Work Day 1

Hi Everyone!!!

Well, we all survived Day 1 in Vancleave!! I can't say it enough - what a Blessing it is to be here! Our day started out with breakfast - the church volunteers, Marie and Marie (really) prepared bacon, sausage, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, to die for home made biscuits, gravy, blueberry pancakes, grits, oatmeal, fruit - and I'm sure I'm missing some items, but needless to say, the meal was awesome.

After our breakfast, we have a devotion and then Curt, the resident coordinator met with our group and gave out the assignments. We broke up into three teams.
1. Eric's team. [Eric, Tina, & Brian Hand, Margaret Yde, and Caitlin Noble].
2. Harry's team. [Harry & Jacob Moore, Charlie Noble, and Donna Davis].
3. Bob's team. [Bob & Paula Overman, Tracy Puiia and Christa Noble].

Eric's team was assigned to a home that is 99% complete but the attic needed insulation blown in it, and some misc tasks like electrical outlets etc.

Harry's team was assigned to a home to remove a toilet and vanity to lay a linoleum floor and then reinstall the toilet and vanity.

Bob's team was assigned to a home to mud and finish drywall.

After loading the vehicles with the tools needed for their job, everyone departed for their assignments.

My day was awesome! We arrived at the site where the homeowner (John) is still living in a FEMA trailer (almost 3 years now) with 3 children, all girls. The home was brick construction, so the shell was original, but the inside was gutted due to the damage from Katrina and is starting to show some signs of progress. We worked all day mudding, different stages, some the first coat, some with tape, some second coats, some corners, some horizontal lines. We started in a back bedroom and worked our way down the hall. Bob was gracious in guiding me & Christa. I pretended that I was frosting a big cake! Bob was the glazing. He made sure our work was A+. lol.
Paula was the taper - she knew exactly where to be and how much we needed!
The homeowners worked in the house all day with us. He grew up in the house devastated by Katrina, then bought it from his parents about 12 years ago. He has spent much of his life in this home. I asked him if he was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In his response, what he did tell me is that his motivation has been renewed recently with the volunteers. It's been such a long process. I know God's work this week is helping John and his girls in so many ways!

We went through almost a whole 5 gallon bucket of mud, so we definitely made some progress.

The special part of the day was after we returned from lunch, John's teenage daughter, Kesley was at the home. Beautiful young lady with long ringlets of curls. We could sense John was looking for her to contribute to the work that needed to be done but she was unsure how to quite do that. I could feel the tension. Christa took Kelsey under her wings, lifted her spirits and made her part of our team. They spent the afternoon together talking and found they had a lot in common. I can not begin to imagine what Kelsey has been through in the past 3 years but to see her enjoying time with Christa was evidence of God's work. Praise the Lord for our youth!

When we returned to Camp Hope - we arrived for dinner. Once again, the volunteers really went over and above. Ham, homemade cheesy potatoes, toss salad, broccoli salad, garlic bread, and desert. Chocolate or Lemon Cake. Oh, and the "guess what it is" dish. We all guessed it was sweet potato casserole, and I even stepped out of my comfort zone and tried it. We later found out that it was a carrot casserole! Dinner gave us a chance to catch up with the other teams and how their day was. Everyone had a great day!

Eric's team blew lots of insulation in the attic. They used a machine - Tina and Caitlin fed the machine which shredded the bales of insulation, then Margaret and Brian maneuvered the nozzle of the machine to blow the insulation. Margaret said "Thanks Gary for the goggles".
Even with 90 degree temps, in the attic, dealing with insulation, Margaret also said Eric got the worst job. He went through garbage that was left outside at the job site that had to be sorted. He said he has not found any 'dead' varmets yet. The homeowner did have a puppy on site, I guess he was the mascot - and supervisor. : )
Everyone said he was adorable. I might have to stop by their job site to see for myself.
The homeowner here advised our crew that she should be able to move back in to the home in 2-3 weeks. Her adult son and granddaughter will also be living with her. Her son had a job related injury involving Mercury so he is restricted to a wheelchair. The home was built accessible for him. She pointed out to the team the two books on her bookshelf that were the only two items she salvaged from the devastation. I can't imagine. It makes me appreciate all of what I have more and makes me want less.

Harry's team had a great day at their homeowners home. As it turns out - today was her birthday! They removed all of the items in a bathroom and layed some linoleum flooring, then resealed the toilet and installed the vanity. Jacob was a huge help. When he would finish a task, he was always looking for another. From what I understand, this team can find Lowe's with their eyes closed and without Charlie's GPS. lol! They decided to put in a ceiling fan in addition to the bathroom work, and that only took 4 trips to Lowe's to complete. : )

After dinner we had a great devotion. Tina was our piano player, Charlie was our ukulele player, we sang and then Sally, Curt's wife inspired us with a reading.

The entire Salem team had clean up duty, then some went to shower, some played games, and some blogged. : )

I wish everyone at Salem was here!

Thank you Rev Patton! Thank you for planting this seed!

I have so much more I can write, but I must close for now. Lights out at 10pm. We are busy here, but I will write more tomorrow night and maybe attempt to post some pictures!

I am so blessed to be here. Gary, I love you, and miss you!

Keep us all in your prayers!

~ Tracy

P.S. Mom, thanks for pointing out my spelling errors in last nights blog. : )
I corrected them and hopefully did a better job tonight. lol.

P.S.S. For those wondering, temps were 90 degrees at 4pm. This was the only time I looked. But we all survived!