Build week! (Maryville, TN)

Hi again from State #2: Tennessee! We've started our week-long build, and unfortunately we don't have internet access at our host site, so my posts will be infrequent for a little while. I'm writing from a cool internet cafe in downtown Maryville that looks sort of like an old timey movie theatre. We had a bit of a disappointment on our first build day here...we were hoping to do a "blitz build" all week--building as much of a house as we can from the foundation up--but due to some miscommunication with the local Habitat chapter, there isn't a blitz site here for us. Instead, we were sent to an in-progress construction site, where there weren't quite enough jobs for all of us. We're a group that doesn't like to sit still, though, and our resourceful leaders made some phone calls and sent some of us to work at the local Habitat resale store (thrift shop that benefits Habitat) to do some volunteer work. I spent the afternoon sorting clothes, which was actually pretty fun when we started trying on the most outdated and outrageous pieces we could find. Back at the camp this evening we had our second round of affordable housing curriculum, a discussion about the history of housing policy in the US that was followed by a tasty taco dinner cooked up by one of our chore groups. Thanks to a recent change in schedule, we're taking tomorrow as a day off (one of three all summer), and we're all pretty excited about sleeping past 7am! Speaking of which, I should go get started.










House where most of us worked in downtown Maryville













Mike's not quite sure about that stucco he's mixing










Sorting clothes at the Habitat thrift store (Emily B, Kim, Vandy)