Daley Travels

Oh to be young lithe and limber. Meet Lisa one of our valued members on the Global Village build team in Hungary. There was not a construction challenge she was afraid to tackle. Not even insulation.

On the second day of our stay there was enough cloud cover and cooler temperatures to keep the attic work bearable, so there was a call for volunteers to tackle this job. Lisa stepped forward without a moments hesitation. Can’t say that much for myself. I knew what a messy, itchy job this was going to be. But hey, if a 16 year old girl can do it, this 53 year old birthday boy was not going to left to sanding on the lower levels.

Lisa wanted to travel and join a Habitat build, however, being under 18 she could not travel by herself. Her mom, a family physician from the Toronto region of Canada worked out her schedule so that there was a week she could take off to make this possible. That was how the team ended up with this mother/daughter team. (And to think that some mom’s complain about taking their kids to a cross town soccer game)

Laying roll insulation is not an easy task. We had one person measuring and laying the bats of fiberglass, and a second cutting them to that size and handing them off. Lisa had the former task. She could duck and weave under the roof rafters, while I was constantly watching my head. She would turn a perfect pirouette on a narrow two inch board to take the cut insulation, then spin on the same axis and lay it down with the precision of a gymnast.

I started with another young gal partner and had the cutting job down pat, but lost her mid-way in the morning job as she had to see a local doctor for an allergy condition. For some odd reason I thought I HAD to keep up the same pace as Lisa and Eric.

And I was, for awhile, then as the temperature in the attic was getting higher I had to get down for awhile for some rest and drink up some water. But not too long, oh no, couldn’t let my team down. I was back up in the attic of a second house to drive on.

It was while trying to navigate the ceiling joists on this second house that I missed a step and planted my foot on the ceiling drywall. Just a little slip, but it busted up the piece enough so that it would have to be replaced.

I worked for maybe another 20 minutes up there before I slipped and fell again. Yep, another section of ceiling would have to be replaced. This time I admitted the heat was probably getting to me and my legs were just too shot to stay up there and work any more.

The next day they were looking for volunteers to go up on the roof and lay shingles. Sigh… best I admit my limitation and stay on the ground.