I am loving Santa Fe more and more! I know I haven't been here that long, but this is one of the regions of the U.S. I could find myself living in (you know, besides these six weeks). Since Thursday, I've been working hard and hardly working. I don't really remember Friday. I read Bless Me, Ultima (I highly recommend it) but don't remember much else. On Saturday, I got up early and went with my good friend Amy and a few others to volunteer at the San Miguel Cathedral. I don't know if it is a Cathedral per se, but it is a Catholic meeting house downtown Santa Fe. The problem is that these churches are all made of adobe bricks, which is great, until the 50's. In the 50's construction people thought it would be great (easier, I mean) to put cement plaster on the walls over the adobe bricks instead of regular mud/clay plaster. Apparently, the adobe needs to breathe, and the cement doesn't allow that. So, 60 years later, this non-profit foundation is working on repairing the moisture damage before the churches and missions start toppling over because the moisture just collects in the bottom of the walls and weakens the structure. Our team of 5 people got to climb up a four story scaffolding to the bell down of the church to pull off the old plaster and use new mud plaster to cover up the walls. We worked with this guy named Nicholas. He is an architecture student from Chile here for a 3 month internship so he can go back to Chile and repair the churches there. It was cool to ask him all sorts of questions; he even helped us with our Spanish.
Anyway, we worked our way down the front of the church, filling in depressions or working on cracks. It was a great experience. This was old school stucco, and it is neat to find out that no matter our technological advances, that going back to the old, original ways is what works the best for buildings like this. Also, the people who are working on this are pretty awesome. I mentioned Nicholas, but I also got to work closely with this kid named Brian. He's going to be a senior at a school in Santa Fe and is working for the foundation for the summer. We were working the opposite ends of a pulley system. He'd load buckets with mud plaster, and send them up to me. I'd send them back and we got to chat quite a bit. He wants to be an electrical engineer, which is awesome, but come to find out he's in the foster care system working his way through high school so he can go to college. He describes people as "good Christian folk" and leaves it at that. Man does he have a heart. It's people like Brian that restore my faith in the youth of today.
I also got to know Antonio. He is a retired teacher of 30 years and now works exclusively with adobe. He's brilliant, and he's the reason I was able to write the first paragraph of this blog. As a teacher he taught CAD, shop and Spanish (which he had upper level degrees in). He has worked with adobe on the side of teaching for his whole career and now does it full-time in retirement. Anyway, I'm also glad to get to know him. I was impressed with his easy manner and humble brilliance.
We worked until about 2:00 before we headed back to campus to get busy on other work. I'm hoping to go back in a few weekends with Amy. It's good to find service opportunities in a different place and for a different religion. Service is service; it stills leaves me with the warm fuzzies.
Later that night I went to the rodeo with a group of friends. I became the Western expert and answered as many questions as possible. But let me tell you, watching steer wrestling with a group of vegetarian/academics is a whole new game from watching a good home town rodeo with friends. I think in all everyone had a good time. I even rode a couple rides with my friend Robert. He convinced me that carnival rides can be fun and not scary, even though they were unloaded from a truck and put together a few days earlier. I had a blast and my friends here are great.
I left my camera in Utah when I went back for yearbook camp, so no pictures yet. I'll try to get a few from those who had cameras there. Hopefully my dear, sweet friend Kassie will send my camera pronto quick. Until later. I don't think the fun-vi will take off until Friday this week. I have two papers and two books due this week, so into the closet I go. Adios and Yee-haw!
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