Wednesday, March 27, 2019
It was a typical morning in Saipan. We left the hotel shortly before 7 and arrived at the job site shortly after 7. We unpacked the tools for John, Ed, Phil, Jeff and Anet to finish the shed roof and then Dan, Sandy, Richard and I went back to the house we were working on the previous day.
By mid-morning, the shed roof was finished and the moved to another house. Dan and Richard went to help them and Ed and Jeff joined our crew.
The owners at the house where I was, had prepared sponge cake and sandwiches for us in the morning and they offered us a big lunch at 11 am. We had rice, Kimchi, chicken kabobs, pork kabobs, pork stew and cold soft drinks.
As always, it got hot by noon. By the end of the day, the four of us were able to build two 2″x6″x35′ support beams on the middle and outside wall and secure them to the concrete walls, as well as install half of the ledger board and the outside double rafter.
We packed up at 2 pm and stopped by the house the other group had finished in the morning before picking up the other crew.
The owner and his daughter were there and they were very happy with their new roof.
When we drove to the next house that the other crew was working on, we found that they had removed most of the roofing and would be ready to build trusses.
I talked to Lou, the owner, and her brother, Joe, for a while and Joe explained that he had been living in a house that FEMA had build in 1987, next door to his sister’s house, which we were working on. His sister lost her roof but his complete house blew away during Typhoon Yutu. All that was left was the foundation.
We arrived back at the hotel at 3 pm, showered and met for our review and devotions at 5:30. For supper we went to a revolving restaurant called 360. The view from the restaurant was spectacular and we were able to see all of the island within an hour as it slowly revolved.
After a few of us picked up some groceries, we were back at the hotel by 8 pm.
Ralf Hamm 