Tuesday, June 30th

Plumbing by Craig and Dick,

Painting duo Kathryn and Alisa,

Painting floor Emily

The five amigos enjoying the ocean

Hi family and friends!

Today's word has to be RAIN. Several of us woke up around 5 this morning to the sounds of high winds, thunder, and torrential rain (so some of us gave up the idea of maybe actually going for a run while we're here...) and then just lay in bed readjusting our ideas of what we would get done today. It has pretty much rained all day, sometimes hard, sometimes a nice easy rain, but when that wind and heavy rain gets going, we wonder how much worse a hurricane would be. Except for flooding on the sides of the roads (and think about how that complicates our learning curve on left-side driving), the town handles all this rain just fine!

Needless to say, very little outdoor work can be done--somehow, power tools and water don't mix, according to Craig and Dick! Fortunately, there's lots to be done indoors--kitchen and bathroom painting, upstairs floor painting, sanding the new wall in a classroom in preparation for sanding, and Emily pointed out a little sink problem in one of the bathrooms that necessitated a trip by three men--Craig, Dick, and Todd--to the hardware store for new faucet and plumbing stuff. Since this is the first time these three felt the need to go together, I think they were feeling a little cooped up by the weather.

After work yesterday, 5 of our team walked down the little ramp the church has to the ocean and enjoyed an hour of cooling off in the warm water. Kathryn (our birthday girl today! Happy birthday, our much loved friend!), Derek, A.J., Craig, and Todd cannot wait to do that again. Ellen and I, with help from Alisa and Emily, made spaghetti for dinner and extorted promises from the 5 swimmer/snorkelers that Tuesday would be our day to swim while they made dinner. Everyone agreed, but we're making an exception for our birthday girl!

We all met some wonderful people yesterday and are working on making those relationships more significant today as we talk while we work. Each day we are more amazed by the work done at ECC and how Lyn Major's dream has evolved into a school serving so many with support from different communities. All of us talked last night about how much the teachers at this school, Gary, Pam, and Margaret are the ones we've met so far, are so committed to their work and the idea of just making a difference in life that matters. That's the reason our team loves doing this work-to be a part of something so significant!