Flexibility

This week was a lesson in flexibility. One of the unofficial mottos of Sacred Road Ministries is "Semper Gumbi" (Always flexible.) Monday I and one other intern were sick with a stomach bug that's been going around, so there was a mad scramble to replace us by pulling interns off sites where there was more than one leader. it was a bit hectic, and I was restless all day wanting to be out helping, but my stomach consistently reminded me that I should be laying down, not riding around the rez and runnning construction sites.
Luckily, it was just a 24-hour bug. Tuesday I went to be the thirs leader on a site that needed a little more help. I ran a paint crew until lunch, then helped roof after lunch (there are a lot of projects where we both roof and paint a home.) It was a bit entertaining to watch a 16-year-old girl with a 16 ounce hammer try and drive nails as fast as I can with a 24 ounce framing hammer. (Tap taptaptaptaptap vs. tap BAM.) The goal was to have the roof dried in (meaning fully tar papered) by the end of the day. we did it, but only just. we finished at 2:25, using leftover scraps of felt paper to cover the last 22 feet of the ridge. But we got it done.
I ran a paint crew on Wednesday and put a full second coat on the house my team painted two weeks ago. we actually did a little more than that as well, we started priming the trim color areas, so my expectations were exceeded and the day was a success, despite a lack of focus after the lunch break.
Thursday. field trip day for the teams. I ended up escorting two of the leaders around town as they ran errands while the rest of the team (and the rest of the interns) floated down the Yakima river or wandered through a cave. It wasn't all bad, I bought some bacon (that was breakfast on Sunday) so the house could have some for the first time this summer. for 5 men between the ages of 19 and 22 to go without bacon for a month... well, I bought 3 pounds and there was none left after breakfast. Bacon is an important food group for yound males.
After the errand-running, we had kid's club. we had been having it all week, today I was on the kickball daimond. In 90-degree heat. It was quite the contras the next day when it was 75 and I spent the daying playing with hot wheels with the littler kids. I drank a lot more water Thursday than Friday.
Friday night and Saturday morning were goodbye times. We finished all of the projects for the week (one roof was right down to the wire, but it got finished.) adn teh teams are off to their respective hometowns.
We were really out in the community this week. The site where we were both painting and roofing was a house owned by a tribal member, another site (we were just painting this one this week) was the workshop of the tribe's coffin builder. Talk about someone known by the community around us. Because of the low life expectancy here on the reservation, almost everyone knows Ray. Sad, yes, but true.Something to make you think. Traditionally, cutting one's hair is a sign of mourning, and the mourning period for a close friend or family member is one year. At any given time, there is probably someone within earshot who is currently in mourning.
Prayer requests for the next couple weeks: health and rest for the interns, continued good work by the teams, praise for another week free of major injury, prayer for my ankle (I sprained it during youth group Tuesday night.)

Also, Pictures available here: Flickr, Facebook