We had some visitors from afar this week. There was a group of five hospital administrators from the African nation of Kenya who came to volunteer with us for the day. They were here in Tuscaloosa for two weeks researching with the local hospital. Pastor LouAnn from First Presbyterian, who was there guide, brought them out to volunteer with Habitat for a day. They arrived just in the nick of time, as a trailerload of four pallets of sod (3500 lbs. per pallet) arrived and had to be placed by hand in Brenda Anthony's new yard on 7th street east.
     The main group that was with us last week was a group of mosly Presbyterians, mostly from Pennsylvania, called R .O.A.R.   Stands for Reach Out and Re-build. Led by Terry and Sue Reed, they have been going on mission trips, three per year, for nearly twenty years. They did a bunch of trips to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi after Katrina. A very capable group, knows house construciton very well, brought bunches of their own tools, and plays well with others. Made my job easy when they kno9w what they're doing. Terry was telling me that on many of their trips, they are basically left on their own to build or remodel a house. He did say, too, though that they appreciated our organization and that all seemed to have a good week and expressed the possibility of a return trip. We're always glad to hear that. Most of the group worked on Jackie Wright's new home. When they got there on Monday, the walls were up. During the week, in between bouts of rain and sprinkles, they managed to get all the trusses set. Lydia (aka the Encyclopydia) was up on the roof with the Mennonites nailing the sheathing down and installing the black paper over that . got all the house wrap done, windows installed. brought the house a long way. They had a chance to meet Jackie.
     Next door, at Brenda Anthony's house, the Care-a-Vanners, led by Lavern and Sue Clark from Michigan, were cleaning up the last few details and bringing that one to the finish line. Finishing a home is a tough thing and takes discipline to take it to the 100% done and done line. The Clarks have been with us for five weeks and are heading out later this week. Nancy and Ginny and Mike and his family were all here for the past two weeks and pulled out yesterday. I looked out from the Lion's Den, which is just adjacent to our new RV park and was thinking how empty it looked when, poof, I look again and we have four new arrivals for the next two weeks.  
     Me, I did some therapy on Saturday and worked at our warehouse making arches for the front porch of Jackie's. I found a formula on Google of how to figure the radius of a segment of a circle if you know the span and the rise.   56" and 206".   Easy. It's just like brain surgery- if you know how, it's easy. If you don't, well, then, it's very complicated.
     Road trip coming up this weekend. Pete Deworken and I are driving up his shower trailer to near Atlantic City, NJ. It will be used by volunteers who are going to help people affected by Hurricane Sandy.
     That's all for this week. Love ya.   Peter