Build Day 12

Finally a build! I felt like we hadn't built in sooo long so I was really excited to get going. We built with a Habitat in Santa Fe which was right down the road from where we were staying. The site did adobe style houses so it was completely different from what we had been doing! When we got there, we split up into groups and I ended up with the AmeriCorps volunteer that was there and we were going to be working on fencing all day. Rita, the AmeriCorps volunteer used to ace bikes when she was in college and was really cool to talk to! In New Mexico, there are a lot of fences called coyote fences. Basically, you have to take two pieces of thick wire and wrap them together to make it twice as thick and durable and then wrap big pieces of wood to a pole that they put in the ground. It's pretty simple! We started by wrapping the wires together by using an electric drill and winding them and then we got to work. Colleen and I were on a fencing team together and the entire process ended up being a competition between us and the two other teams on who could make the best fence and who could put it up the fastest (Colleen and I, of course, won). We worked on the fence for the majority of the day and ended up going so quickly that the landscaping team didn't realize how far along we were and that they wouldn't be able to dump rocks into the yard over the fence! They were able to eventually find a way around it but our fence looked pretty darn good! The very last thing we did that day was just putting up a part of the wall and then we packed up got ready to go! The end of the build day we got to talk to someone who was just approved for habitat housing and the process they went through. They were so incredibly excited and grateful for everything that was going on and I love being able to talk to the families and see the difference that's being made. That night, Colleen and I went back to the plaza to see if the market was still open because I really wanted some cool new earrings but it was already closed. We ended up going to the trading post (which is just like a general store but cooler) and I got some awesome sterling silver jewelry! I had a really great build day and was really happy with the work we did.