Spring Break

Robyn and I happened to have the same spring break. A few weeks ago she asked my advice about this service project she'd heard about on the Berkeley campus. I looked into it and thought "Hey, I want to do that too!" After some messaging back and forth on Facebook, I got the details and planned our trip to Tuba City, Arizona with Project Pueblo (http://projectpueblo.org/). 

Sisterly love. There's a lot of it in this trip!!

Getting ready to work. Sunglasses: check. Scarves/face covers: check. Jackets: check. 5 layers of clothing: check. 2 pairs of pants: check. Fun: DOUBLE CHECK!!

Nothing too fierce for the Comfort girls. We dominated that work site. Between the face masks, tool belts, work gloves, hammers and smiles, we had it made!

Me, Jeff, Robyn and Al. Jeff was part of the student group from Berkeley volunteering with us. Al was the Navajo construction-lead on the house who gave us all the info we needed and much much more (he had a way of running at the mouth, giving us unwanted speeches at the end of our days, when we all just wanted to go home, warm up and eat some food!). Thanks anyways, Al!

Glazed stare, Karly. Scared eyes, Robyn. Unsure what project we would have next. No insulation please!

Al is telling us the importance of being careful with the drywall. With this first piece we really did try hard to take our time and not make any dents. Unfortunately it was very hard to hammer the nails into the dry wall and we ended up making a complete mess of it (look at pictures below to see just how bad it got!). Oh and the other girl is our beloved Cynthia in this shot--wonderful magical lady!

Nailing dry wall is not easy, is it Robyn? But good attempts!

The group after day two or three. We worked Mon-Thurs, starting with insulation in the house, then drywall. On the outside we hammered random nails into the walls I think for extra support, then covered it with this white water proof material, then did the siding (well that was Robyn, Cynthia and Al). 

Al was all about the photo-opps. Here we are all pretending to give a hand to the team working outside on the siding. No worries whether or not it is posed, though, because we look GOOD! :)

Luckily we had Justin there as the expert electrician. Who knew it could be handy to be skilled at something when volunteering? Too bad I'm not too handy. But I still have fun and think I help. Justin really did re-wire the house, or further wire it, I'm not sure. Way to go dude!

And way to go to you too dudette. (The hatched-view is due to the screen between the camera and Robyn). 

Here Kat, Kim, Jeff and I are holding up this large piece of drywall for the ceiling as Mike (Al's second-hand) was doing all the nailing. Thank you Mike since it was hard enough to just hold up the dry wall. My shoulders started shaking after only a few seconds!

Robyn, Jeff and I. Buddies at work. Enemies off. Just kidding!! Looking good though, right? That's why I should have that flannel!! (Jeff you better read this!)

Our car group who bonded lots through the trip: me (right bottom corner, with the glasses on), Robyn, Jeff, Cynthia and Kat. Kat drove us around all week--thanks girl! We took this picture at the gas station before we departed for our long drives home...bummer. BUT still a wonderful trip!!!

Squished car: Kat, Justin, Jeff in front. Me, Robyn, Kim and Cynthia in the back (I always got the lounging position in the back!)

Another great photo opp. As Al did some real work and we waited, we decided to take a darling sot. Lourdes is also in this shot. Great team!!

It was time for some modeling after all our construction work: Justin, Jeff, Robyn and Cynthia. Robyn I think gets the gold medal for this one!

I love this little bugger!

Group shot after day 3. The group got smaller as the days went on because we all started to know what we needed to do and it was better to have fewer people to get all the work done than to have too many people hanging out with nothing to do. We were rock stars for sure though. 

Obviously. 

Just me and my best friend: Debbie's back yard. (Debbie is the woman we stayed with on the rez (reservation) and this mini-grand canyon was her back yard! Not our little secret as some liked to think of it (Jeff) but still a spectacular view and fun place to explore after work). 

Robyn gets the credit for this beautiful shot of nature. 

And this one. The striated dirt/mountains were really beautiful all around Arizona and Utah, on my drive to Tuba City.  

Me, Hilary and Jeff. I wish I had more pictures with Hilary. She is truly an outstanding person. She is in her last semester at Berkeley, studying engineering. She's a co-oper and really helped balance my experience in Tuba between the goofy group of construction workers and her more down to earth look on things. I mean, who wouldn't love her, look at her! That great sun-protecting hat, face-protecting scarf and she also has a homemade belt...like mine but out of different material (I made my belt out of some material I found discarded at the construction site because my pants kept falling down). 

One thumb up for Mother Nature. 

Cynthia and her cute booty working on the siding of the house. Robyn and her became masters at seeing what was straight and hammering those panels into place. Nice work girls!

Robyn seemed fascinated with the materials trailer and the tree above it. I found many pictures of this scene on my camera. Very unique I guess.

Robyn's thiz face and Cynthia's smoochin' lips. Hot glasses, Cynthia ;)

I'm working hard, Jeff is just messing around. What a team though. We dry walled two entire closets almost all by ourselves. I felt extremely empowered by the end. I guess that's the benefit of having two experienced construction workers on the site and 12 inexperienced students--I had time to really get stuff done my way (also known as the imperfect, but good-enough way). 

Melissa is shown here working hard with the Black and Yellow hammer. She had a green mini van we drove around the rez quite a bit to get from the work-home to Debbie's house where the group was staying. 

Working hard or hardly working? I'd vote option #2. 

Jeff and I are playing home here in this picture as Robyn and Cynthia admire their hard work. They did the side paneling for two entire sides of the house. The next group of volunteers that crossed paths with us will now have to do the front and the back of the house (the two harder walls). 

Sisterly love at the grand canyon. The picture is a bit hazy. But we are older and not AS pudgy as we were in 3rd and 5th grade, like we were back in the day when we visited the GC. It was cold though so we were bundled up big time!

They've got the whole world, in their hands! Robyn doesn't find it too hard a task, while I clearly am struggling. 

We hiked down a bit in the GC. Here we are before we turned around to head back up. Unfortunately I started getting sick that day and had a pretty bad sore throat by the end of the hike. Luckily we had a Navajo with us who insisted I drive with him back so he could get me some sage brush to use in tea or gargle with. We grabbed some on the side of the road and when we got home I made a ton of hot tea with sage brush. I drank it all, peed all night and woke up with no sore throat (even though I was still sick...no sore throat is better than sick with a sore throat!). 

And a final fare well to the 5-person car group. Robyn took this picture and that's why only 1/2 of her face is shown here. I was sick and my eyes were dry so I'm looking good in my glasses. Kat is rocking the head bands that we all bought the day before at a flea market we stopped at before we headed up to the GC. Cynthia and her voluptuous hair and big smile, great laugh. Jeff and the Justin Bieber look-a-like purple jacket. This picture sums it up and I am so thankful to have met these people and spend such a spectacular spring break with them. Maybe I'll see ya'll in May in Denver? Who knows?!