Hitting our stride

- by Ron N.

Note: you can view many of the photos from today at Robin's website and Ron's Flickr page.

Today we re-arranged our teams and I had the pleasure of working with four wonderful (and very energetic) women. We tackled the sheetrock installation on the walls of the dining room. The ceilings are 10' high in all the rooms, so we knew we were in for some heavy duty work. It didn't take long for us to get a good rhythm going, and in less than 30 minutes we had our first wall done.

(Ron N, Laura M, Teualoi L, Carolynn R, and Carol M.)

We all took turns measuring and cutting drywall, hoisting it, snapping chalk lines, making custom cuts and drilling in the mounting screws. The drywall sheets are 12' long, so they were pretty heavy. Fortunately, most of the walls are also very close to 12' long, so the sheets went up in full pieces. When we were ready to install the last piece of drywall in our first room, we each wrote an inscription on the back of the board - even though it will be covered up, we'll all know it's there.

I also had the pleasure of visiting with the home owner, Verna Mae Martin. She is a spry woman and she lives in a FEMA trailer on the property next door to her home (our project house). She spoke about her children (of which she is very proud), her younger years, her strong faith, the loss of her son, and the plans for her new home when it is ready for her to move in.

The amount of undone work in this area is unbelievable. Most people in the country speak about "Katrina" as if it were an event that had a beginning and an end. For the thousands of people who are still dealing with the outcomes of the hurricane and flooding, the disaster continues each day. Last night, in our group, we talked about the frustration of not being able to do more, or realizing that there is no guarantee that our unfinished work will be completed by someone else. We have to take comfort in the knowledge that we do this work because we must do it, and without the expectation that it will be acknowledged or noticed or even continued.

Tomorrow is our last full day of work here - the time has gone so quickly.