An Overdue Update

I will try to make this as short and sweet as possible. I will use the help of photos to tell the story:

The month of May was a whirlwind of a month because not only did we move out of our apartment before the lease was up, we bought a house, I graduated college, and I bought a car from a friend.

Charlotte was thebomb.com!

BBA from GSU

2011 Toyota Rav4

Fast forward to September 14, 2021 and the following has occurred: We got a new roof, my fiancé is a US citizen (finally!!), and we’re fostering the most adorable dogs.

A huge expense, but definitely needed.

August 18, 2021

Buddy Franklin- Golden Retriever Mix

Leyla- Purebred Golden Retriever

Between today and May, we’ve

• watched our friends get married and then move to California
• gone camping in Acworth, GA
• attended a Fernbank After Dark event in Atlanta
• attempted to vacation in Florida, but then got caught in Hurricane Irma
• babysat our neighbor’s children (2 young boys)
• built some benches
• lit some fires
• cooked and baked a lot of new foods
• supported delicious local Filipino vendors (https://kamayanatl.com/)

Fernbank After Dark events are awesome! 21+!

Camping at Lake Altoona

Bench Phase One

Bench is done with a fire!

We love Filipino food!!

Vegan banana cream pie- yum!

Those are all the updates I have for you all for right now. Here is to a fun-filled last half of 2021!

-Megan 😀

Harvard Has Finally Left

For the past 5 days, Delta 4 has been sharing the volunteer housing with 12 students from Harvard University. They left yesterday morning.

While no real conflict came of our cohabitation, there were minor things that I had to address: cleaning, drying, and putting up dishes, noise level past 10pm, making sure that they locked the door when they left for work and before going to sleep, leaving windows unlocked and open through the night, etc…

It was a whole thing.

Anyway, it is currently 6:20am and I think that I perfected the most desirable bowl of cream of wheat. It is tasty, fluffy, and the perfect portion size.

The plans for today include a movie and paperwork. It’s raining, so I don’t think we’ll be going downtown at all. I also think that I heard “pancakes” and “cinnamon buns” yesterday evening, so I might get in on that…

Yesterday, we finally got to go to a wall raising- one of the first steps in the Habitat building process. We were there with 15 students from the local high school. It took about 4 hours, so not too bad. We’ll be going back to that house on Tuesday.

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Halfway Point

We’ve been here almost 2 weeks and we have about 2 more weeks left here in Punta Gorda. My team is off to Siesta Key today, but I have chosen to hang back to get some alone time and do some paperwork. Yesterday, at the worksite, we met a future Habitat homeowner. I thought that was pretty cool because we hadn’t met any yet and it was nice to hear their side.

 

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Students from Harvard University arrived yesterday and we are sharing our house with them. Us and them combined make 20 humans in here. I got up at 5am this morning to start my morning off in peace. It is now almost 9am and my team is out the door and only 1 of Harvard’s people have emerged from their room. One of their bathroom lights has been on for almost 3 hours now, too…

I cut a grapefruit for myself and I don’t remember the juice burning in my cuts this much. Still tastes good, though.

Tomorrow is MLK day and we have a National Day of Service project. I believe that it is a parade and a rally of sorts that we are helping set up and take down.

I’ve been researching places to live for when I get back to Atlanta in May, but I’m not having much luck.

Punta Gorda, Florida

Delta 4 has arrived Punta Gorda, Fl. One week ago, we were set to go to Gulf Breeze, FL. Then the government shutdown affected National Park Service and their ability to house and work with us. We were then told that we would be going to Florida anyway, but for disaster. Then they told us Birmingham, Alabama to work with Metro Changers. We were pretty excited to work with them because they have had several NCCC teams, but their housing fell through because of some issues concerning asbestos. Finally, we were placed with Habitat for Humanity here in Punta Gorda, FL. The housing is beautiful and I share a room with two of my teammates.

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The night before last, we overnighted at a hostel in Tallahassee, FL. It is called the Sun & Moon Hostel and it was adorable.

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Winter break was about 10 days and transition afterwards lasted another 5 days. I spend my Winter break at home and in Massachusetts. I tried to see as many people as I could, but turns out that 10 days is not a lot of time.

I have roughly 4 more months left of my service year. When I started the program, I felt like I was going to be in it forever, but it’s gone by really fast and I’m trying to focus on my plans afterwards. I know I’m going to finish my degree and I reapplied to my school a few days ago; however, finding housing is proving to be difficult. The places that are currently available and in my price range will probably be unavailable by the time I am ready to move. So, instead, I think I will secure a job and find housing based on that location…

Ocracoke, North Carolina

Delta 4 has finally arrived in Ocracoke. What was supposed to be a 6 hour road trip turned into an 11 hour adventure. By the end of our journey, the team was a little on edge and eager to get settled into our new home.

We are staying in 2 houses that are basically right next to each other at the end of a cul-de-sac at the tip of the island.

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This is the best housing we have had thus far. There are 2 houses, 5 bedrooms with beds and furniture, 2 full kitchens, 3 bathrooms- this place is AMAZING. I will say that there is no television, but I can’t really say that we watch television on this team. Additionally, there is no WiFi, but my personal and work phones both have fantastic service and internet signal here, so getting my work done shouldn’t be an issue as long as my hotspot doesn’t give up. Also, there are plenty of little shops and restaurants with accessible WiFi.

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To get here, we had to take a one hour ferry ride. I’m not going to lie, I really don’t like seeing the 15 P or Cargo floating across large bodies of water. Luckily, the wind wasn’t too crazy and it didn’t rock too much.

One of my corps members thought it would be a good idea to raise up his cookie holding hand to the seagulls. That didn’t go over well.

It was cold, but bearable. As mentioned before, the ferry ride was one hour (actually a little more) and then we drove 20 minutes across Ocracoke island to get to housing.

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We start our first day today with Tracy, our site supervisor. I think the day will mainly consist of getting to know the island and its weather patters. We may review what the plan is for these two weeks, but I doubt we will start any work today.