Tough Decisions

My staff and I been working really hard here in Brenton. We've been trying to get our center ready and also visit as many homes as possible and choose which homes to work on. We met a lot of great, deserving families so far. It's going to be really tough to decide who to work for. We had a meeting with the health inspector the other day and he's been giving us a lot of referrals for places that need septic installations. We can only pick one and we have at least three. One person who had to put their house up so they wouldn't go to jail for the septic fines they had, one person who is going to get their electric turned off if they can't get a septic, and another who is going to have to pay $5,000 if they don't get their septic fixed. It's really hard knowing we can only pick one family to help with that.

It's always a difficult time when we have to choose which families to help and which to say no to. Today, the decision was super easy and we made it on the spot. We met this one family today who had called us several times to try to get help. We knew they wanted a wheel chair ramp but not much more about the situation. Today, when we knocked up, the wife started crying because she was so happy to see us. The husband was in a chair and, we soon found out, is in the last stages of liver failure. He has to travel to Pittsburgh every other week for treatment and sees doctors in Beckley, WV. Every time he has to go to the doctor, the wife has to carry him down the steps. It was such a pleasant initial home visit because of the sweet dispositions of the two homeowners. They are going though such a difficult thing right now but were honestly two of the most pleasant people I have ever met. We all fell in love with them and signed their home on the spot. It felt really nice to make someone's day and I remembered why I love this job so much and, shortly after that, we visited another home and I remembered why this job was so difficult.

I've been going to a small Catholic church here and this past Sunday, some of the people in church told me about a family they are trying to help and wanted to know if we'd consider helping them as well. They told me that the family did not have any ceilings, had one plank of wood left in their bathroom floor, and the rest of the house was almost at the point where it should be condemned. Knowing all of this, I tried to mentally prepare for the home visit before I went in but I couldn't prepare myself for how the house really was. All of the ceilings are exposed and you can see the attic from each room. Most of the floors are falling through in the home. The toilet doesn't work too well. There is a bed, chair, table and refrigerator in the house-that's it. The rest of the house is bare. The bed was left at the home from the old homeowner and has several holes in the mattress. The homeowner says she usually just sleeps on the front porch because it's more comfortable than her house. She bought the home for a very small price and it's the first thing she's ever owned. Her dad is currently living with her because their mom passed away so they are just trying to rely on one another right now. The homeowner also has a heck of a time talking because she had several strokes. It just broke my heart to see that someone is living the way she is (with no electricity at all) and, when she asked, "So do you think you can help me?" we had to tell her we weren't sure yet and we'd let her know. This project would be a huge undertaking and I'm not quite sure our budget or volunteers could handle it in the time frame we have available but it sure would be a great project to work on.

We are also meeting up with another family tomorrow who are trying to move into a house that is gutted right now. We went and saw the home today and that'd be a great project also. It's going to be too much to choose to redo both homes so that's one of our biggest decisions right now-to pick which house to basically do an extreme home makeover on.

Tough decisions are a big part of this job but so are adventures. Yesterday, we had to spend a few hours at the courthouse and we met the county clerk who then bought us lunch at The Executive which is the nicest restaurant in town. He had someone who worked for him take our order, pay for the food, and then we just went across the street and ate when it was ready. He helped us to look up some criminal records of people we weren't sure we could work for. He also introduced us to the judge who offered to help me get a teaching job in the county! Of course, I said I wasn't quite sure where I was going to live after May.

I'm going to get back to work for a bit before the big brother finale!

Hope to talk to ya soon!

Some pictures

Thought I'd post some pictures of what it's like here. I'll put up pictures of our vehicles. They each have names. Brutus is our dump truck that I drove from TN to WV, Wes is our red minivan, Lightning is our white pickup and Jonah is our 15 passenger van that we'll use to haul a lot of our supplies. I also took pictures of our center, office, and my Saturday night-at the new dirt race track in our county. VERY FUN! Hope you enjoy!

Brenton, WV!

Well I made it! I'm in Brenton, WV! We got here last night around 10 after an absolutely beautiful drive through the mountains. ASP owns three dump trucks for all of our work and they hire three dump truck drivers to travel with those trucks and help out the close to 30 counties that we work in throughout the summer. Since there are only 3 counties that we work in from now until May, each county got to have a dump truck and that's what I drove from TN to WV yesterday. I was looking forward to going through a weigh station for the first time but, sadly, it was closed. There's always next time!

My center is pretty sweet. It's one floor and used to be an old school. I learned yesterday that ASP bought the school for $1! My room is a little smaller than my room in Springfield but I stayed up pretty late organizing last night and it's already starting to feel like home. Our office is HUGE! It's a little bit bigger than our living room at home. There are plenty of white boards to use and my desk is really nice also. The staff has their own apartment so I have my own room and so do the two other girls I'm working with. We also have a kitchen, bathroom and living room area (with a TV AND cable!). We have wireless internet and they are in the process of bumping up our internet speed so volunteers can use it for work and we can have faster internet so we can watch shows and skype and things like that without the internet having to buffer every few minutes.

Unlike the summer, we have weekends off unless there are volunteers. So, this morning, I slept in, got ready and then read for a while on our front porch. Brenton is really pretty so I'm looking forward to exploring a bit today. We're going to go out to lunch and probably meet the family that owns our hardware store. Other than that, I'm looking forward to organizing a bit more.

My address is:
Jackie Glace
P.O. Box 455
Brenton, WV 24818

Feel free to write :)

Love you, I'll post pictures sometime this week!

Last Day in TN!

I've been having a great time in Johnson City, TN! I really love it here! My staff is really cool-I'll be with two girls this time. Kristen will be my Center Director and Marika is in charge of our finances and supplies. I'll be in charge of our volunteer paperwork, food, managing our cooks, and upkeep of the center. I've been loving Johnson City and staying in our beautiful hotel but I'm really anxious to see my home for the next nine months! I'll put up pictures as soon as I can so everyone else can see it, too.

I have training from 9-4 today and then I'll be driving for about 3 1/2 hours to Guyan Valley. The town I'll be living in is Brenton. I don't know too much about it yet besides the fact that there's a mini-mart and a Magic Mart (like a K-Mart). Other than that, there aren't too many stores. My center director said, for most stores, we'll drive about a half hour. That's the way it was two years for me in Magoffin County, KY and I remember getting used to that pretty quickly.

Anyway, I'll post pictures soon and fill you all in about my new home!! <3