"Hell is paved with good intentions."

Earth 5 has officially been in Port Arthur for a week now, working with Jefferson County's Habitat for Humanity in Beaumont. Things are going really well. We're all having really positive experiences, and anything that's negative doesn't bother us for very long.

New ASBs arrived Sunday evening and set up shop. When things began on Monday, we were having some difficulties with the site supervisors. Troy and Dave are pretty cool guys, they're really funny and they're definitely guys' guys. But their teaching techniques aren't exactly ideal for Earth 5's level of construction knowledge. They tend to teach through trial by error. And there were lots of errors at first. At one point, Wolf 4 (the Perry Point team that's here) had to tear down almost an entire wall of siding because some ASBs' measurements were off by two inches when they put it up. That was a waste of about $700. Eek. And that group got to take their last day in Texas to go to the beach and feel so satisfied that they had really accomplished something. Not quite, guys, not quite.

Later on in the week two other supervisors, Robert and Rory, came by the work site to help out. Those guys are awesome and their communication is significantly more helpful. On Wednesday, I helped Travis, Adrienne and Ervin start siding the back wall of one of the houses. We got all the way up to where the gable started before we had to stop for the day. The next day, we set up scaffolding so that we could side the gable. Once that was done, we had a little time to caulk the gaps between the siding and any deep nail holes. Yesterday, we painted the entire side and trim, which finally finished that side of the house. So the four of us, with a little help from M² (Mike) and John along the way, did the entire side of a house. It felt pretty awesome.

After spending two and a half days working on the side of a house (of which we became a little possessive, having put so much work into it), the difference in work ethic between Earth 5 and the ASBs/church groups quickly became apparent. The church groups were made up of a lot of teens, while the ASBs were obviously college kids. Their breaks were frequent, and their work could be substandard at times. I was on the phone with my dad at one point this past week and I actually vented about some of the volunteers' painting skills. One girl was just kind of flicking a brush across the siding. I had to control the impusle to go over to her and say, "Do you really think that's doing anything?"

More than once, I heard people comment that their work didn't need to be perfect since the Habitat house was better than what the Habitat families had before this. One girl showed up on her first day in a nice pair of jeans, a nice top and flipflops. I saw her at breakfast that way and all I could think was, "I hope she's going to change." When we got to the work site and she was still dressed that way, I couldn't believe it; what did she think she was here to do? During the week, John mentioned that some of the ASBs had told him that some of the AmeriCorps kids weren't being very welcoming, that we were always on our computers and there wasn't any fridge space for them. And yesterday, while painting, Nikki and I overheard some ASBs complaining about how "ghetto" their housing is. They live with us, in the modular at the Y.

Okay, so look: I appreciate that these people are taking valuable time out of their lives to contribute to providing housing for families that need it. It's particularly respectable that these college kids would rather spend their time building a house than blowing their money away in Cancun or Cabo. Thus, the title of this entry is probably a little harsh on my part.

That being said ... these houses aren't going to get built on their own and, while building with volunteers saves a significant amount of money, that doesn't mean that it's okay to take all the time in the world. Furthermore, the quality absolutely needs to be just as good as if it had been done by contractors -- just because it's a Habitat house doesn't mean that it can be substandard. Even if it passes all living inspection requirements, it shouldn't look like crap. These families deserve something that looks nice.

Secondly, we in AmeriCorps are here for a reason. This is not our spring break. The ASBs are here during their vacation. I'm sorry if we're not being welcoming to the ASBs while their here, but they are hardly a concern. Our first priority is doing good work on site. Beyond that, we have to worry about eating well, working out, spending time together as a team and any personal To Dos (laundry, email, banking, etc) that happen to come up. If there's any time left after that, maybe we'll use it to help the ASBs out. Don't get me wrong, we're not purposely alientating them. We chat a little, we're nice to each other. But Earth 5 and Wolf 4 are not the ASB Welcoming Committee. I'm also not your mother, I'm not going to hold your hand through this experience. You're adults. Act like it. Work hard, be responsible.

Besides, if I were an ASB, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't be spending enough time in Port Arthur to establish any significant relationships while I'm staying there. I wouldn't be bothered by not feeling "welcomed." A week is too short. As an AmeriCorps person, the ASB kids change weekly -- there's little time to get to know them and they're just going to blend into each other after a while. As long as I have my team, I'm content, they're all that I need.

Moreoever, we're living here for five weeks. The ASBs are spending a little less than a week at a time here. We need to be able to eat good meals for the duration of our stay or our health could suffer. I really don't think I'm being dramatic about it either -- doing construction every day and then eating ramen for dinner every night would probably influence the quality of our work. The ASBs can afford to eat mac'n cheese for a week and still be okay. They order pizza for lunch every day. Our food budget doesn't cover Little Caesar's. Besides, Earth 5 can't even get a fair amount of fridge space, Wolf 4 still has a little too much food (it's only the first week, we're working on a happy medium).

And finally ... we don't live in a ghetto. This area is not unsafe and the mod may be cheap, but it's not shoddy. Our living situation could be way more low maintenance than it is here. We have bathrooms and running water in the mods. So we have to go to the Y locker rooms to shower, so what? As long as we have a roof over our heads, we're doing pretty well for ourselves. When we walked into the mod, my first impression was positive and I'm glad to have this place to come home to every day after work.

Well, anyway, the ASBs left this morning. I slept in until they were all gone. I really don't want to be bitter about that group. Hopefully the next group will be provide a more positive experience.

Speaking of positive experiences ... Wednesday of this week was Nikki's 23rd birthday. While at work, one of the volunteer supervisors got her a birthday cake to have at lunch, which was really sweet. That night, most of both AmeriCorps teams went out bowling to do a little celebrating. That was a lot of fun, especially getting to spend a little quality time with Wolf 4.

This week we also started a little activity call "Hot Seat." Ervin came up with it and it's pretty awesome. We all wrote down questions that we wanted to ask everyone. Every night after dinner, one person is in the Hot Seat and they have to answer all of those questions. They've covered everything from "What cartoon character would you most like to wrestle" to "Who inspires you?" It's been a big treat so far, everyone looks forward to it and it's also helping us to get to know each other better. So far I think M², Travis, Nikki and John have gone.

For those who haven't heard, I've decided to not go to New Orleans for the four-day weekend that serves as our spring break. It was just going to be too much money and I couldn't find anyone to stay with (the people from Earth who were originally going to join me in a hotel decided to not go). For a little while, I was entertaining the idea of going camping with a bunch of Wolf 4 people, but those plans haven't really worked out either. So Nikki and I have decided to rent a car and spend the night in Austin. We're going to leave tomorrow and we'll be back around Sunday evening. It should be fun, apparently Austin is a great city. Nikki's dad said that it's his favorite out of all the cities he's been to in Texas. I'm really looking forward to it and it will thankfully be cheaper than spending time in New Orleans.

In other news, Levi and I sort of switched team roles. I'm now going to oversee the food operations (grocery shopping, mostly) while he'll be the PT coordinator. I'm glad we switched -- I wasn't doing so well as PT coordinator. I couldn't get the team to work out together very much and I was always concerned that I wasn't pushing everyone hard enough. Levi will definitely do a good job. And I already feel like I've got a grip on the food thing. I feel like such a mom about it, but I think I can handle it. It's funny because cooking at home was a bit of a chore for me and I didn't really enjoy it all the time. But now, I almost feel like volunteering to cook every night, I can't wait for the nights when I get to make meals. I've already made spaghetti and chili, both of which went over well. I'm hoping to do stuffed chicken breasts at some point.

I think that's everything. I'm off for now, we're going to rummaging at a Goodwill once Ervin gets back from taking some teammates to the car rental place so they can head to New Orleans for break.