Our first day on the job!!

Today we woke up early but not quite early enough. The plug that our alarm clock was plugged into was intermittent, causing the alarm clock to go off at times. It went off 25 minutes too late. So....we had to really hurry to get ready. From about 6:30 - 7 o'clock, we are making our lunches and then at 7 o'clock we all have breakfast. We packed whatever we thought we needed into our lunch coolers, including lots of water because the temperature was going to be around 22 deg C (71 deg F). No clouds to give us any relief either. Annie was scheduled to do "mudding" which is part of the drywalling process where all cracks, joints and screws are covered with drywall plaster, ready for painting. It was something she had never attempted in her life. She had a good teacher in Boukje De Raaf. I was assigned to a team (3 of us) to start applying vinyl siding. Again, even though I have done nearly anything related to home renovations, I had never done siding. We had a great time and after a bit of a slow start due to the house not being square and level, we got really going after a couple of hours.

We're in a black neighbourhood and met some of the people here. They are really happy that some of their fellow neighbours are being helped this way. It is amazing how may houses are still empty and are just falling apart. There is also a lot of new construction going on where whole neighbourhoods have been torn down and a whole new subdivision is being build.

We are all very tired after working hard all day. It was a joy to take a nice hot shower after we came "home". The kitchen staff did a marvelous job feeding us supper. We had a chinese cabbage salad to start off. Then we had the main course of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, carrots and peas. We then had apple crumble with icecream for desert, yum-yum. We finished our dinner with devotions and singing some songs. Tom had a funny story to tell and then we shared our day's experiences with everyone. This is the way our days are going to be more or less during the week.

I think Annie and I will hit the bed quite early to get some well deserved rest. We hope and pray that everyone at home is doing well too. Here ends today's story, good night and God bless.