Finally, a Habitat post . . .

This always happens.

I plan to journal a trip, and all of a sudden it's half over or more. It's not necessarily that it's racing by, it's just that I get so tied up in what I am doing that I look up and several days have gone by.

[I actually started working on this entry on Wednesday, and it is now 9:30 p.m. Friday, and I am in the Amtrak station in North Charleston, S.C., waiting for a train that is supposed to be 2 hours and 15 minutes late.]

[Addendum: It's about 10:45 a.m., and i am sending from Union Station in Washington, D.C.]

[Amtrak has wirelessm but not everywhere at Union Stateion. I am home now.) ;)

I suppose it might be different if I had internet access, but we don't have wireless here at the volunteer house (not a surprise), and to get on, I basically need to slip out and get to the library. (Excellent library here on John's Island, SC, by the way.) alethea_eastrid, you, lifecollage and all my other librarian friends would like it.) The only reason I am able to write now is that I am cooking dinner, and everyone else is out playing volleyball with the folks we're building with.

First of all, I felt pretty good about deciding to come down on the train. Yes, it was roughly 24 hours of our lives, but when I looked at all the flights cancelled out of Logan, I felt even better. (We did go through tornado warnings in Virginia and the Carolinas.)

One of the reasons I decided to bring the group back to Johns Island was the housing setup here. At many Habitat sites, you wind up in church basements, etc. This affiliate is one of the bigger ones (the current count of homes built is 225 and headed for 275). We are basically 16 people in a four-bedroom house, and I get a full kitchen to play in. (Pasta, salad and garlic bread for dinner).

Building has been going well. They have not cleared out this year's building site yet (permits and waiting for the tree-clearing guys), so we are "pre-building" the framing for houses and then packing the frames away. We are also cranking out sheds, because each Habitat house comes with a shed. The people who apply for the houses have to be in sub-standard housing when they apply. They put in 500 or 1,000 hours of "sweat equity," and assume a $50,000 mortgage. Thing, is, in this market, the houses are worth $150,000 to $200,000. Johns Island is halfway between Charleston, SC. and the beach resorts at Kiawah and somewhere else.

Anyway, we spent the week doing pre-building for a 50+ house subdivision that will be going in over the next couple of years. Trouble is, with permitting and a land-clearing company that cannot seem to get its act together, the first sites won't be ready for three or four weeks (assuming they actually break ground next Tuesday as planned).

The 10 kids had a great time, and so did the five teachers who came. They really got into it. The coolest thing was the girls got t work on pre-building the house that will be done as an all-women's build. Basically, pre-building involves hammering all the framing, etc., together. We were also working on pre-building the sheds that go in each backyard.

Outside of working, we got to Folly Beach and a couple kids went into the surf. We got into Charleston a couple of times. We ate at the famous "Hyman's Seafood Restaurant" in Charleston. It’s being run by the fifth generation of the same family. One of the third-generation folks, Maier Hyman stopped by our table, and when I told him what we were doing, he said to me, "I would like to put dessert on the house for all of you, if that's OK with you?" That was so cool.

More later.

More Habitat thiughts . . .

Thank you

I want to thank everyone who either donated or bought cookie dough. The order went in a week ago. We tried to get to 300 tubs, which we topped, because you make more per tub that way, and they package wach kid's order and there's free shipping.

Hammers and faith

soldiergrrl, this next piece is partly for you: It's also interesting to take a group of Northern kids and teachers, most of whom are not overly religious -- and several of whom are Jewish -- into the heart of born-again country. As you may or may not know, Habitat is a Christian organization. We start the building day with a blessing. (I usually wind up doing one during the week. Today, we had a group of 20+ men from a Church of God (6,000 members) in Charlotte with us, and we got a good, long blessing directed at the kids. We then sang "Jesus is My Physician," which the men had requested of our foreman, Troy.

I will say this, the kids and teachers were completely taken by Troy, a small, tightly compacted man who is a master carpenter and a minister. He is one of those people who clearly lives his faith every day and is the epitome of Southern graciousness.

I will try to send this from Washington, D.C., if I have time when we get there.

Another thought . . .

There is something poetic about being awakened by the rays of the rising Sunday pouring in the train window. It had to be somewhere in Virginia, south of Petersburg. As I looked out, I saw a field flash by, lingering for a moment before being lost behind the trees.

I know my students – and the faculty members – were less than thrilled with the 22-hour train ride to and from Charleston, S.C., especially with a late departure last night, But I think they did get a lot out of the ride,

If you need a redcap in Union Station, try to get Tyrone. He rocks. He helped us on the way there and the way back.

I got to listen to the Steve Goodman version of "City of New Orleans" twice on my MP3 player.

We pulled into South Station as the sun was getting ready to set, and when I got there, I got the good news that the Red Sox had won two straight over the Yankees and have a three-game streak going.