Tuesday I managed to stay put in the morning and not go to Dunkin’ Donuts. I read a chapter in my Bible, and then hung out and munched on breakfast cereal and chatted with folks until it was time for the work crews to get organized. This day I was going to be in one of two teams that were staying at Camp Carl. One team (not mine) was going to clean up scrap metal and cut and burn brambles back in one part of the camp. My team was heading to the fairly new storage/vehicle barn to hang plywood so that tools could be hung from the plywood wall. Since it was cold and spitting sleet again, I did not mind being inside this time.

I gathered up my five charges, which included two members of my improv group, so I was happy to know two of the kids pretty well. We walked down to the garage and waited for Chuck (one of the camp maintenance men) to come and give us tools and instructions. It turned out to be a healthy little wait – about 20 minutes or so, during which time the students amused themselves by posing on various pieces of heavy equipment.

Once Chuck got there, we got going, kind of. We were to screw 2-by-4 boards onto existing studs, and then screw plywood over that. So far, so good. We had to cut boards to size, pre-drill holes, hold boards in place and screw them to the existing wall. There were a couple of minor problems. One, our drills were cordless and all died within about 15 minutes. So, we had to wait while Chuck got us corded drills. Also, the screw bits we were using were pretty rounded off, which can make for some pretty frustrating construction. To be honest, we did have one or two good bits, but since this skill was new to the kids, we rounded those bits out pretty quickly. Once Chuck got us new bits (in the late morning), we were able to use those without incident. A second major issue was one of  hands – we had too many. There were six of us for a job that three or four could do. That is not a major fault, but the kids do like to work, so they were a little frustrated at standing around (which is a good work attitude). All in all, we made fairly minor progress all morning, and then we broke for lunch.

The after lunch period went fairly well. Two of the students volunteered to help with the other team, so we were  down to a more manageable four people. We had good tools all around, and we had all the brace boards cut (and many hung) before lunch, so after lunch we were able to turn our attention to hanging plywood. Hanging plywood is great in that it looks like speedy progress. Every other piece of plywood had to be cut down, but I was able to do that with a circular saw. It was certainly not finish carpentry, but it worked well for what we were doing. We actually were able to hang all the plywood and clean up all of our tools (which were everywhere by this point), and we still wrapped up around 3:30.

I have to admit I liked this work. I’m not a manly-man, but I do know how to use most basic power tools (largely thanks to my dad, who hired me to help build his house back in 1989). When I get put in charge of several teenagers who have not used tools before, it makes me feel all he-manish. I certainly do not blame the kids for not knowing how to use the tools – that is one of the parts of this trip (helping kids learn how to do basic construction). Still, it is a rare and ego-stroking day when I am the expert on the construction site.

After the work was over, I got showered up and hung out until dinner (I think I played a few games).Craig came up with a fun and unusual stunt for evening entertainment. We were to write down something we wished to face-paint on another person’s face. We then put the slip of paper in a plastic egg, which Craig and crew hid about the main room. You then hunted for an egg, and whatever egg you got was what was going to be painted on your face. I was a little horrified when I found that mine contained something like “Baby Hitler playing volleyball in PE class.” Everyone was chortling at how clever they were for coming up with these horrible designs. That is when Craig lowered the boom. You actually got to paint the other person’s face with what they wrote. So, I got to draw the volleyball Hitler on a student’s face. My face got my suggestion – I had written the words “You Rock!” backwards so that the person (in this case, me) would see “You Rock!” correctly when looking in the mirror. There was much amusement all around based on this game. My boss was on the trip and got painted as a stop light. He he! 

Craig then took on the unenviable task of doing devotions to a group of mostly painted people (he did give us the option to wash off the paint before devotions started). Craig mostly opened the floor up to students to reflect on what was going on for them on this trip. I mentioned how impressed I had been that no one had complained on my team the day before in the mud and the sleet. Several kids mentioned how cool it was living in close community. I’m sad that I did not write the observations down – they were worth remembering, but my memory is not up to it.