The Building Bug

Day Two of the build stumbles to a close here in the land of opportunity. Adorning my tired body are blisters, bruises and, despite the factor 50, an attractive builder's tan (like a farmer's tan only with boots and shorts' marks also). It's a good kind of tired though--sleeping like a dead baby at the mo (that's a good thing).

How are things in Eye-r-land?

You're from Eye-r-land? Eye-r-land?! My you've come a long way....

So it turns out we're basically the only non-Americans on this build. When they ask you where you're from they expect to hear state, not tiny European island far, far away. We have immense novelty value to random strangers...so far it's been a good thing but may become wearing as week goes on.

I'm volunteering on house no 19 along with the Northern Ireland team, a crowd of employees from Delta and a few other randomers. The Northern Ireland crew are great craic- a bizarre mix including a former minister, an Tyrone GAA fanatic and an English teacher (they're always cool) who's pulling a sickie for the entire week. They're permanently in good spirits and are trojan workers on the site ().

Delta have 60 employees in total participating in the Jimmy Carter Build. They're a major sponsor of Habitat for Humanity so lots of the staff have been on loads of other builds before. The fact that they're airline employees does come through from time to time though. Georgia sees that everyone has the correct type of nails: Would you like an 8d or 16d honey? Malcolm sees that everyone has enough to drink at all times....

It's been really hectic on the site since Monday morning. The foundations were all done before we arrived and so far we've put up all the walls, most of the roof, done the insulation and put up 5 million 'hurricane proof' bracket thingies. The brackets are bolted on between the foundation and the walls every 6 inches around the house and 14 nails go in to each one. I've become pretty nifty with a hammer quite quickly.

I'd forgotten how satisfying physical work can be--seeing a problem, coming up with a solution and physically putting it into place yourself. Along the front and back of the house the nails had to go through a metal plate for one half of the brackets. They had to be hammered about an inch from the ground so it was tricky to find an angle that worked. Eventually I figured out that the only way to get a good swing at it was to stand up and hammer it between your legs. it looked awkward but it worked and soon everyone was copying me.


Today we were up on the roof hammering down board type things. Fortunately it was overcast most of the time so we weren't cooked as much as we might have been. The only annoyance was the proliferation of insects attacking us from all sides. The most common one being the 'love bug'.

Early on we noticed this insect which travels exclusive in pairs....copulating pairs. Kenya, the future homeowner of the house we're building, giggling told us that they called them 'love bugs'. Well I had to look them up--check out the link to the wikipedia article here: Love bug. Let's just say the love bug lives a short but blissful life ;)

In the late-afternoon we had a surprise visit from another volunteer on the build....former President Jimmy Carter. He strolled up (followed by 5 black cars and lots of guys talking into ear pieces) to say hello and check on our progress. He jibed with the builders, hugged the homeowner and left us all with a warm glow inside... He's got the Bill Clinton charisma added to a grandad hugability.

Both Barack and Hillary need to work on their hugability--McCain has it in spades and these middle American types like it....everyone here hates Bush (Democrats and Republicans alike) but quite a few like McCain...be warned!

Anywho that's enough for me to have earned my dinner--casino hotel buffet here I come...