So week 2 has been an interesting week. We jumped from having 6 work crews and 6 houses to manage to having 10 of each. Although it was nice having week 1 to ease into things, the transition into being busier has been a little rough. But we are starting lots of exciting projects! Our Home Repair Coordinator, Dennis, came to visit us on Tuesday and I got to go on runs with him. It was a fun day of showing him the projects we are proud of, getting help with construction problem solving, and helping us decide on a potential project that we thought might be too big. After his visit, he was able to approve the two room additions we want to start work on! We use codenames for all of the houses we work for… and the one called Chuckwagon is one we are building a bedroom and bathroom addition for. When we had initially visited we had noticed black water on the site, and we eventually determined that the fall line for the drainage to the septic tank was not downhill. Additionally, the bathtub and kitchen sink drainage was not hooked up to anything. Because of the problem with the main drain line the toilet was also not draining and instead spraying out of one of the connections under the house. The cumulation of these problems is what led to the large amount of black water underneath the trailer. For those of you that don't know there are two types of water from leaking/broken drain lines. One of these is gray water which comes from washing machines, sinks, or bathtubs. The other type is black water which comes from the toilet. So we subcontracted a plumber and he fixed the whole problem in one day, now everything flows smoothly and without leaking into the septic tank. Also ASP has a special fund called Cup of Cold Water (CCW) where counties can apply for extra funding when they subcontract things like plumbing, electrical, or septic. The disappointing news is that we will have to replace her septic with a newer, bigger one once we complete the addition of a bedroom and bathroom. And we recently found out that there is a $500 fee just to be able to put in a septic tank in Scott County. I know this may seem a bit choppy, I've been writing it in bits and pieces over the last several days whenever I get time. I just wanted to give an idea of the kinds of things I deal with on a regular basis.

And now, I included some pictures of all of the wildlife in Scott County...

1. Kristin and I with the Camel who lives in downtown Oneida

2. Erinn came to visit us on her day off and we saved a turtle that was crossing the road!

3. One of our volunteers with Oscar, the weiner dog at one of the homes we work on. She ended up taking him home with her once the week was done.

4. Matty on one of our Initial Home Visits, bonding with Blackie

5. Sarah and I, unintentionally doing Twinsie Wednesday a little bit early and with kittens!

Here is my address !

ASP Scott County Center
General Delivery
Winfield, TN 37892

Set Up Week!

So this post is going to be a little more visual than my past posts, I just thought you might like to see what my center looks like and the type of things I have been working on this past week! At the end of training we had commissioning, andhere is a picture of my lovely staff:

From left to right is...

Kristin (from Maryland, our first year and volunteer coordinator)

Matt (from Raleigh and a fellow tarheel, our Center Director)

Sarah (from Massachusetts, our other first year and operations coordinator)

Me! (the returner and finance coordinator)

We moved to Scott Co. last Saturday and have many adventures since. We were attacked by bats on our first night in theabandoned school where we willbe living the rest of the summer. But we survived! And since have seen much less of the bats, but still heard them every night. Part of the week was spent doing Initial Home Visit and choosing the projects we would being work on first. That process can get stressful and emotionally difficult, but our staff managed it very well and we have our 6 homes lined up to start work tomorrow. The remainder of the time was spent cleaning and setting up our center, as demonstrated with these pictures!

The picture on the left is the sign welcoming volunteers to our center and the one on the right is an interesting mural painted on the back of our building.



At our center wehad to build our own showers, whichactually weren't completed until Sunday (we had already been at our center for 8 days). So halfway through the non-showering stretch we road tripped to our neighboring county (Morgan Co.)'s ASP center in order to shower and do laundry. The picture is of Kristin, ready for the journey!

The picture below is just one variety of the thousands of expired drinks that reside in our center... just living the "vita coco" The other pictures include the energy and relaxer drinks, and seltzer water, also all expired.
The picture above and to the right is me, working on my supply room. We got almost all new tools (yayyyy!) and with the help of Kristin and Sarah, and our chaplain, Jeremy I set-up the supply room, including painting ASP on every single one!

The picture above and to the left is Matt and Kristin hard at work on our outdoor showers! And the picture to the right is the template I used for spray painting the tools.

The picture above and to the left is part of the supply room I set up and to the right is one view of the showers I/my staff built! Yesterday was so satisfying to take a shower in something I had built with my own two hands. Even though we don't have hot water, it is wonderful to have the sun beating in the top... I can tan (no tan lines!) while I shower :)

Today is the first day of work and our volunteers are currently loading up to leave for their worksites!

End of Training

I don't have much time tonight, but thought I would go ahead and post something before I left training. Tomorrow, after commissioning I will be heading to Scott Co., TN for the remainder of the summer. If you want to look it up on the map I believe one of the bigger towns is called Oneida. Training has been tiring, but it has been great seeing all of my friends from last summer and meeting lots of new people! The 11 days of training are supposed to teach us enough about construction so we can supervise/do construction management for volunteers for the remainder of the summer. The picture is me (sitting on the left in the orange chair) listening to an ASP long-time volunteer nicknamed Rooster teach us about foundations. Lots of things have changed in our construction style since last year, and things often get complicated in ASP construction because the houses and mobile homes we work on are hardly ever built "normally." We just have to get a little creative and be flexible!! Our sessions on construction and everything else (volunteer relations, spiritual leadership, regional issues, and a billion other things) have filled up our days, sometimes spending 15 hrs in sessions on days with very few breaks. Even though it will be bittersweet leaving the ~150 people I have been hanging out with on The Porch and moving to my county with the 4 people I will be living with for the rest of the summer I am very excited to see my center/county and get to bond with my staff!!