Thursday, December 29, 2005
The "construction team" arrived yesterday, and today was our first day of service to the people of D'Iberville. Irene, the director of volunteer services, gives out the assignments. At first, she told us that we would be doing "assessments" to find out what the residents need. But we had heard that there was actual construction work to do, and asked Irene if there might be any projects that she needed to be completed. She was excited to find out that we had such skills, and quickly reassigned us as a work party. WE got two jobs. The first was a possible roofing and porch repair, and the second involved a plumbing problem.
We loaded up and headed off to the first site. Actually, both sites were within 100 yards of eachother. At the house lived an 85 year old woman and her grown son. Her metal roof still leaks when it rains and her floors are being ruined. Jon F., Ryan F., and Andreas B. assessed the roof job while Roger and Sam S. and Tom L. walked to the trailer park to find the plumbing problem. They met Becky and Carl, the tenants, who explained that they had not had running water for 4 months. Their mobile home had been blown off it's foundation which sheared a water line and caused their water shortage. Half of their roof is missing, and they live in only one small room at the end of the trailer while awaiting help from FEMA. They had been collecting rainwater in buckets to use in their toilet and used bottled water to drink. The three POP plumbers found the source of the leak- actually a small PVC pipe was broken, and off to Lowes they went to find a $0.25 fix. Two hours later, Becky and Carl had running water in their toilet and sink again. They were very happy, and their excitement was a source of great satisfaction for our team. Our first victory!
We are waiting on word about materials for the roofing job, and in the meantime have found a new project installing drywall in a house that was completely flooded by Katrina's storm surge, leaving the family homeless. That project may take up the rest of our time here.
The rest of the POP team arrived during the day today, and many of them were able to get half a day's work in doing the assessments that we had originally planned to do. This is very fulfilling work, as you meet the residents, hear their stories, share their pain, and hopefully offer them some hope and brotherly love.
More tomorrow. Peace and prayers from D'Iberville!
Tom L. and Roger S.
We loaded up and headed off to the first site. Actually, both sites were within 100 yards of eachother. At the house lived an 85 year old woman and her grown son. Her metal roof still leaks when it rains and her floors are being ruined. Jon F., Ryan F., and Andreas B. assessed the roof job while Roger and Sam S. and Tom L. walked to the trailer park to find the plumbing problem. They met Becky and Carl, the tenants, who explained that they had not had running water for 4 months. Their mobile home had been blown off it's foundation which sheared a water line and caused their water shortage. Half of their roof is missing, and they live in only one small room at the end of the trailer while awaiting help from FEMA. They had been collecting rainwater in buckets to use in their toilet and used bottled water to drink. The three POP plumbers found the source of the leak- actually a small PVC pipe was broken, and off to Lowes they went to find a $0.25 fix. Two hours later, Becky and Carl had running water in their toilet and sink again. They were very happy, and their excitement was a source of great satisfaction for our team. Our first victory!
We are waiting on word about materials for the roofing job, and in the meantime have found a new project installing drywall in a house that was completely flooded by Katrina's storm surge, leaving the family homeless. That project may take up the rest of our time here.
The rest of the POP team arrived during the day today, and many of them were able to get half a day's work in doing the assessments that we had originally planned to do. This is very fulfilling work, as you meet the residents, hear their stories, share their pain, and hopefully offer them some hope and brotherly love.
More tomorrow. Peace and prayers from D'Iberville!
Tom L. and Roger S.
