Winston-Salem, NC
February 25, 2007
Our day started when we left Ada at approximately 9:07am. Stopping only for lunch in Athens (courtesy of President Baker) and dinner at Wendy’s, we continued for an 11.5 hour drive to Winston-Salem, NC. Fog in Virginia, two meal stops, stop & go traffic, and a slight detour around Winston-Salem made our trip last a little longer than the 8 hours and 11 minutes estimated by Mapquest. But spirits never failed as we watched 4 movies back-to-back: The Incredibles, Good Will Hunting, The Sandlot, and Happy Gilmore. Upon our arrival, we were given the grand tour by Jill Doub, the Forsyth County Volunteer Coordinator. We quickly discovered two leaks in one of the bedrooms and decided that was the boys’ room. Our “apartment” isn’t a typical vacation lodge. We are actually located in the middle of a huge warehouse. Below us are Habitat Offices for Forsyth County. On one side is the Habitat Restore Center, and the other side is a huge warehouse. Besides for the bathrooms, everything is on the second floor. We have a kitchen in a nice hang-out room, a “ping-pong room,” a computer lab with 10 computers, and two large bedrooms furnished with cots. Something very special about this apartment is the colorful walls and ceilings. Every group that stays here is requested to paint something special on the wall to leave their mark. Several other Ohio colleges are found, such as Otterbein, Defiance, Akron, Wittenberg, & University of Dayton. After a devotional from Steve, the rest of the night consisted of lots of games, talks, and settling in. (Saturday was Denise’s Birthday!)
February 26, 2007
Our day for play! Typical to the North Carolina attitude, the Forsythe County Habitat only works Tuesday through Saturday, from about 9am to 3pm. So we took advantage of this day off to get to know each other and relax. Lunch was around 11am and was cooked by Chefs Nathan and Kurt who were grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, complimented with a lovely lettuce tray arranged by Steve. Around 1:30 we loaded the bus and did some shopping at Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem. The next stop was at the Krispy Kreme store around 4pm. Most people drooled as they watched the scrumptious donuts be made and had fun wearing the paper “Krispy Kreme” hats. Dinner tonight was at the Sedge Garden UMC. Everyone had their fill of salad, sweet breadsticks, baked spaghetti, and a wonderful assortment of dessert and left happy. Then it was off to a bowling alley for more fun. Due to league bowling and incredibly expensive prices, we decided to take advantage of pool, foosball, and arcade games. Kristin was a pro at a shooting game and obtained the 1st and 2nd highest scores. After returning to the apartment, Nathan (Bear) gave our devotional. Then we played the first of a series of team games. Tonight’s challenge: to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” as a round while standing on one foot. If any person in your team touched the ground your team was out. After realizing that most people can stand on one foot for quite awhile, the judges ordered us to hop on that one foot. First place went to Tools of Terror, followed closely by Masters of Domination, Midget Pirates, and Silent but Deadly. On a side note, Justin realized he didn’t pack any socks. So instead of paying the high prices at Foot Locker, he went someplace local and purchased pink, female size 8-11 socks for his size 13 feet.
February 27, 2007
First work day! The bus arrived at the work site at 9am. A lot of little projects had to be done, so people were split up into groups. One group went to another Habitat to sweep out the house, put together a counter, and put up railings on the porch. A separate group worked on another Habitat house finishing up the soff its. Another project was digging out a foundation and using the laser level. Then the main site was preparing a subfloor for a house. Holes in the crawlspace were filled and leveled then covered in a plastic tarp. Boards were attached to the brick foundation and joists were installed. Our lunch was a bit pot of chili with chips and cookies. Around 3:30 we left the work site and had a mad rush for the shower. Forsythe County Habitat provided wings for dinner so we didn’t even have to leave the apartment. Matthew gave us our devotional for the night. While half of the students stayed in the apartment to hang out and play games, the other half set out to experience contra dancing at the Vintage Theatre. Contra dancing is like a very fast-paced square dance with a lot of spinning. The people at Vintage Theatre welcomed us with open arms and instantly took us under their wings; teaching us to dance. While the fiddle played we danced up a sweat and had a wonderful time. (Happy Birthday Laura!)
February 28, 2007
Second work day! Now in the swing of things, the morning went smoothly and we arrived at the work site at 9am. One group continued to work on the foundation and poured concrete. During the down time between concrete trucks, they played a game of hammer golf and made a concrete snowman named Chubs. Other projects that were finished up today were the soffit work and more porch railings. A lot of progress took place on the subfloor. A large tube was placed around the foundation and covered in gravel and dirt. Then the joists were framed in by boards and after lunch, all of the floorboards were laid. A long day of hammering left most of the subflooring crew sore and tired. Lunch today was Chik-Fil-A provided by a local church! Then after lunch we had another team challenge – hot dog eating contest. But instead of how many hot dogs you can eat, it was which team could eat the separate parts of a hot dog fast enough in a relay race. The hot dog was split into 5 parts – the bun, hot dog, ketchup, mustard, and pop. Everyone was shocked at the speed Nathan (Bear) devoured his hot dog, which helped the Masters of Domination take first place. Followed by Silent but Deadly and Tools of Terror. Protesting the challenge, the Midget Pirates forfeited because everyone was already too stuffed to eat any more food. By 4pm we were back to the apartment and everyone rushed to get showers in before we left for dinner at 5:15. Many of the guys weren’t happen when two girls took over the guys’ showers (which wouldn’t have happened if the guys were constantly using the showers as they should have been ? ) Dinner tonight was at Bunker Hill UMC. The first thing everyone noticed as we walked in the door was the wonderful decorations. Not only did they use ONU colors for table clothes, but they had cut-outs of our old logos on every table and ONU stickers for us. The pastor’s wife prepared a wonderful dinner of chicken parmesan, homemade bread, salad, fruit, and dessert. Kristin gave our devotional tonight and then most of the group went out on walks to explore the neighboring area. All went well except Kurt’s night went sour when he was over-charged for his ice cream. Then most of the group ended their night with a long and exciting game of Such & Such.
March 1, 2007
Rainy day! Since the rain was on its way, we decided to stay and be productive in the warehouse. A small group went back to the worksite to prepare footers by digging out and leveling the earth and pouring the concrete. They also did some finish up work on other houses. One of the groups that stayed in the warehouse set to work on building walls right away. Since Habitat only builds certain styles of houses, detailed layouts of the walls are already set and the wood is cut to size. From there, it’s like putting together a puzzle – with lots of nails. While that group specialized on building walls, another group worked a little bit outside. A previous group built walls and loaded them into a semi trailer without cutting out windows or doors. So we unloaded the entire “house” and cut all the holes. Then we had to properly load the trailer so that two houses worth of walls would fit inside. After lunch that group learned house to make walls as well and had a friendly competition with the other group building walls. Both sides claim the victory. Meanwhile, Kristin, Krista, and Justin stayed in the apartment and put their artistic abilities to work. The two girls painted the new ONU logo on the wall in one of the bedrooms and Justin made a paw print stencil. Then he traced 24 paw prints all around the apartment. Each person on the trip is responsible for painting their own paw print and leaving their mark in Winston-Salem. Lunch today was chili, cheese spread sandwiches, and donuts. Then we celebrated Laura, Denise, and Amanda’s birthday’s with a nice cake. Work finished as usual around 3pm and the remainder of the afternoon was devoted to showers and painting paw prints. Dinner was at the Sedge Garden UMC again where we enjoyed chicken pie. No – not chicken pot pie, just chicken pie. They don’t include the vegetables in the dish, but have them as side dishes instead. Salad, casseroles, and cookies rounded out another good meal. Everybody sat with the members of the team because we were warned to “get to know each other” before tonight’s challenge. So this provided a nice time of fellowship where people really got to know each other. Except for the Midget Pirates team, who decided to come up with generic answers to every question in an attempt to win the challenge. Everyone’s parents’ names were Tim and Kim, and their favorite food was spaghetti. Their attempt was thwarted in the evening challenge, when Denise forgot that her favorite movie was “Van Wilder.” Our version of the newlywed’s came ended up with Silent but Deadly in first, followed by Tools of Terror, Masters of Domination, and the Midget Pirates. The night winded down with devotion by Leslie and another night of fun and games. A small group of guys decided to be crafty and spent their night making 2 sets of corn hole in the warehouse – 1 set to be left here for the Forsyth County Habitat and another to take home.
March 2, 2007
Last work day ? Everyday people started waking up a little later and moving a little slower, and today was a good example. It took most people awhile to get into the swing of things – resulting in lots of bent nails. The rain from yesterday and last night kept us inside at the warehouse again today despite the beautiful 60+ degree weather. Most people finished building the exterior and interior walls for the house before lunch. Then the group continued with miscellaneous tasks to get things ready for the next group. Two houses worth of walls were loaded into the semi trailer, shelves and containers were built for storage inside a truck, stairs were made for easy access to the truck, and another truck was cleaned out. Since there wasn’t a lot of work to be done, several people took advantage of the time to finish painting their paw prints. Others enjoyed the sun by tossing around the football or playing some volleyball. The work day was officially over when we took our group picture in the warehouse. Lunch was Domino’s pizza, provided by Habitat. For dinner we returned to Sedge Garden UMC for vegetarian lasagna, cornbread, pinto beans, salad and dessert. Our bus driver, John, used his sewing talents to sew together 10 corn hole bean bags while everyone finished their dinner and played some Crazy Uno. When we returned, everyone packed their luggage and loaded the van and each team was assigned an area of the apartment that they were responsible for cleaning. After giving our daily “roses and thorns,” we took a moment of silence and Nathan (Bear) led us in a prayer for those affected by the Bluffton Baseball team tragedy and also for those affected by the tornados in Alabama. To lighten the mood, we made a long line and gave everybody hugs and said words of encouragement as we faced our last night together. Then of course, we had to finish our week of team challenges. Every team picked their strongest player, who was blindfolded, and had to guide them, through shouting, through a warehouse of obstacles to find a 7”x7” block of wood. Tools of Terror not only took first place in the challenge, but took the prize for first place overall. Second place in the challenge went to the Midget Pirates, followed closely by Masters of Domination and Silent but Deadly. Overall for the week, second place went to Masters of Domination, followed by Silent but Deadly and the Midget Pirates. And with that, our exhilarating week came to a close. With a 4am wake-up call, most people plan on staying up all night playing games and enjoying some last hours of fellowship. In the beginning of the week, an envelope was placed on a board for each person. The purpose of these envelopes is a way for people to write notes to each other. When we get off the bus tomorrow (hopefully around 3pm), the envelopes will be handed out and everyone can read the notes written for them. And now – it’s time to write notes, take a few last pictures, play some games, and dread leaving this group of 23 wonderful people to return to a new quarter of school on Monday.