Raising the walls

When we started work this morning at 6:15, there was only a concrete slab where Talia's house would soon stand. But by the time the work day was over, 35 or so volunteers had framed, raised and added plywood to the walls of the house! Quite an accomplishment for us... especially since a large majority of us have never done construction before. We Americorps, as the grey-shirted herd are referred to by most everyone in Louisiana, learned a lot. We took the pre-build doors and windows and added studs and learned how to drill into the cement slab and nail things together and measure and cut and the importance of measuring twice and cutting once and the additional importance of cutting one's nails short. It's a grueling workschedule for us, currently speaking, since we aren't used to the early mornings yet. 8:30 in the evening rolls around and I am ready to fall into bed, but feeling unwilling to do so because of all of the fun, college-y activities that are going on just a few blocks away. Most of the time, I've just given into the sleepiness and appreciated my good judgement in the morning. I'll just have to go to grad school for that college fix that I've been craving/