Today in words (1/13/15) - Jodi

Today started off similar to all of the previous mornings, with a delicious breakfast made my our cook, Ms. Barbara. Once we got into town we split into our work groups, some went to work on construction and some architectural drawings, while others embarked to different places ready to conduct interviews. My group went up on a truck ride with four other people so that we could see how they made the historically accurate lime mortar for the foundation. The process was really interesting, and I think that it is amazing that people who did not have all of the technologies that we have now available to them were still able to achieve amazing things. I would say that the toughest part of the process is the mixing, the mixing takes FOREVER and the people who do it all the time make it look so easy. After that we rode back down to our worksite on 6 King street. After arriving we ate lunch. So then it was back to work for us. I started working with a drawing group by helping to measure but the person who was drawing before lunch had gone off, and we could not figure out how to convert the measurements to correctly fit the scale. Then my partner Amber came to let me know that she was ready for a break so we started walking around to conduct our interviews. I think that the interviews that we are conducting are amazing and eye opening because we get to see how people of other countries and socioeconomic status live and what they have to deal with. We spoke with one woman who was 60 years old and was just getting her visa to visit her son in the states. She talked to us about how excited she was and how when she got it she was jumping and dancing around. I really think that it is amazing to hear about things that other people have to deal with that people like myself just take for advantage like the ability to travel to other places easily and having access to amazing things like the opportunity to come on this trip.

Some people did different things today that I did not have the chance to experience. I have included quotes below:

"It made me so angry and sad because eight people were living in the size of a place that would be considered a living room!" - Iris Stringer-Graeve (drawing the floor plan of another house that will soon be worked on)

"It was a lot of hard work, but it is a good feeling to know that you are making a tangible difference in people's lives."  -Rebecca Stetzer (working on the construction site)