Day 1 | Michelle Shaver

I have a love/hate relationship with the early departure time. I hate getting up early but it offers the experience of seeing how beautiful the sky looks and changes color. One really cool thing I saw on the way down was an alligator lounging in the river. The place we are staying at resembles a gym with two rooms built into it and of course a bathroom. The girls room has 10 bunk beds. I was glad someone said kids on top. I guess that is one of the perks of getting old. Today’s job was painting trim. I mostly stayed on a ladder and did the top part. The house we painted was on stilts and you could feel it move as we worked. The one part that scared me a little was when I had to trim over the shower. The shower was on the second floor and I asked how he wanted me to paint it because I could not reach. He told me to stick the ladder in the shower or get a stool. I ended up sticking the ladder in the shower. If you looked down, there wasn’t any pipes in the bottom so I could see the ground. I felt if there was too much weight placed in the shower I would end up on the ground. I learned today that I was not trimming. I was cutting the room. He told us we were going to cut the room. I had no clue what he was taking about. Now I do.