November 2, 2007 · Filed under October 2007 Mission Trip Reports

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Today’s blog comes from the Marie project.

Hello! My name is Richard Hartsfield and my group from Kiskiminetas Presbytery (PA) arrived here on Saturday, October 27th. I was assigned to a roofing crew and we were given the job of helping Marie with her brand new, beautiful stilted house’s roof. We did not get a response when we knocked on her FEMA trailer several times during the day, only to find that she works the night shift and was sleeping! When we arrived there were only bare rafters. When we left: a beautiful new white shingled roof!

We met Marie the second day and her wonderful little chihuahua/pug mix with the huge ears. The third day she cooked our lunch – we loved it!

The work was just plain hard, lifting OSB board (that’s what has taken the place of plywood), shingles, scaffolding and various nailguns and tarpaper rolls.

Our boss, Ron, is admired by all–he’s like an extremely intelligent chimpanzee, scampering around rafters, leaning over the edge, staying six steps ahead of the rest of us, handling full OSB sheets by himself, demanding quality. Ron, forgive me for calling you a chimp!

Ron even put in safety boards for us – you have to remember that we were working 20 feet off the ground (stilts, remember?). But the sun was our greatest safety danger. Several of us were overcome by it and had to retreat to shade. Even with the breeze, we were working in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees F.

The crew is amazing. With a strong and wise leader, each person leaps to do the next job. We constantly lie to each other and kid each other. I provided the humor Tuesday by splitting out my pants and having to work that way for the rest of the day. But the humor is gentle and the affirmations constant. It’s amazing to work with Christians: they say things like “Thank you”. We pray before we start the job each day!

Tomorrow the crew starts on another job.

On Tuesday, we gathered a crowd to go hear Marie’s Katrina story. Her mother insisted on staying in her home during Hurricane Camille, so Marie figured she’d sit out Katrina. She woke up early in the morning and found rising water on her floor. One of her dogs drowned, in spite of Marie’s numerous efforts to coax him out of the house as the water climbed higher and higher (Marie can’t swim). Ultimately, when the water reached near the roof, Marie floated to a tree limb and climbed it onto her roof. She and her other dog spent 4 1/2 hours of the storm up there, huddled under the overhang. Once the water receded a bit, she used the same limb to climb down, but it broke off the tree and plunged her into the water once more. Finally, she wrapped a blanket around herself and waited for assistance. Her house was pushed off the foundation at an angle, and had to be demolished. She says her FEMA trailer is so small, she and the dog have to negotiate and coordinate their movements!

Tonight, 3 carloads of us went to Ocean Springs to watch the fireworks over Biloxi celebrating the opening of the new bridge, replacing the one Katrina destroyed.

      

Someone commented at dinner “I can’t believe tomorrow’s our last day!” It’s wonderful seeing new friendships blossom and so much being accomplished. We all so appreciate the responses to our blogs (we post them every day by the picnic tables), and while we hate to leave when there’s more to be done, we can’t wait to get home to share our stories and photos!