The last day of 2008 is coming to a close in Mississippi in an hour. The young adults in the group are in the living room of "Vanna Whites" house watching a movie after a good day's work. There have been highs and lows, triumphs and challenges and a LOT of laughter. I haven't laughed as much in all 6 six trips as I have on this one. There's just a spirit of laughter that permeates all that we do...but then I laugh easily so maybe it's just me.
One group headed to a new job site today. Mr. Lee is working on leveling his house and needed help and other repairs done as well. Jonathan, Douglas and Guy spent the day there, crawling under the house, making sure things were level, putting on roofing materials and cleaning up the yard. Mr. Lee and his wife are supposed to be out of their Katrina Cottage in March and nothing, seriously, nothing has been done to get their house in any kind of decent living condition. There's a lot of work to do but at least it has officially begun.
The crew at Miss Maria's continued to work on framing, electrical work and baseboard. Meggie got to use a hammer drill and still feels jittery. Craig was on a ladder and Bill worked hard getting all the wiring just right. Mark, Adam and Joe fought over power tools and the best way to use them (Mark won). Jonathan cut a lot of baseboard and Zach helped wherever needed. One of the greatest things that I saw in my brief moments on this site was Zach helping Adam figure out the best way to nail in one of the boards for the room framing. That spirit of encouragement and support is rampant on this site!
Our largest crew is at Miss Anna's house and they are rocking and rollin'! The conversation in the van on the way to the site was all about how to get to the top of the house (it could be considered 3 stories). Mid-morning there was paint at the top of the left side of the house. Too cool! The crew here has really bonded with Miss Anna, there are a lot of stories about her at our evening meetings and there's a huge push to make sure the whole house is at least primed before quitting time tomorrow. I have a feeling I'm going to have to pull them off the site!
Mid-afternoon we got back to working on one of the sites that we started the first day, Captain John's house. Gail and I took a drive out with Ben, Miss Sue and Rick to look at the holes that had been dug for the pylons (I have no idea if I spelled that right). They were half full of water but that doesn't seem to be stopping this crew! Zach and Joe were pulled off their sites to build framing boxes. Gail and I pitched in and hopefully we'll be able to drain the water and install the boxes tomorrow. It's seems like a great way to start the new year, putting in supports for a house!
We are blessed to be able to end 2008 in Pearlington with people we have come to love as friends and begin 2009 with them as well! Happy New Year!
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