Life in Bridgeport, CT

So this is my last week in Bridgeport. Kelly and I leave on Sunday to head back to Perry Point to start our training for Summer of Service. We will be getting to the Point three days earlier than the team and will still be at transition with everyone to give our debrief/brief presentations. This project has been amazing, we love all of the sponsors and have a great time at work every day. We have gone to several baseball games, been to a womans championship roller-derby, seen a Broadway play, and been to New York a few times. In the beginning of the year we started with just the concrete foundation on Arctic Street. We started with putting in floor joists and sub-flooring for the first floor and after that was complete the walls were put up for the first floor. Once that was done we put in the second floor joists and sub-flooring. This last week we got the second floor walls up and should be starting on the roofing tomorrow and Saturday. Last week we had a group of 150 high school seniors everyday that we had to lead each day. It was a great experience and i had a good group of high school students everyday.

We have also learned how to play cabbage ball which is a big southern game; kind of a mix between baseball and softball. I got to see my first Broadway Musical this last weekend and i really liked it. It's called Spring Awakening and we all liked it very much, it was definitely worth the money. Its been so hot this last week or so that some people have been sleeping out side and others have been sleeping in the basement with our team leader. There were only a few brave men that still slept up stairs. Saturday we are going to one of our sponsors houses for a big BBQ with all of the team and most of the sponsors and site supervisors.

I am sure there has been more that has happened but i can't remember them right now. I figure that these are the more important happenings of this project. Talk to y'all later and i will post some more pictures in a day or two.

Last Week or so pictures

Going on a hike this last weekend

A couple of the guys from Wogle last round

Us at Yale

A better picture of the Brick Condo's

Our warehouse cat and a couple of her baby kittens

Random Pictures: Some from NOLA and some from this project

The sub-floor is now done this is a picture from yesterday

Putting in the joist hangers

My team leader and the house architect (She is from Peru)

Kate and I putting in more joist hangers

One of the new levies in New Orleans (its super tall)

The AmeriCorps housing that we were building in NOLA in an old warehouse.

The Warehouse in NOLA

The two Denver teams and the two Perry Point teams on our last day in NOLA

The Wogle team

Pictures of our house and one of the renovation projects

These are six brick apartments from the late 1890's. We are renovating them into 12 low-income Condo's.

We are replacing old rotten floor beams so we can put the sub-floor in.

Pete sitting on the beams laying caulking down to put the sub-floor in

Katie and Molly modeling on the finished floor

This is the Habitat house that we are living in.

Our back yard

The Kitchen

Our dining room

The living room with our beautiful carpet, this is where we watch tons and tons of movies

This is the sleeping arrangement of our room, the blue cot is mine.

Our new Project with Habitat for Humanity

This is a tribute to the great combined team of Eagle 3 and Wolf 3. That is the great Wogle 3

Hey everyone. I am now in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This is the richest state in the USA, Bridgeport is one of the top five poorest cities in the USA. We are working for Habitat for Humanity and am working on a low income house. In this area the low income house goes for a quarter million dollars which is a very cheap house here. All of the sponsors that we have seem like they are going to be really cool and our team is really going to enjoy this project. Oh and we are working Tuesday through Saturdays because they have a huge influx of volunteers that we will be leading on Saturdays. Once a week we work for a Land Trust in the area and clear out Japanese Barberry. Yesterday we went out there to check out what the work is going to be and the Site supervisor took us on a 6 mile hike of the area, it was nice to be out in the woods its been way too long.

This is the beginning of the house that we are starting right now

Our housing situation is an old Habitat house with my team of 12 sleeping in three rooms, sharing one shower, and two toilets. We have a basement with a washer and dryer and that is where my Team Leader is sleeping in a tent. For the dinner situation we have teams of two who share cooking dinner for everyone five days a week. Its been surprisingly easy sharing the bathrooms and showers. For the shower schedule, the people that are the next day cooking take the first showers and the cooks end up being last.

This last Monday 6 of us got free tickets to a local baseball team and we ended up sitting right over the dugout. We became friends with the guy in charge of the events at the game and he invited us to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on top of the dugout at the top of the 7th inning. The last weekend that we were in New Orleans i helped out at Jazz Fest. A couple of the Denver people and myself worked at a T-Shirt stand to get ISP hours. It was pouring for most of the day and we had to close the stand early. Which meant we could go and watch the big music events. A couple of us went to listen to one song of Billy Joels and then went to O.A.R. and watched most of their concert until they had to close half an hour earlier because of lightning. But i got to go down a make-shift slip and slide. It was just a muddy area cleared out except for beer bottles. But i got a running slide and slid in muddy water with just jeans and shoes. It was a crazy fun time.

The six of us with the Bluefish Mascott

Chris and I at the baseball game

Four of us at the end of Jazz Fest in New Orleans

On Monday we had a 5 hour team meeting starting at 11:00am. We went through a lot of team issues and dealt with things before they became a huge problem. I think our team is a great team and there are just a few small problems with us. But in comparison to a lot of teams that i have talked to, we have really little pointless dis-agreements. I love yall and will talk to you later.