Kev In Kosrae: August 2010

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Survived My First Week

So my first week was over as of today. It was a good week, I survived. I'm slowly getting used to waking up at 6 for morning worship and working in the blistering hot sun. It's crazy how fast the Kingdom Hall is being built. Today we put up forms for the roof and got it slabbed (got it covered with plywood boards). We're currently scheduled to pour the roof in 2 weeks.

But aside from work, I got to do a little surfing a few days ago and then yesterday my room mates and I dominated in volley ball. Also the old Kingdom Hall was re-condemned. There was a third landslide on the property covering the steep driveway to it. This week we had to improvise and reschedule a meeting on Friday night at the new missionary home dining room. Until further notice, all of the meetings will be where we eat lunch everyday on the construction site. It was actually pretty exciting to be there for the first meeting on the new property in the new/unfinished missionary home.

Tonight I have my first night watch. Each day of the week, one single brother is assigned to stay the night on the construction site in a little shack right next to the new Kingdom Hall. It's pretty interesting so far. I don't have to walk around patrolling the property, it's pretty much just to have someone present on the site (just a little side-note, the locals on the island are now referring to the new KH / missionary home as "The Site"). So I'm pretty much just in a little shack just big enough for a bed and a desk hoping that no drunk guy comes knocking on my door and that I don't have to use the bathroom because all we have is a little outhouse that half of the crew won't even get close to. But I am enjoying some time to myself, an internet connection, although it's dial-up, and a strong air conditioner.

Going surfing right outside our window

The missionary home along with a few piles of dirt and sand

Sunday meeting inside the missionary home

Enjoying a nice breeze in the back of the truck on the way
home after hard day's work

Friday, August 20, 2010

First OFFICIAL Post

So two days of work have gone by. Day 1 was pretty intense. I was thinking they might slowly ease me into the routine of working all day in the blazing hot sun, being that Kosrae is only 300 some miles away from the equator, but no they threw me right into the deep end moving block, shoveling dirt and wheel barreling it away all day long. The best part of the day was around 3 pm, about an hour before the work day is over, when it rained for about 15 minutes cooling everybody off and then the rest of the afternoon was cloudy. It was great. I think we got more work done in that last hour then we did the whole afternoon. With the help of a little rain, I survived my first day.

Day 2 was great, overcast most of the morning while building forms for the Kingdom Hall door ways and only a little bit of shoveling in the afternoon. I was definitely sore from Day 1. One of my favorite things so far has got to be morning worship. It's a great way to start off the day even though I'm not a morning person.

I am staying at the Phoenix Hotel, a small hotel on the beach that the group is renting. Before the majority of the group arrived, the first ones on the island had to do a lot of work on the rooms to make it suitable for us to come. It's funny because there are random parts of the hotel that they never got to fixing. For example, an abandoned pool, and a rotting gazebo that hangs over the water. But overall, it's a nice place to live. I have 2 roommates. Obed, 32 years old and Ramir, 19 years old, both Filipinos from Saipan. I'm sure I'll be getting to know them quite well over the next few months...