Biloxi Diary - Day 2
If we have learned anything so far on this trip, it's to drink plenty of water and get plenty of sleep. With that and God's help, we can accomplish anything! Our day began at 6 am again this morning. We stumbled out of our bunk beds in our trailers and made our way down to the bathrooms to freshen up before heading to the mess hall for eggs and toast. After breakfast, we loaded our tools and headed to job site number 2 of the trip. It takes a few hours each morning to finalize our job for the day and rent the appropriate tools for the job. Today's tools included several shovels, rakes, hoes, ladders and paint equipment, gloves, buckets, garbage bags and a weedwacker. We arrived to what looked like a quaint little home surrounded in a 2 foot deep bed of weeds. We took a quick look inside to discover a completely deserted home, stripped down to just the studs. During the hurricane, the roof had been lifted from the house and set down at a different angle, causing severe water damage to the inside. The owner was a single woman who had moved to Texas until her home became livable again.Our task today was to paint parts of the exterior and cut the weed-eaten lawn and overgrown plants out. Elizabeth began mowing the 2 foot lawn, Caroline and Mary attacked the bushes and weeds surrounding the house, Christina helped Tom mask and paint the house, and Pastor Wiechmann, Steve, Tom, Corey and Phil cut branches of dead plants, operated the much needed weedwacker and cleaned up about 10 black garbage bags of landscaping "trim."
Every 30 minutes or so, we took the long-awaited water breaks. Between the ten of us at the site, we drank nearly 36 liters of water, approximately ten gallons! Water fights erupted between the teens (and were actually quite refreshing) The neighbor across the street loaned us their lawn mower, so Tom, Tom, Christina, Steve and Pastor Wiechmann took turns mowing her lawn as a token of thanks. The six hours we spent in the sun and humidity were exhausting, but we feel great knowing we have transformed the exterior of the house- bringing Judith one step closer to coming home to live in her house once more.
Around 4:30, we left the work site and went down to the coast to see the remaining damage from Katrina. For blocks, the only things remaining were foundations of what were once houses. Several homes further in from the water are under construction, but it's amazing how much, yet how little has been repaired in the 2 years following the hurricane. Seeing all the damage and work that needs to be done makes me feel so small, yet I know that we've made a significant change for 2 families now.
The Team