I got excited last week when Brandon showed me the schedule of which groups were coming to volunteer with us. Two of them are "boomerangers"- groups of folks that have come from far and wide multiple times to help in the re-building efforts that I've been working on since 2005. Zeigels Church from Breiningsville, Pa has worked with us in Mississippi after Katrina, Port Sulphur, La. after hurricane Ike and now Tuscaloosa after the April 2011 tornado. Lori, Terry, Ray Teal(80+ years old and going strong) and Mike have become good friends. They also brought a Wisconsin contingent from Trinity Lutheran in Waupaca with them. The other return group is from New York and they all work for Credit Suisse. They have been here now 3 times and in addition to people, they also bring bags of money. Not really- I think it was a check. They were at lunch with us on Friday and I asked the one lady from Scotland if she would be coming back and here response was, "I we can work with Stephen again".    We like it when groups come back. Great reunions and some continuity in the work.  
     The third group travelled 30 hours to come work with us . They are a group of 14 who came from the United Arab Emirates. The main reason that I was excited when I heard where they were coming from was that about a hundred years ago, the molding company that I used to work for (MCMC) got the contract to design, fabricate and install the decorative plaster moldings that adorned their new embassy in Washington, DC. One of the two leaders of the group, Dana, lives in DC and works at the embassy there.   She called one of her co-workers and asked her to email a photo of their main foyer. (See picture). The rest of the group all live in UAE and came for a week with a group called Takatof, which in Arabic means shoulder to shoulder. They have gone on trips to Joplin, Mo. also. The group was about half and half men and women in their young and mid-twenties. All very bright and willing to work hard. The main project that we had for them this week was getting a new home ready. Once the foundation is laid and blocks laid up, the inside of the foundation is usually piles of dirt that have to be levelled out so that once the floor is installed, the plumbers, electricians and HVAC guys can crawl around and do their thing . Levelling the dirt is hard and tedious work, but these guys didn't bat an eye and jumped right in. We also poured concrete for the saferoom floor and filled all of the cells of the cinder blocks that have threaded rod coming up to help hold the walls of the house to the foundation. Heavy and messy work. We also set up the storage building whose walls were made earlier in the week at the "Hands on Habitat" event at First Presb. Speaking of whom, on Thursday of the week Lujan (the other leader) was frantically calling around to find another rental van for their transportation. The one they picked up for the beginning of the week had to be returned Thursday but they were to be here with us til Saturday. I called Pastor Charlie at First Presbyterian Church and without any hesitation whatsoever he offered to let them use their 15 passenger van. 1st Pres. is such a great supporter of our mission here. They house probably a third of all the volunteers that have worked with us from last year. Another "small world" story was that two UAE nationals that are students at the University of Alabama here saw on the internet that their fellow countrymen were here in town and two of them, Mohammed and Ah-h-h-h-h-med (like you're cleaning your glasses) came over and helped for a few days. They are part of a sports car club, and both have said they plan to return to help again.
      Brandon has been running at full speed. He got 3 new building permits issued last week and as of today has arranged to have all of the foundations dug, concrete poured, termite sprayed, re-barred , blocks laid, threaded rod placed.   Whew. No slacker, he. We also have a new corporate sponsor on board for the next 4 homes - the blue box- Lowe's. Anyone who knows me a little knows that I've still got some orange blood running through me, but I guess I'll have to get over it. Welcome, Matt!