DAY ONE

We started early this morning, arriving in Galveston at Crockett United Methodist Church, where our work was under the auspices of UMCOR, the Methodist equivalent of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.  Here on the Gulf Coast, an umbrella organization has been formed that includes Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, and others.  The Presbyterians are the ones who focus on hospitality---the housing, the planning, and a limited amount of supplied tools.  The Methodists focus on establishing the bona fides of those in need and in connecting the work crews with the appropriate clients.

While waiting for Sandy, the project manager, we spent time talking to a group from Redstone Presbytery in Pennsylvania and after some delay were ushered into the orientation session.  There we learned that we would be working on a house that had been in the course of restoration to ADA standards by various groups since the storm.  Over the course of the work, the handicapped husband of the couple died and yet because of the age of  his widow, the house remained a likely candidate not only for return to its pre-storm state but also for handicapped accessibility.  The electrical box had to be lowered, along with all the complications that come along with moving a box loaded with wires from every corner of the house.  In addition, we would be installing insulation, sheetrocking the entire house, and taping and floating to finish.

Jim, Ron, and I tackled the box.  The rest of the folks essentially had the insulation finished by lunchtime.  One of the staff members then arrived with a load of sheetrock---lots of sheetrock.  Using a forklift, he loaded it onto pallets close to the porch of the house.  For the next twenty minutes everyone was carrying sheetrock into the house---some of it 1/2 inch, some of it 5/8; and some of it "green" (moisture resistant).  Carrying sheetrock can prove difficult, as Jim McLean can attest.  After tripping over the uneven detritus that our work site contains, he sustained scrapes, cuts, and (likely later) bruises.  Fortunately, Joan Thomson came to the rescue with our first aid kit!

The afternoon proved a bit more frustrating:  some worked while others waited for the tools that were in very short supply and were being used by those who were working.  Then the roles reversed---the grasshoppers became ants.  With the right tools, anyone can work (a riff on my contention that a person can do anything with the right tool).  Tomorrow the project manager assures us that we will have all the tools we'll need for everyone to work at the same time in the same place.  In spite of all, we have returned home exhausted and dragging tail to a fine spaghetti dinner prepared by Beth, Shiela, and Maria (a former staff member at Mo Ranch, now working at a camp in Colorado).

We are confident that not only will we do a good job---we will finish all the work that has been set before us.  Let the pictures tell the story, because this boy's off to bed.