Spring Break AWOL 2014: A Week of Adventures: Day 1

Ad.ven.ture:
   (noun)
     1. An exciting or unusual experience

When you first hear about AWOL (A Week of Offsite Learning) trips, you hear about how AWOL trips are full of adventure. Personally, I think the A in AWOL is for Adventure. Many adventures that we all experience for the first time. In my case the first Adventure of the week was flying in plane. Well, Service Day 1 came with a whole other set of adventures.

Adventure 1: Who knew water could do that?
This adventure is all about the flood. In September of 2013 Colorado was hit with an average of 22 inches of rain within days. Many people completely lost their homes, while others have been fortunate enough to just have some minor flooding indoors. Wow, that just doesn't seem right to say someone with water flooding their basement is fortunate, but in the dozens of houses we saw today these people were fortunate. We saw so many houses that couldn't even be fixed and would have to be completely rebuilt. We saw complete roads and bridges gone due to the large amount of water and the boulders that water had pushed down the side of the mountains. And the most heartbreaking sight of the day was that of a house sitting near the edge of a river and on the garage door in bright green spray paint it read, "We R OK." We weren't able to snap a picture of that one, but we all sat in awe as we passed through these towns. This water had torn apart houses, bridges, roads, and many lives. Which is why we are here and cannot wait to begin work each day!
In fact the house we would work on had a house on both sides of it, that had been completely damaged. The house on the right had been hit by a boulder (no small rock!) and the boulder tore through the back side of the house all the way through the kitchen and out the front of the house. The house on the left side had been hit so hard by mud and water that the entire house was moved at least a foot off its foundation. These people really needed our help, and probably will for months and even years. Nothing will ever really be the way it was before the flood. As many of the folks we talked to said, "Colorado is not prone to flooding. No one knows what to do with any of this." Well, that's what we are here for!

One of the houses and its bridge that were destroyed.

The house that moved off its foundation.

This house used to line up with the cement foundation layer.

All Boarded up like dozens of houses we saw.

The house that was struck with a boulder

There is no back wall anymore and a HUGE hole on the front side.

18 inches of mud covering the garage floor...Challenge Accepted!

Belongings all stuck in the mud.

The mudslide had completely broke of the door and flooded the garage.

The porch on the house we worked on had collapsed.

Adventure 2: The work, and lots of it.

The cabin we worked on. We worked in the garage on the right

Our morning began promptly at 8am as we packed up the van and headed to a nearby town called Lyons (about an hour away). In Lyons we picked up our volunteer coordinators for the day, Edward and Claudia. Then they led us another 20 minutes away to Big Elk Meadows. We ventured up the mountain to a small community of houses. We would be spending our time on just one house for the day. This house was a BEAUTIFUL log cabin (pictures below) which was struck by a mudslide and had five feet of mud packed against the back side of the house, as well as a foot and a half of frozen mud covering the entire garage floor. This was our big goal for the day, get the mud out of the garage. We immediately grabbed our shovels and began to chip away at the mud. We would then take the wheel barrow full of mud from the garage and use it to fill in bumps and dents in the driveway. By the end of the day, (4pm) we had filled the wheel barrow what seemed like (and probably was close to) 50+ times.

Some Pictures during the work Process:

Adventure 3: Peeing in the Woods.
Just reading this you know exactly what this adventure holds. Yes while up in mountains we had no access to a working toilet, considering the house we were working on and the ones around it had no running water. So as Edward, our coordinator for the day, informed us of our predicament we all looked at each other with shocked looks on our faces. We have to go where?!?! Well for anyone like me who doesn't necessarily go camping, EVER, this was quite a far fetched idea. But after a certain point and 3 water bottles later, no one could hold off any longer, so we had to face our fears. And for those of us who had never done this before, our lovely group members made a little tutorial and gave tips on how this process works. If you would like to watch this little comedic tutorial check it out at, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksrYNhys1XQ (Everyone in this video is fully clothed)

Well, its Good Night and Lots of Love from Colorado! Enjoy the photos below of our first day's happenings!

Ari.