Construction 101 by Cassidy Shay (recommended books to read TXT) 📕

as much heat as possible.

There are five of us in this room, which contributes to the heat. Hopefully, it’ll cool down in here.

In our room is Bree, Denisha, Lizette, and Maricela.

Bree is kinda quiet, or she was at first. She has blonde hair, about shoulder length. She’s going to be making a photo diary of everything, so there’ll be lots of pictures. And I have my camera too.

Denisha’s skin is dark brown, not like milk chocolate but not dark chocolate either. Her hair is braided right now, so it’s pretty short. But she said that normally, her hair is pretty long. So I’m looking forward to seeing that. Her eyes are dark, like a starless night. Her dad is black, but her mom is Salvadorian. She reminds us of this as often as she can.

Lizette is one of the older girls. She’ll be a senior in the fall, while Bree, Denisha, and I are only sophomores. She’s got dark hair, pulled into a side braid.

Maricela is also a senior, but she’s only sixteen. She’s beautiful. Her hair frames her face, providing the perfect contrast against her caramel skin. She wears a veil to Mass, which is something I’ve never seen before going to St. Catharine’s.

And then there’s me. It’s crowded, messy, and hot in here, but I really don’t care. I didn’t come here to be comfortable. I came here to help.

Since we do have quite a bit of free time, though, next year we’re going to bring more things that will make the room more comfy. Air mattresses, cooler jammies, etc. We’ll get together on facebook before next year and coordinate who brings what.

It’s about time to sleep now, and I don’t know what else to day. So that’s it for today. I’ll report back in the morning with how this hard floor has made my back feel, and how much I won’t care.


Day 2
Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Happy birthday, Jake!

So, the floor really wasn’t too bad. It was hard, but my back doesn’t hurt hardly at all. That’s definitely a good thing.

We’re gonna go to mass soon, in about half an hour. Then we’ll eat and go off to do our jobs until we collapse. Just kidding. It’s until the chaperones tell us we can stop.

We woke up early this morning to take showers, and it felt really nice. I took a shower last night, too, but I forgot to bring soap and shampoo in, so it wasn’t much help.

Last night, we all stayed up pretty late, just talking and getting to know each other. I learned a lot about these girls, and I had fun.

Last night, Lizette also told me to date her cousin, Joseph. I said okay, because his eyes are gorgeous.

I’m excited for today. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be doing, but I’m looking forward to it, whatever it is.


Wow. Today was tiring. But it wasn’t bad. We were out in the heat for a while, raking and digging up dead underbrush. We also painted and we visited with the old people during lunch.

I met Mary Anne. She used to be a professor for… Art history and philosophy, I think? She was also a nun for 20 years. She was pretty happy, and talking to her was fun. She’s from New York.

I also sat with Father Terance. “No double r’s.” He was born in Detroit, but also lived in some other place just out of Detroit, as well as Cincinnati He’s 95 years old, and he can’t hear. Well, he can hear if you’re screaming into his ear. But otherwise, you have to write stuff down and he’ll answer you. He took German in school, and was the youngest of 6 kids.

The talk tonight was interesting. He talked about living for God instead of living for ourselves. He talked about marriage, or the priesthood, nun, etc., and all the things that you have to be willing to do in order to make that work.

After the talk, we prayed a bunch, then just hung out for a while. Lizette, Maricela, and I sat on the stairs, and Denisha went to play volleyball. The three of us talked to Alan, Nick, Cheyenne, Daniel, Juan, and Joseph.

Alan is a friend of Joseph and Lizette. He has dark hair, but the front of it is orangy-looking, like he bleached it once and left it. He’s ¾ Mexican and ¼ Native American, from Pima. He’s got snake bites, listens to heavy metal rock, and plays the guitar. While we were sitting on the steps, he played songs for us. Too bad I didn’t know any of them.

Nick goes to GCA, which is Gilbert Classical Academy, where you don’t get to choose your electives. He has a sister and a brother who are on this mission trip with him. He has dark hair, and really dark brown eyes. He’s tall, skinny, and shy, but he’s nice. He isn’t part of our group that we’ve been hanging out with, but he was just standing there and I invited him to come talk to us (back when it was just Maricela, Lizette, and I. He also has a lot of nick names, but we chose to give him a new one, Frijole. Even though he’s white.

Cheyenne, believe it or not, is a guy. People call him Shiloh sometimes. He’s… I don’t really know how to describe him. He kinda looks like Nathan Updike, and acts like him too.

Daniel is Denisha’s little brother. He’ll be a freshie this year. Joseph nick-named him “Do-ey” because he has a do-rag. He kinda talks to Cheyenne and this other kid Dino, and that’s about it. Every once in a while he’ll talk to someone else, but it’s usually just those two.

Juan is Maricela’s brother. He’s nice, funny. His hair’s kinda goofy though.

Then there’s Joseph, Lizette’s cousin. He has gorgeous eyes. He’s tall, dark hair. Kinda a white Mexican. He has his Swiss Army knife with him all the time. He claims he’s going to kill a lion with it.


Day 3
Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Today, I went to Missionaries of Charity. It’s part of Mother Theresa’s order. They offer food and shelter to the poor/homeless people in Gallup. Well, the one in Gallup does. They’re all over the world, and obviously they serve the poor and homeless in other places too.

I did three loads of laundry today, by hand. They didn’t take as long as you’d think. It was humid, though, because the water was hot and then it was just… yeah. Humid.

Then we hung up the clothes, and then we made cards for the little kids that are going to be there next month.

After lunch, we went to Little Sisters of the Poor, who take care of old, poor people. We painted nails, and just talked to the women. I massaged Barbara’s legs while she watched TV and she really didn’t talk a whole lot.

When we got back from that, we didn’t really have a whole lot of free time. We kinda just sat for a few minutes, ate dinner, and then went to watch this Indian dance thing. Then we had the talk and just hung out.

During the evening prayer, I got a bloody nose. That was fun.

We just hung out and talked and had fun. It’s funny because I was the only white one there (Nick wasn’t with us tonight), so there’s black people and Mexicans and I’m just there, white.

I realized that, out of everyone, we’re kinda that stoner group. We don’t do drugs or anything, but we hang out on the stairs off to the side, and… I don’t know. I just feel like we’re the stoners of the mission. But whatever.

I’m ready for tomorrow. I’m just gonna be doing stuff around the school, so it’s not anything that I’ve already done.

And then on Friday, I get to go home. I’ve had TONS of fun here, and it’s been a great experience, but I’m ready to go home and sleep on my own bed, with AC. And talk to Gwen and see Lawson and Jolie, and Jake, and Shelsey. And of course I wanna see Mom, and give her a hug.

But I’m also ready to take everything that I’ve learned here, and apply it in other places.


Day 4
Thursday, June 28, 2012

I stayed at the school today, doing yard work and planting a garden. And getting a bloody nose.

Tonight at 4:30, we’re going to Little Sister of the Poor to sing a few songs. And then they’re going to be doing this Mission Idol thing, boys against girls.

I was going to do it with the girls, but they started rehearsing and didn’t tell everyone, so it was just their group of girls. And then they changed the songs from what they originally said the songs would be, and I don’t know any of these songs. One Direction and all that stuff that I don’t listen to. So I’ll just be watching. And I can’t just go up and pretend that I know the words because they have this dance that goes with it. It’s just… yeah. I’m not doing it with them.

But right now, we have a ton of time to just relax. I think I’m going to just take a nap, because this week has been exhausting.

After dinner, I didn’t feel good. Well, I didn’t feel good before, but I figured it was just because I was hungry. But even after I ate, I still didn’t feel good. So I came and slept for about 5 hours. And I’m still tired.

We go home tomorrow. I get to sleep in my own bed, and get on the internet and see Lawson and Jolie and talk to Gwen and all kinds of stuff. It’s gonna be awesome. I’m gonna get a big soda and a burger or something. Awesome.


Day 5
Friday, June 29, 2012

We’re on the bus. Watching The Princess Bride. Best. Bus ride. Ever.

Today we finished a couple things that we didn’t get to this week, then cleaned the convent and the cafeteria and all that. Then we left.

We had Mass at the cathedral with the bishop. It was nice. But I wish I had known, so I could have packed nicer clothes. I just had my t-shirt and shorts.

It’s coming up on one of my favorite parts. The Man in Black vs. Vezzini. Dun dun dun.
There’s log cabins all over the place. It’s crazy. It’s like Lowman. Just this long road going through a small town that’s surrounded by trees and that consists of log cabins and trailer homes.

I’m reciting all the lines under my breath. Nick probably thinks I’m a crazy lady. Oh well. I love this movie.

Aaaaas yooooou wiiiiish!!!!!

Today I’ve been thinking about all that I’ve learned this week. And there’s a lot.

You know how in movies, nuns just sit around in a church and pray all day? Yeah, um… that’s not what they do. I mean, that do pray a lot. But that’s not all that they do. And I learned just how hard they work. And they work HARD.