had some interesting adventures the past couple of days. On Monday evening we went to an "informal cajun jam session", which turned out to be a bunch of people on a stage playing music...informally. One woman sang "when the saints go marching in" while the musicians all played, and the woman on the washboard came down into the audience and marched our team through the seats, onto and off of the stage, and all around the auditorium. At one point they were asking where we were from (we are very clearly not from around "here", pretty much everywhere we go) and they asked if anyone on our team sang/played. We pointed Anna out, and they invited her up on stage, where the guy who was singing the songs at that moment proceeded to call her Loretta Lynn for the next half hour she was up there. She did a great job. I came down to Louisiana with the intention of buying and learning how to play a harmonica. One of the guys in the informal band inspired me to do that even more, so I went ahead and bought one this week and am working on my harmonica skills, mostly while sitting on our front porch.

We've been having some pretty great food for dinner. Because of the weather, we can grill so we did that one night. One night we had catfish soaked in hot sauce and breaded and fried...that was delicious. Erin and I made some pretty good stir fry one night (if I do say so myself). Our lunches are provided every day also, but Habitat via local food establishments that donate.

Work has been a little slow, because there are so many college volunteers here, so the boss people mostly focus on keeping them busy while we do some side jobs. One cool thing though, is that we've learned how to measure, cut, and install base trim inside the house. While it doesn't seem like it would be very difficult, it has proved to be pretty challenging. Depending on the location of the corner, you have to cut the pieces of trim at one of four different angles (a butt, a cope, a 45, or a 31.6). Then you have to cut the other piece at another one of those 4 angles to fit in with that one. After you cut the trim at an angle, you have to use a coping saw or a jig saw to carve out the angle from the wood so it will fit into the other piece. Even a 16th of an inch off means they won't fit together, which is okay if you made it a 16th of an inch too long, but not ok if you made it a 16th of an inch too short. We've gotten pretty good at it though, and it's cool to know that our team alone has done the trim in two houses so far.

Today I got to go with one of the site supervisors and a couple other guys to a town called Galliano, which is about an hour southeast of where we are now. They're working on some houses down there. Today, Joe and I built a 5 foot high platform for an air conditioner to sit on. I know it sounds easy (when our supervisor told me in the car on the way there, I was like "yeah no problem") but it took us all day. It was also at least 90 degrees, and very humid, which made for a lovely working environment. We had to measure and cut 16 2x4's to make this thing, and then use a crazy big nail gun to put everything together. This nail gun was the size of my arm, and when you push the safety in, it fires nails rapid fire until you pull it back out. It was intense. Neither Joe or I are expert carpenters, so it took us quite a while to figure out the best way to do things on our own. We were also building this platform on a very uneven and slanted slab of concrete next to the house, so each leg ultimately had to be a different length so that the top of the platform would be level. That was the hardest part for sure. In the last 10 minutes of the day though, we actually got it to where everything was level, and it made the whole day totally worth it. It felt good to work and sweat all day : )

Two or more Americorps members from every team are getting sent on disaster to North Dakota to help with the flooding. On every team, each team member is ranked for disaster and usually the top two are sent. Joe and Anna are heading to North Dakota on Saturday morning for three weeks or more, which is pretty exciting for them. I'm going to miss Joe a lot.

Well I think that's all my news for now...as always, I'll write again when something exciting happens.