A eulogy for the man who drowned on the Galveston beach:
Maybe all I wanted was one single secluded moment
Away from the clamor of human life,
And maybe, like the whispering winds of this island,
I'd heard all the tales of human suffering I could stand
And God gave me that tranquil snapshot
There in the pounding surf,
Absorbing the peaceful, salty rhythms,
Enclosed in a fragile bubble of sky and sea.
But in exchange for that peace, the scales had to tip,
and something had to be out of balance elsewhere
just a few feet down the pristine sand.
God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I couldn't see to change,
the courage to change the things I can see,
and the wisdom to see the difference,
Even if all the looking in the world
Wouldn't open my eyes until after
the jolting, sudden fact.
With flowers in my hand and hurt in my heart
I stand staring at the murky waves
Wondering where all that danger comes from
In the midst of calm
But it’s only singing Amazing Grace on the lurching ride away
That will calm my inner tumult and bring the tears.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Today was a little bit of a sad day beacause i had to leave early, however we got a lot of work done. We had gotten quite a few bags of yardwaste from Mr. Keyes house then i went back with the other group and we got a lot of flooring done and im not sure if all the tiling and flooring got done today. 4 hour plane rides are not fun after the first hour.
I MISS ALL OF YOU GUYS AND HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE A GREAT REST OF A TRIP AND I LOVE YOU ALL.
LOVE
Sammy
More Videos! And we're done working.
More Videos!
We are now done with our work! Six days of hot sweat and toil in the smothering South Texas heat. Tonight we're going out to a minor league baseball game and tomorrow we're going to church.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Reflections
So far this week has gone by really fast. Working with a bunch of people you enjoy being around makes it that way. Today especially went by really fast. Putting in floors in an airconditioned center listening to Bay Area rap (and other stuff) will do that to you. The real fun starts tonight though. Our hard work this week is rewarded with a nice Texas BBQ. The BBQ is kicking off a weekend of fun which includes lots of chill time, going to church and seeing minor league baseball. As much fun as that sounds, there is still a bunch of work that needs to be done here in Galveston. My group has only worked on two houses so far (and in a church and temple center) that were greatly affected by the huricanes. I wish more volunteers could come down and put in a week of work because this city really needs. It is a wonderfull community full of really nice people that need a lot of help. I hope to return here in the next couple of years.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Tale.................of Sir Calvin
Texas is great, because everything about it is big. It's state is big, it's trucks are big, it's people are big, even spiders, humidity etc. (The list is endless). So far in Texas, I have enjoyed quite a multitude of wonderful experiences here in the Lone Star State (where even cockroaches drive large trucks and think hybrids are kind of silly).
So far this week, the days have passed by in a similar, yet quite enjoyable manner. My work team (named 'The MacGyver's after some dude in the 80's who I don't know but that's ok) drives to the home where we work at about 9:00 in the morning and then we get to work. So far, we have been tiling and putting down grout (which, until a little while ago, I thought 'grout' was a small woodland mammal), or at least, we have been putting off that impression. For a few days, Gabby, Marshall, Sam and myself just scraped mortar between tiles, which is a VERY rewarding experience (if, by 'rewarding' you mean 'mind-numbing') I tried to become a tiler, but very soon I realized that this job required a special something I didn't have (namely, an ability to do something productive) and my team leader Andy, sent me back to kneel on the floor and scrub the cracks again. Fortunately, I was the only person with a camera so this enabled me to get up and wander around at any point in the work to photograph and videotape Marshall's humerous episodes of working with the hose (among other things).Still, this is a VERY essential step that we must take before we can work with grout.
Throughout the work upon the site, we have made steady progress upon the tiling the floor and grouting in between in several rooms; I credit this to Joe Crisp standing in front of the fan until it puffs up his shirt and Nick Morehouse covering Michela (also known as Michala on this blog) in mortar, for both activities are very efficient and quite entertaining to watch. As for myself, I have been upgraded to grout spreading, which allows me to spread the brown, gluish-like substance that look alarmingly similar to dog feces on the floor, inbetween the tiles so that it holds them together in the same spot, then Sam and Gabby come by and clean the tiles so the only goop I have spread is in the cracks and not on the tiles.This job is ideal because it allows me to make a mess and then has others cleaning up after me, which has been my dream job since about 2 years old. Today, I have finished two bedrooms and have started another so I do have some work under my belt.
Now, in fact, Stephen and the others are now doing the medieval torture that is scraping the grout lines, so I can't do too much work, otherwise I won't have time to watch them for giggles.
Other than this though, I have learned many things. Academically, Gabe has taught me how to properly pronounce 'versatile' (say Ver-sa-tile!).Socially, I have met our wonderful team leader, Andy, who is the Straight man to our team's Marx Brothers. Furthermore, I have bonded well with the whole group. From Marshall the Marshmellow is a one rad dude who looks like Alfred E. Newman, to Michaela who has the best singing voice ever (Imagine Bonnie Tyler on steroids!)
I have failed miserably at keeping this blog short, but when confronted with such a cornucopia of material, what is a crazy Episcopalian who has been mistaken for Shaggy Rogers from Scooby-Doo to do? In any event, I want to help spread the message........
MacGyver Love To all!
So far this week, the days have passed by in a similar, yet quite enjoyable manner. My work team (named 'The MacGyver's after some dude in the 80's who I don't know but that's ok) drives to the home where we work at about 9:00 in the morning and then we get to work. So far, we have been tiling and putting down grout (which, until a little while ago, I thought 'grout' was a small woodland mammal), or at least, we have been putting off that impression. For a few days, Gabby, Marshall, Sam and myself just scraped mortar between tiles, which is a VERY rewarding experience (if, by 'rewarding' you mean 'mind-numbing') I tried to become a tiler, but very soon I realized that this job required a special something I didn't have (namely, an ability to do something productive) and my team leader Andy, sent me back to kneel on the floor and scrub the cracks again. Fortunately, I was the only person with a camera so this enabled me to get up and wander around at any point in the work to photograph and videotape Marshall's humerous episodes of working with the hose (among other things).Still, this is a VERY essential step that we must take before we can work with grout.
Throughout the work upon the site, we have made steady progress upon the tiling the floor and grouting in between in several rooms; I credit this to Joe Crisp standing in front of the fan until it puffs up his shirt and Nick Morehouse covering Michela (also known as Michala on this blog) in mortar, for both activities are very efficient and quite entertaining to watch. As for myself, I have been upgraded to grout spreading, which allows me to spread the brown, gluish-like substance that look alarmingly similar to dog feces on the floor, inbetween the tiles so that it holds them together in the same spot, then Sam and Gabby come by and clean the tiles so the only goop I have spread is in the cracks and not on the tiles.This job is ideal because it allows me to make a mess and then has others cleaning up after me, which has been my dream job since about 2 years old. Today, I have finished two bedrooms and have started another so I do have some work under my belt.
Now, in fact, Stephen and the others are now doing the medieval torture that is scraping the grout lines, so I can't do too much work, otherwise I won't have time to watch them for giggles.
Other than this though, I have learned many things. Academically, Gabe has taught me how to properly pronounce 'versatile' (say Ver-sa-tile!).Socially, I have met our wonderful team leader, Andy, who is the Straight man to our team's Marx Brothers. Furthermore, I have bonded well with the whole group. From Marshall the Marshmellow is a one rad dude who looks like Alfred E. Newman, to Michaela who has the best singing voice ever (Imagine Bonnie Tyler on steroids!)
I have failed miserably at keeping this blog short, but when confronted with such a cornucopia of material, what is a crazy Episcopalian who has been mistaken for Shaggy Rogers from Scooby-Doo to do? In any event, I want to help spread the message........
MacGyver Love To all!
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