I have to be honest with you all – this trip has had quite a few disappointments. I already told you about how the previous volunteers did a sloppy job on the house, and we spent a lot of time redoing and repairing their work. But worse than that was that the group responsible for assigning us the house didn’t know how bad it was, nor did they seem to care. They basically dropped us off and said “wow, this is all messed up.” We had to go to Home Depot and buy our own materials and some tools. It was very disappointing.
We also are having problems at the church we are living at. When we first arrived, there was one group there, and they were staying in two small rooms with bunks. We went into the very large room with many bunks. Another very large group arrived a little after us. So big, they couldn’t all fit in the main room with our group of nine also being in there (so some of them needed to use cots last night). Knowing those in the two “private” rooms were leaving today, we called “dibs” on those rooms. But when we got back from work today, there were people moving in to the rooms. Fortunately, we were able to kick them out, but not without some attitude.
And finally, the very large group has taken over the kitchen area. Fortunately, there are several kitchens in this very large church. But the people in charge keep changing their mind about what kitchen we are allowed to use, and telling us that we need to be out of one kitchen and go into another at different times during the week. It is all very complicated and frustrating.
I’m wondering if the organization we are using for this trip has gotten sloppy and is starting to take for granted the volunteers that are coming to help restore their city.
On a positive note, dinner was excellent. Karin had made a bunch of food and brought it along. Tonight, we ate baked ziti, meatballs, and salad. There was a huge loaf of bread, so I turned half into garlic bread. And there were some baked goods for dessert. Everything tasted great. It was a nice filling meal after a long day.