Sunday

So it's a Sunday which means it's my day off. I wish that meant I could spend lots of time on the computer but since I'm using the HODR computer my time is limited. BUT tomorrow (!) I will be getting my Mac hand delivered to me from Chapel Hill. A women who volunteers here with me happened to be going to Chapel Hill for a wedding for the weekend and she agreed to bring my computer back! That means I should be able to update my blog and email more frequently.

This week went pretty well. I finished a rubble site with my group and we moved on to a new one early in the week. The new site, Lourde, was different than any of the sites I had been to before. The other sites had simply been the ceiling pancaking directly onto the flood. This one had a significant portion of the roof at an upward angle which made the job much more tactical and dangerous. We had a guy who is good at demolition come by and level the structure some. I worked on the same site for a couple days. Thursday I went hardcore on the sledging and hurt my back. I didn't quite realize I had hurt it until late that night when I went to go a calisthenics class on the roof. I slept and woke up Friday feeling much better so I went back to the site. After about five sledges I pretty much became immobile. It really sucked having to sit out. I rested a bit in the afternoon and decided I'm going to take a couple days to do other activities aside from rubbling to give my back a rest. I'd rather rest a few days now and be able to return to work than be out for a month down the road because I didn't rest.

Saturday we had a BBQ on base which meant we also got the afternoon of work. Well most people got the afternoon off, at least. I volunteered to help cook for the BBQ. In the morning I went to the market to pick up some supplies. The market here is pretty insane. Lots of people in a confined space, low ceilings, motorcycles driving around, heat, and bad smells which is all to be expected. I made it out alright and spent the rest of the morning preping. Our menu included BBQ chicken, potato salad, green salad, fruit salad, and fried dough. In the afternoon I took over cooking the chicken along with another guy. The rest of the afternoon and evening (until at least 7 p.m.) was spent grilling. It was a lot of work but everybody loved the food so it was totally worth the work.

Today I took a moto-taxi with a few other people to this gas station not far away. They sell a lot of stuff that's very hard to find - FROZEN snickers, awesome cold drinks, pringles, etc. AMAZING! The rest of today has been spent vegging. I'm probably going to head to the beach in a little while and have a quick swim.

When I get my computer I will start posting more frequently and can have more details and it will be better overall. It's hard trying to quickly write what I did in a whole week!

Hope everyone is well.

Love,

Daniel

P.S. I just got an email from my mom telling my I got accepted to UNC-Asheville for the fall!!!