Thursday, March 28, 2013
Indianapolis, IN
Exhaustion has begun to set in, but you would never be able to tell by our high spirits and constant fits of laughter. Today, we continued our work on the three houses we started floor systems on yesterday. We put on our muddy shoes and mentally prepared our sore muscles for another round of hammering, nailing, lifting and slipping through the mud. Now that we know how to hammer correctly and where to put all the giant 16-foot boards that create the bottom floor of a house, the work seemed a bit easier. It was easy to dive right into our work and get our assigned tasks done. Even better, the sun shone all day long, prompting most of us to take off our layers of jackets and sweatshirts.
Dalton spent much of his time at one house with the Tiger speedily lying down and hammering boards. The Tigers are a special group of guys. They were able to work quickly and efficiently on the house all while holding conversations and telling Dalton funny stories. You can tell they love what they do– volunteering their services for greater humanity. One of the Tigers tried to explain to us why he does all this work for nothing in return. He said it's important to keep exercising both your mind and your body. At 81 years old, he can swing a hammer harder and more on point than most of us who are just entering our prime. Working for Habitat has allowed him to stay sharp as he grows older.
One of the best parts of our day was making our Harlem Shake music video when we finished working for the day. Even the AmeriCorps people jumped in. Well Tiffany and Garrett did at least. Nick is way too cool. Check out our video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qszU62v_VCI
Garrett even said we have become his favorite group that he has worked with at Habitat for Humanity Indianapolis so far! We felt pretty honored.
After our long day of work, we came back to the inn to shower and sleep before heading downtown for dinner. We ate at a delicious Cajun restaurant called Yats. The food was amazing. It was a small menu but the choices were impeccable. Their featured special was Chili Cheese Etouffee, which was served over rice with a warm roll on the side. The restaurant had a warm Southern feel to it with dim lights, the perfect setting to enjoy our Cajun meal after a day of building. Many of us ran down to the cupcake store right before dinner so we could have a nice little treat afterwards. The Flying Cupcake is a tiny shop that is an Indianapolis original. Some of the cupcakes we got were Ebony and Ivy, S'mores, Cookie sand Cream, Pineapple Paradise and It's Not a Ho-Ho. We planned to walk around downtown Indianapolis after our dinner and desert but once we stepped outside of Yats, walking around with our full stomachs in the chilly Midwest weather no longer seemed appealing. So we piled back into Mom's minivan and Dad's Yukon and called it a night.
Now we're sitting in our lounge that has become more like a family living room to us playing The Game of Scattergories and recalling funny moments from today. It's past 10 p.m. and we are all so tired and worn-out but we can't seem to leave each other's company for our respective bedrooms to get some sleep. We have come so far from being just a random group of Mizzou students spending their Spring Break with Habitat for Humanity. Over the past six days we have bonded into a single cohesive family that works and laughs together. It's safe to say that none of us saw this coming, but we are extremely lucky to have built these relationships and accomplished so much together in such a short amount of time. ASB Indy truly is a special group of people.
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