Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

First of all, a correction in yesterday’s blog. I said that the homes we are working on are at ground level. That’s wrong. Every new home built in New Orleans now has to be elevated at least 3.5. In fact the homes at Ferry Place are elevated almost five feet. I don’t know why I thought I was on ground level when I was going up and down ladders all day in order to get into the house, but so be it. The blog stands corrected.

As I write today’s blog, we are more than half way through our work week. We were on the work site by 7:30 and most of us went right to work on whatever it was we were doing yesterday, i. e., roofing, closet blocking, picking up debris or new tasks of cutting and hanging vinyl siding, or cutting 2 x 4s to order. It was much cooler today and windy so it wasn’t quite as pleasant to be outside as before, but a lot was accomplished by the time we left at 3:30.

One person had a particularly frustrating day, in that she couldn’t find the task that really suited her skills. “Every job I tried felt very tedious and impossible to accomplish. I tried to move shingle bundles to the second floor for the roofers and they were so heavy, I couldn’t do it. I started to pick up debris and take it to the dumpster, but the dumpster was so full it couldn’t hold any more. I was told to put insulation behind the showers (a job which should have been done prior to installation of the shower) and I couldn’t get that to work without ripping it. I looked for teams that needed help, but none did. It was not a good day because I wanted to feel useful and I wasn’t.” But then she went on to say, “One can always be content when we have we want, whatever that is. The trick is being content when we don’t have what we want….so I guess part of my Lenten journey is to be content regardless.”

Another person spoke of her experience of ‘closet blocking' and the repetition of trying to nail little pieces of blocks in between studs. Never having used a hammer before, she was part of a group of women who experienced many frustrations in trying to hammer from many different directions often in very small quarters. “It’s not easy to feel so inadequate when I am so competent in other areas of my life,” she said.

Another person spoke of visiting with one of the future homeowners who came on site. This married man with three children aged 15, 13 and 10, is driving 65 miles to work as a ‘detailer’ (of cars) and his wife comes in to work as a hotel receptionist. He spoke of having lost everything in the flood and the goodness of God. The woman, reflecting on this said, “This sounds like resurrection and Easter,” and was very moved by his faith.

This work trip is more than hammering, sawing and putting on shingles or siding. It’s more than getting to know our fellow workers. It also is about personal journeying – an appropriate activity for this Lenten season.