Gold 1’s Phase 1 is underway in Portland, Oregon!
So much to say…
It took 12 hours to drive from Sacramento to Portland. Just imagine all 13 of us in a van with lots of stuff. We all got very cozy on the drive, napping on each other and braiding hair and sharing blankets to keep our feet warm.
There is one more team just outside of Portland and there is one in Seattle so the 3 teams caravanned together along with a cargo van stuffed full of our equipment and belongings. The drive was long but great! This part of the country is beautiful to drive through. The mountains were amazing! If you check out the pictures, you can see the volcano that we drove by on our way up here.
We arrived at our house in Portland (at last!) in the late evening. It was perfect, the city lights were on and the skyline was absolutely breathtaking! Our house is in a trendy yet safe area not too far from downtown. A block away is a major road with a bunch of coffee shops and locally owned stores. We sometimes get free wireless from one of the cafés…which is how I’m posting this. We have a small 2 story house with 3 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, garage, and 1.5 baths. We are a little cramped for space but we’ll get by. There wasn’t any furniture, dishes, or a shower curtain…so we had to find our own. We brought army cots from Sacramento along with a random assortment of dishes. In the past few days we have been visiting the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Goodwill to find random furniture and kitchen supplies. In the last couple of days, we've gone from an empty house to one furnished with a couch, 2 folding tables, and about 15 random chairs that we got for free…yay! Habitat is going to demolish our house after we leave to build more homes for families…so we can do with it what we want. We’ve removed closet doors to make more space and we have be nailing holes in the wall like no other to hang our coats and equipment.
Our work with Habitat for Humanity started bright and early the day after we arrived. We are working on a duplex that has most of the framing finished. The whole team has done a variety of construction work so far: digging post holes for the porch, installing hurricane supports, using a variety of saws, roofing, removing nails, installing rat runs…the list goes on. One of the houses is going to belong to a 11 person family (2 parents, 8 kids, 1 grandma) and the other house is going to a single mother, her 2 kids and a nephew.
Another interesting note to add is that it has rained every single day so far…and it will probably rain every single day until we leave! It just rains lightly off and on…just enough to become annoying when we are trying to build a house outside. At least we were issued a rain coat and pants!
--> Check out pictures here!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Wrapping up CTI
It's really here! CTI has felt like 5 of the longest weeks of our lives. As you can see from all the pictures, we had a great time on work projects, playing on campus, and while we were at Camp Mendocino. And now, it's the last day of CTI and we're getting ready to head out to Portland!
In just a few minutes, we're going to meet up to get our rain gear to prepare for a rainy winter in Portland. We've had our briefing, and we're getting really excited not only our project, but also all the social and service opportunities that appear to be available for us once we get to Portland.
We're going to be living in a 3 bedroom house with one bathroom. (9 girls and one bathroom? how are we all going to survive?) But we will, and our unit leader promises that we'll come out of this experience a much tighter and stronger team.
Tomorrow is induction, and i'm sure there will be pictures to follow.
Happy Thanksgiving, and we'll see you in Portland!
In just a few minutes, we're going to meet up to get our rain gear to prepare for a rainy winter in Portland. We've had our briefing, and we're getting really excited not only our project, but also all the social and service opportunities that appear to be available for us once we get to Portland.
We're going to be living in a 3 bedroom house with one bathroom. (9 girls and one bathroom? how are we all going to survive?) But we will, and our unit leader promises that we'll come out of this experience a much tighter and stronger team.
Tomorrow is induction, and i'm sure there will be pictures to follow.
Happy Thanksgiving, and we'll see you in Portland!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Camp Mendocino
--> Check out Camp Mendocino pictures here
--> Check out Camp Mendocino Individual Flying Squirrel pictures here
--> Check out Camp Mendocino Individual Flying Squirrel pictures here
Sunday, November 4, 2007
A Destination! Yes!
After much waiting, and for some team members, a great deal of scheming, we finally know the location of our first Spike! (Spike being the word used for a project that happens away from campus.)
Some schemers on the team decided that we'd go to Montana for trail building, while others hoped for something tropical. A few more were hoping to go to New Orleans, or other places in the gulf.
But the one place that none of us ever thought about was...
Portland, Oregon!
We'll be heading to Portland on November 26th, arriving on the 27th. On Wednesday, November 28th we will start work with the Portland chapter of Habitat for Humanity, seeing the full cycle of building the house over the weeks that we are there. We'll get to hand a family their keys.
As for where we're living, all we know so far is that we will be in a 4 bedroom house. More information on exactly where and what the house looks like and what the sleeping arrangements will be is to be provided to us soon.
Our fearless leader did play a bit of a trick on us when revealing our location: After commissioning us to bring all the necessary items for a Red Bag to one location, including winter gear, we saw our TL walk around the corner in full rain gear (picture a full suit of bright yellow) and snowboarding gear. Everything from the helmet to the boots.
At this point, half the girls screamed, including a loud "Oh my gosh, we're going skiing!"that was heard all over campus. This statement led to a lovely amerirumor that we were in fact going skiing. But after succeeding in tricking most of us with his deceivery, he gave in quickly and revealed that in fact we were going to Portland, where it never gets below 40 degrees.
As we go through the rest of CTI (Corps Training Institute) and learn more about what happens next, we'll be sure to keep you updated.
And expect another picture post soon with some amusing pics from our scavenger hunt in downtown Sacramento!
Some schemers on the team decided that we'd go to Montana for trail building, while others hoped for something tropical. A few more were hoping to go to New Orleans, or other places in the gulf.
But the one place that none of us ever thought about was...
Portland, Oregon!
We'll be heading to Portland on November 26th, arriving on the 27th. On Wednesday, November 28th we will start work with the Portland chapter of Habitat for Humanity, seeing the full cycle of building the house over the weeks that we are there. We'll get to hand a family their keys.
As for where we're living, all we know so far is that we will be in a 4 bedroom house. More information on exactly where and what the house looks like and what the sleeping arrangements will be is to be provided to us soon.
Our fearless leader did play a bit of a trick on us when revealing our location: After commissioning us to bring all the necessary items for a Red Bag to one location, including winter gear, we saw our TL walk around the corner in full rain gear (picture a full suit of bright yellow) and snowboarding gear. Everything from the helmet to the boots.
At this point, half the girls screamed, including a loud "Oh my gosh, we're going skiing!"that was heard all over campus. This statement led to a lovely amerirumor that we were in fact going skiing. But after succeeding in tricking most of us with his deceivery, he gave in quickly and revealed that in fact we were going to Portland, where it never gets below 40 degrees.
As we go through the rest of CTI (Corps Training Institute) and learn more about what happens next, we'll be sure to keep you updated.
And expect another picture post soon with some amusing pics from our scavenger hunt in downtown Sacramento!
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