The Shirtless Apprentice

Today I was an apprentice to one of the long-term volunteers name Miso (a guy from Slovakia with a Λ over the “s” in his name). We started the morning with some basic, shirtless carpentry stuff – using a table saw to cut some wood, hammering, measuring – being that I had a pencil behind my ear I felt pretty official. God, measuring twice and cutting once without a shirt on feels so manly. We were building some overhangs with tarp to be attached to certain key locations where a lot of rain comes into the base. Putting these things up was pretty damn difficult. For the two we put outside the windows of the baggage storage room (which flooded two days ago and soaked all my stuff) we had to take a ladder to the side of the base, stick it on top of a ton of mud and non-flat surfaces, and Miso did the hammering while I held the ladder. He reminded me early on that my life was in his hands. As if this wasn’t enough, we had to go to the roof to attach the second half of the piece where I layed on my stomach, hanging off the edge holding the wood while he hammered. It made me nervous, not so much because I’m afraid of heights but rather am afraid of falling of the sides of buildings. We got up three rain diverters in total in the morning. I also got started building rain flies for the giant windows near the bunks (when it rains hard, the bunks nearest to the windows usually get pretty wet). The first one we were making was just a prototype to see if it was feasible and workable.

In the afternoon I worked with a couple volunteers, Steve and Al, in finishing the prototype for the window cover. We did and tested it out – worked like a charm. We’ll just have to see how it stands up to the rain. Tomorrow we are going to make a second one to put over the other giant window. Today I felt good about knowing I helped to make the base a little less wet! Team leaders have to speak at the nightly meeting about how things went for their project for the day –Miso asked me to speak because he thinks his English isn’t good (even though it is) and everyone seemed appreciative of the new designs.

Tonight I’m looking more into the mandatory trip I’ll be taking in the next week or two. I say mandatory (it’s true, it is) but I’m really looking forward to it. I’m fairly sure at this point I’ll be going to the Dominican Republic for my break. I’ll be joined by Jeanene, another volunteer, from Brooklyn, and possibly others; at the meeting I announced our trip to see if anyone wanted to join as well. Hopefully I’ll have everything sorted out ASAP.

Hope you had a good hump day.

Love,

Daniel