Long Beach 9/26

from Ed Nutt:

We started our day by scaring Nick and Jim out of bed with an imitation call to prayer.  After that we ate a big breakfast and headed to the Family Place (aka...the Center).

We did some more painting of the kitchen cabinets and doors.  We built some more bunk beds to help out future teams.  We ran out of some materials so I had to take a ride down town.  We needed four 2x4's and 100 screws.  It took us about two hours.

First we had to carry the lumber on our shoulders a long way down the road so we didn't have to pay the guy to deliver it and cut it.  We dropped it off to the guy and figured we'd come back and pick it up later.  We then went to a little "hardware store" to get some bolts for the bunk beds.  They didn't have the size we needed.  After looking for a 1/2 hour the guy decided to jump on his scooter and go get them from somewhere else.  I sat on a paint can sucking in exhaust from cars and buses passing by.  He eventually came back with the bolts.  That exchange took about an hour.

Then we tried to make our way back to the "lumber store".  We fought terrible traffic in small alley ways and finally got back there.  They hadn't even touched the lumber yet to cut it up into the sizes we needed.  So we left the "worker" there to sit there and wait for the wood to be cleaned and cut and we jumped in a taxi to come back to the Family Place...it was the ride of my life.

I saw my life flash before me many times.  They drive quick, there's lots of traffic and they stop for nothing.  I thought for sure we were going to get in an accident somewhere along the line.  It was quite the experience and I am glad I went.

We got back to the Family Place and got a lot more work done including taking down the old water heater which was bolted to the wall.







Here are some more pictures of the day and some of the views from our place.