Worldwide Trips
> Volunteer Journal > Taos, New Mexico Trip - Kim's Journal
Taos, New Mexico Trip - Kim's Journal
Kim VanderWyst - Fraternal Lead Business Process Analyst, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Sunday
 Travel
Our Thrivent Builds Worldwide team happily arrived in Albuquerque safely. All of us arrived on Sunday
evening, although one woman didn't arrive until 11:30 p.m. We have a wide
variety of people on the trip, which is great. Everyone on this trip is a
Thrivent Financial member! Our participants
are:
Team Lead - Brendalyn Shird, LCSS-TB from the Iowa Region of Thrivent Financial
Willis & Carol Wulf - Willis is a Thrivent Financial representative, Carol is his wife
Larry & Pat Dellamuth - husband and wife friends of Willis and Carol
Debra Metz - wife of a Thrivent Financial representative
Anita Schlitter - mother of Debra Metz
Betty Borchardt
Marsha Taylor - she became a grandmother on Monday as we were traveling up
to Taos!
Carolyn Lindsey
Todd Johnson - managing partner from the Iowa Region of Thrivent Financial
Noreen Hannemann - Thrivent Financial fraternal customer service advocate
Kim Vander Wyst - Thrivent Financial lead business process analyst
We had dinner together on Sunday evening and got to know one another.
Everyone turned in quite early as we were tired from traveling.
Monday
 An introduction to Taos
We picked up two mini vans to travel. Willis, Carol, Larry and Pat drove
down instead of flying and are traveling in his vehicle. We drove to Taos
(about 2 1/2 hours north of Albuquerque). The drive was breathtaking!
The mountains are still capped in snow, but the weather was absolutely
perfect on the drive up. Taos is about 7,000 feet elevation, so we moved
a bit slower than we normally would have. After we checked into our
hotel, we drove to the Taos Pueblo, one of 19 pueblos left in New Mexico.
The pueblo is home to about 100 Native Americans. During festivals and
holidays the population grows. The homes are made of adobe and have no
running water and no electricty. All baking is done in outdoor adobe
ovens. You've never tasted bread like that coming fresh from the outdoor
oven! Many of the natives were selling their wares. It was a great tour.
Before we headed off to dinner, Brendalyn did a reflection and we talked
about the day a bit. She did an awesome job of explaining Habitat for
Humanity and the connection to Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. All of the trip
participants are well aware of Thrivent Financial, as all are members. She did a
nice job of explaining the alliance with Habitat. We were able to then
meet Paul, the Executive Director for Habitat here in Taos. He's excited to have our
group here and assured us that we would have a great experience. We then
had dinner together and turned in. We have to be ready to go by 8:00 a.m.
We're all very excited to get to the build site and get going!
Tuesday
 Snow in New Mexico
Imagine our surprise when we looked out the window this morning to see
snow on the ground! Yes—snow! About an inch or so!!! The high temperature for the day
was 39 degrees. We had snow, sleet, rain, hail ALL day with winds at 35
mph. But ... it didn't slow us down! There are three homes that we're
working on currently. Two are nearing completion, one just has the
foundation poured. Several people worked inside painting doors and trim
while others chiselled plaster off bathroom fixtures. The rest worked
outside prepping the new home site. We dug trenches — 12" x 20" by hand —
for the concrete base for the interior walls. We shoveled gravel,
compacted the base, cut and tied re-bar, measured and cut screening, and
other small jobs. Needless to say, we were all very tired by the end of
the day.
We met two of the three homeowners. They were both very appreciative of
the time we're taking to help them. It certainly makes it worthwhile to
see the looks on their faces.
Wednesday
 Passing the test
The day started out rather chilly at 27 degrees but the sky was a
beautiful blue and the sun was shining. It quickly warmed up and reached
near 60 degrees. Our big challenge for the day was the inspection of the
foundation for compaction for the third house (Melinda's). The test is
done in two places in the house and the compaction needs to be at 95% or
higher. Our construction supervisor, Kyle, was quite worried about the
test. We could not proceed with the construction on that house without
passing that test. The first spot tested came back at 96%, the second at
97.8%! Needless to say, everyone gave a great sigh of relief. There were
cheers, high fives, and smiles all around. We could proceed!
Work today consisted of finishing up on some interior painting and
prepping the concrete floors to be painted. The houses here typically
don't cover their floors with anything but paint over the concrete.
Occasionally, they lay tile over the concrete later when they've saved
enough money to do that, but that is rare. They never lay carpet over the
concrete as it insulates the heat in the floor and then the moisture stays
under the carpet.
Outside we built a screen to sift a large pile of mud to separate the clay
from the gravel. Nothing gets wasted here! We also laid screening and
insulation over the foundation. We finished the day doing odd jobs and
helping the plumber to lay the tubing for the radiant heat. The concrete
is scheduled to be poured over all of that on Friday, weather permitting.
We left the job site around 4:00 p.m. and headed off on the "Enchanted
Circle" drive. It was a gorgeous circular drive up through the mountains.
At one point we reached over 9,800 feet elevation. It was
breathtaking—truly a God moment (one of many). We came upon a herd
(300-400) elk near a stream high up in the mountains and another small
herd (25-35) mule deer right down in one of the small ski villages. We
made several other photo stops, including one to the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial. The drive, with stops, took us about three hours but was well
worth the time spent. We stopped for pizza as we got back into Taos and
then headed off to bed. I believe we were sleeping before our heads hit
the pillow. It was a GREAT day!
Thursday
 Families and nicknames
We had an absolutely gorgeous day to work today. Temperatures were around
70 degrees with a bright blue sky and sunshine. We used lots of
sunscreen! Some of us continued to work inside painting exterior doors
and some additional trim and finishing up the prep work on the concrete
floors in the other home. The floors are not covered with anything,
just painted when ready. The process to get them ready is very labor
intensive—hand scraping everything off of the floor (plaster, paint,
etc.), scrubbing (again and again), washing with an acid wash, and then
scrubbing again. We're then ready to paint. We got two bedrooms painted.
The plumber finished laying his tubing for the heating system in the
foundation of the third house. Those working outside were building boxes
to support the windows. The boxes are made from 2x4's, two sides 14" long
and two 7" long. We had to cut the lumber (Noreen did this with an
electric chop saw) and then nail them together. We need to make 100 of
these boxes!! We got 28 done. We also did lots of clean-up work both
inside and outside.
The highlight of our day was dinner with the recipient families. They
provided the dinner for us (Frito pies) and cupcakes. We ate in one of
the houses and were entertained by a local flutist/drummer/storyteller
named Blackhill. Hearing the gratitude they expressed and seeing the
excitement on their faces as they talked about moving into their homes
makes all of our hard work worthwhile. All three of the families are
awesome. One is a single mom with five children, one a husband/wife with
two young boys, and one a single mom with a six year old boy. We found a
young neighbor boy who took lots of pictures of our group with the
partner families and can't wait to share them.
We had a few in our group who earned new nicknames yesterday. Carolyn is
"goddess of hammering nails." Noreen is "the queen of the lean mean sawing
machine." It gives us all something to strive for in the next two days.
Friday
 Celebrity sightings
We had another great day today. Weather was beautiful with a blue sky and
bright sunshine, temperature near 80 degrees.
Big news . . . we saw Julia
Roberts in Taos twice already! Mind you, one sighting was on TV and one was in a magazine. They have a beautiful
family center (much like a YMCA) here in Taos. They recently added an
olympic size pool and gymnasium. Money for that was donated by Julia
Roberts. We're thinking we may need to contact her to let her know about
Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity!
We worked hard today at the work site. We cleaned windows and floors in
the first house and finished up with painting the exterior doors and trim.
In the second house we finished painting all of the floors. Two rooms
got their second coat of paint and the rest need to have the second coat
tomorrow morning. The paint is nasty stuff and required us to wear
respirator masks (like gas masks). You'll enjoy those pictures when we
post them. :) Concrete was poured for the flooring in the third house.
All three of the homeowners were on site again today working very hard on
their homes. They're very proud of the homes and of the work they're
doing on them. We're all excited for these three families. Each of them
is so excited to be owning their own home and continue to express their
gratitude to us for helping.
We finished up at the work site about 4:00 and several headed off to Taos
Plaza for an hour of shopping. We then had dinner at a nice southwestern
restaurant on the grounds of San Francisco de Assisi church. We were able
to get a look at the church after dinner and take some photos.
We're ready to cap off our day with our daily devotion/reflection and then
off to bed so that we can be up early for our last day on the work site
tomorrow. We all have mixed emotions about that. We've worked very hard
and have grown attached to the families so it will be hard to leave. On
the other hand, we're all anxious to get back to our friends and families
to share our experiences.
Saturday
 Last day on the build sites
We had another beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the mid-70's. We
went out for a hearty breakfast before a hard last day of work on the job
site.
We finished painting the floors in the second home. We hated to give up
the gas masks, but our task was complete. Look for future pictures of
Darth Vader and Darth Vaderette coming soon. Meanwhile, other members of
the team were prepping the site for the adobe block laying. It turned out
to be quite a process. We began by sifting dirt to get out all of the
stones and other chunks. This was done by smoothing the dirt over a wire
screen—very manual!
 We then mixed the dirt with water to make mud. The
mud was used as mortar for the adobe blocks. The blocks are each
approximately 14" x 7" x 4" high and weigh about 35 pounds each. They're
made of dirt, straw and water. They're laid on the foundation of the home
(each by hand, one at a time) much like we would lay bricks. They'll then
be covered on both sides with insulation. We worked at the adobe block
laying much of the day and got a bit less than two rows of block on the
foundation. It was back breaking work, but we were excited to be able to
participate in that part of building the house. It is very unique to this
area and a great experience. It was definitely worthwhile when six-year
old Steven stood inside the home and exclaimed "Thank you for coming to
help build my house!"
It was then time to say our good-byes to Kyle, our construction supervisor
and to Melinda, the homeowner of the recently started home. There were
lots of tears!
Many of us were a bit tired of eating Mexican so we went for dinner at
Hunan's Chinese and then back to the hotel to begin repacking for our
trips home.
Sunday
 Heading home
Several of us started out our last morning in Taos attending a mass at San
Francisco de Asis Catholic church. The mass was in Spanish with
traditional Spanish guitar music. It was a really neat experience.
We then headed off from the hotel to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It's
about 650 ft. high and spans the Rio Grande River. It was spectacular!
The weather was beautiful once again with hazy sunshine and temperatures
in the mid-70's. From the bridge, we went on a tour of an "earthship".
It's a very modern structure built completely of concrete, adobe, and
recycled materials (cans, bottles, tires, etc.). The visitor is one of
many earthship buildings in this community of earthship homes. It was a
very interesting concept.
We then began our drive back to Albuquerque where we'll spend the night
and then each of us fly back home tomorrow morning. We had an awesome
experience, met some great friends who've now become like family, and now
have some great memories! It's definitely a week that we'll never forget.
Adios amigos y amigas!
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