We have two 87 year old participants in our group. One is a silver haired woman from Lexington, Kentucky named Beanie. She is full of life and a tireless worker. She is on the paint crew. There is no quit in this woman. She has visited some very exotic and difficult places like Iran and North Korea. She will go to places like that and only tell her lawyer and her travel agent because she doesn’t want to have her friends try to discourage her. Her secret to health and longevity is to drink some beer, have some wine at dinner and have scotch every evening.
The other is a Baptist minister from Iowa named Percy. He signs his name Perc. He is also a tireless worker. We were with him in Romania, Egypt and Vietnam. He didn’t go to Laos because he was moving into a retirement facility. Now he’s back with us. He is what a minister should be and the opposite of how an Iowa Baptist minister might be typecast. He is pious and nonjudgmental. His outlook on life is about loving and giving. He has been on something like 16 of these types of builds. Mike tells a story about Percy. When Mike was a group leader with Habitat for Humanity he roomed Percy with a guy from New York who was from New York and Jewish. When the guy found out he was rooming with a Baptist minister from Iowa he complained vociferously to Mike. They roomed together anyway. They ended up good friends and Percy eventually visited him in New York City.
Beanie and Percy give us all inspiration.
Beanie is the silver haired woman in the blue shirt.
Percy or Perc.