Appalachian Service Project

Senior High
Mission Trip to
Wise County, Virginia

Day Five: Wednesday, July 9

Things were definitely eventful on Wednesday at my worksite. I should start by saying that my group, Rook, consisted of Mrs. Roman, Mr. Parker, Miranda, Shannon, Zach, Kara, and me! It is a great group and together we are making the house look so nice. Today we started off doing different odd jobs and finishing yesterday’s projects. Miranda and Kara started painting and nailing on the exterior of the house right away while Mrs. Roman, Shannon, and Zach worked on the inside completing the insulation. I was sweeping up the top of the rock wall and began to take down the other one which is located on the other side of the house. Mr. Parker, as always, was stretched thin helping everyone and showing the ASP workers what was going on and running ideas and stuff by them. Not a single minute goes by at the sight without at least two people calling out, “Mr. Parker…Mr. Parker…Mr. Parker, will you help me with this.” Nontheless, he is good-natured about it and gladly helps everyone.

Soon Shannon, Mrs. Roman, and I started on the sheet rock which was NOT an easy job…there is going to be a lot to spackle come time to do that, but we did it and by the end of the day, had gotten three pieces completely measured, cut, and nailed. Zach took over my job destroying part of the second rock wall, which was mostly hard, orange clay and rocks stuck together. His job didn’t get any easier when a lot of water came crashing down on him, making a huge pile of mire. Kara and Miranda continued to measure, cut, nail up, and paint the siding on the outside of the house and were able to do most of the job by themselves. They did a really nice job! There was a downpour for about 45 minutes which left the ground more muddy than before, but soon the sun came out again and we continued our work. The owner of the house came down to take a look at the progress and didn’t stop saying what a great job we were doing. At the very end of the day, Mr. Parker and Zach mixed up some cement and built up the rock wall that Zach had so diligently taken down over many hours.

As we were all driving home, hungry from the day’s hard labor, we were very happy with the work we had done, the progress we had made. All of us are looking forward to the adventures that tomorrow will bring as the week comes to a close.