Day 5: Our third day on the job

Today's entry in the blog comes from Lucy:

Work Day 3, Thursday

We are divided into two groups still, one group at the Rogers house and one rebuilding a shed in another location. Robert, our general contractor/ work supervisor has been mia this morning. We finally reached him on the phone and he will call back with additional work for some of us to do. This is unstructured to the point of annoyance from time to time, but we are trying to be flexible and patient, and the kids are having fun drawing sketches on pieces of wall board while we wait. We are reminding ourselves that our own sense of fulfillment is not what this is about, and indeed, I think people are feeling good despite the temporary slowdown.

I am realizing that my own sense of the effectiveness of this trip is clearly based on how others are responding to it as well as how I feel about it. I think people are feeling good about the adventure of it. I will be happy if each person ends up with memories of this trip as one which has impacted their perception of life in some way. We certainly know more than we did before about life in rural Alabama, about cats with bottle neck collars, and GPS units which don’t work on dirt roads, Styrofoam cups which seem to move by themselves across the kitchen floor (a giant bug trapped but not for long) and early morning life in a strip mall, which is where we have been living!

It is hot and humid!! We have not had the expected rain so far, but it has been tolerable at least. I am amazed at how good-humored everyone is, and impressed with the way our young people have gotten into this.

Afternoon…. At last Robert has called back and assigned us a new project – the Thompson house, where we must build two new eight-foot porches and install a kitchen sink and countertops, as well as shovel maggot-filled garbage into a large dumpster (yummy). We’ll get the lumber today and begin this job tomorrow with a small group finishing the painting and carpeting of the Rogers bedroom at the other house. We’re up and running again!

As for me, I am sticky and ready for a shower – the one nice one in the ladies’ room, not one of the port-a-potty showers in the back yard of our home this week. I will have to run in first if I want to find the good shower empty. Another good day done ...
--Lucy


Last night we drove out to Dauphin Island and held our evening worship on the beach, reflecting on the things we have found difficult. Tonight we drove out to Pascagoula for a seafood dinner and took a drive through a neighborhood that was devastated by Katrina. It was clear from the houses that still stand or are being rebuilt that this is not a poor neighborhood, but nearly two years after the hurricane quite a few people are still living in trailers next to the homes that are not yet habitable. Many houses are being rebuilt, but many, many others are simply blank places in the neighborhood, with perhaps a driveway or a foundation to mark where a family once lived.

Afterwards, we reflected on the unexpected joys we have experienced through the week, as we've grown closer through the work and the fun we've shared. We have one more day of work left.

More to come.