Day 5 - Wednesday
A day of not much work and a bit of frustration, but we pushed through. As you will see soon.
Also, a footnote.
I can't be at all places at all times taking pictures : )
Sooooooo, though I try to get pics of everyone, I may not be able to, and I do ask the other leaders to get pics, but it is not always possible. Soooooooo, rest assured, everyone in the group is working hard and has positive spirits : )
These are my blog editors, just so you know.
Hopefully, they have helped keep my blog somewhat error free
If not, blame them! : )
Team meeting last night to try to get a handle on work that we can do based on what was explained to us.
Before bed Tia wanted to do some dancing.
Why?
No idea : )
After another what felt like too quick of a sleep, we woke up for breakfast.
Several of the leaders get up wayyyyy earlier than I do : )
And yes, Tia is always smiling.
7:30 devotions and breakfast.
And, someone told the group it was my birthday today. So they got me a card, sang me happy birthday and gave me three presents.
A rock painted with the name "ronathan" and two sticks.
I thank Tia for the idea and Holden for playing along to confuse a great many people. : )
Nice Card!
Oh, and a Happy Bday pin.
Enough of that.
Time to get to work, mostly.
We started off the day with two trucks bringing two trailers to bring the garbage from the place we had been working at to a dump site about 30 min away.
There was a lot of garbage.
One thing I love about these trips is how hard those youth who come along work. They descended on this pile of garbage like it was the last job on earth. : )
Two trailers were all it took.
Tia's group went to muck out a small home.
It wasn't fun work, and some of the rooms were very nasty, but they persevered.
These are the only pics I got of that site.
Chris' group went to a home to fix water piping.
They had to crawl under the house to do it
It kind of reminded me of Pastor Craig and Sam going underneath a home last year.
A brave soul that Kaley
It's hard to fit in there, but it's good that Chris is using a mask.
I spoke too soon. : )
The piping kept cracking, so it wasn't a straightforward job.
This is the home.
Not easy places to work.
Jess' group emptied a trailer at the mission, then finished off pressure washing the walls of the church. Way to go, Amy, Lucia, Brett and Nathan.
They also put together supplies back at the mission for people who will need them at the food bank. These were more like toiletries, I think.
Great work.
Afterwards, they went to get ice cream. : )
Cor's group worked on putting flooring down in a home.
The cleanest jobs of the day : )
Theo is nailing down the subfloor.
As are Holden and Isaiah.
Looks great.
Nice look Theo : )
Today, we finished up work at our worksite.
Marika and Petra talked with Glenna Faye, the homeowner.
The rest of the group got back to doing things we had been doing yesterday, like spraying off siding. Hard work, but Alex did well.
Marika and Petra spent the day cleaning up jewelry, books and other items.
The rest spent most of the day sweeping up dry muck.
Yup, hours and hours of sweeping. Abby and Rachel (and Ethan, though not in the picture) did it without complaining. They just worked hard. I admire that.
Eben and Rohan were tasked with pulling more tires from the receding waters, but they decided to try to move this mammoth tire up the bank.
Good try, guys, but it seemed a bit toooo heavy eh : )
Trevor broke out the pressure washer so we could get rid of at least some of the muck on the sidewalks and the car park.
Alex was given a nice little toy to use to get off the hard to get mud by the 2 x 4's.
Petra framed.
Oh, Eben got to use it too : )
And yes, I worked today!
Surprise, surprise, Claudia. : )
I started pressure washing, but I could tell Rohan REALLY wanted to try it, so I let him have it.
He used it for several hours to clean off this back walkway
And this back stair case
(Before)
While others methodically kept at the basement mucking.
It's not perfect, but it's much better.
After
Some of the jewelry that was salvaged.
And magazines.
Some quilts were even aired and left to dry between our vehicles.
More powerwashing of another porch/walkway
It did look better.
And her front stairway.
(Before)
This bathroom just wasn't going to get cleaned out today, but it was cleaner than when we started.
Another group will have to carry on with that work.
Rachel also got to use the fun tool : )
The steps after.
Nice work, Rohan.
Wet CD's left out to dry.
And apparently, Glenna Faye is a writer.
These were some of her writings that were able to be salvaged, as well as a county yearbook.
The end result of lots of cleaning.
And then giving them to Glenna Fay.
She was overcome with emotion.
Don't even ask me why this is happening : )
As we wound down for the day, I put Marika in charge of cleaning up the many things they had been working on.
She's a natural : )
Jason and Trevor played a game with hammers and nails.
Not my cup of tea.
Some final pics of our three days of work in this basement.
Glenna Fay wanted a picture of us, and wants us to email her as well.
A very nice lady who was very appreciative of our work.
A well-deserved trip to DQ for the group.
Our cooks Matt and Julia have been AMAZING.
(Don't worry Kim and Janene I still remember the AMAZING job you did with us as well).
Here they are wearing the same outfits : )
Another great meal prepared with love.
Another time of reflecting tonight and then time to hand out the world renew t-shirts.
And get another group pic. Whoot!!
It was productive for some, and not so much for others, but this group of youth keep their attitude positive, which I truly appreciate.
I've come to realize that last year and this year are vastly different when it comes to work sites.
Since a flood just recently happened, we are in the cleanup phase at the moment. That means homes need to register with FEMA and then go onto an App that many relief organizations use to call up people and see if they need help.
And it's a bit of a competition, I've discovered.
That's why we have come to a site and found it already done or being done by another organization.
A bit disheartening, but once I heard about this, things started to make sense.
There's money to be made in this disaster relief stuff. And that can mean competition for homes, sadly enough.
Tomorrow, we have jobs lined up again, but we actually do not know if when we get there we will actually be the ones to work on that site because the app doesn't give that info. It just says it's not completed yet.
Even calling the night before doesn't secure a work site.
Soooo, we will see what tomorrow brings, and I will let you know.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for praying for us.
Thanks for the privilege of being able to have your kids for a week and watch them work, think, reflect and learn. All worth it, no matter the work that is done.
Until tomorrow. D.V.
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