Day 4
Camp Hope is like the Ritz compared to Camp Fish where we stayed last year. We actually get to sleep on bunk beds with real mattresses and we eat in the cafeteria where young people from Americore cook our food and then clean up. Some things don't change however. Notice an uninvited guest that was on the ceiling in the cafeteria over one of the tables.
Today we arrived at the work site at 8:15 a.m. ready for work. We split into different groups to do our variously assigned tasks. I was back on one of the siding teams working with Carol and Doug. It has been slow going partly because we had never sided before, and partly because rather than using a saw to cut the siding we had to use a utility knife.
One task in which everyone got involved was putting insulation inside. A professional crew is arriving tomorrow morning to put up the drywall so all of us stopped our different projects for a couple of hours and put in insulation. Afterward, the dry wall arrived and we all became involved in taking it off the truck and stacking it inside so the crew can install it tomorrow.
During our morning break we met the owner of the home that we are building, Joanne.
She is a great grandmother with seven children, 15 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren. She and one of her grandchildren, Cassidy, who was there with her today, shared their experience during Hurricane Katrina. They had evacuated to a safe place further north and taken three days of clothing with them. They never dreamed that they would lose everything, but they did. Five months after evacuating Joanne's husband died. So she will be moving into the home we're building and hoping that Cassidy will live with her. (In the picture you will see Cassidy sharing home made cookies with us.) Cassidy is 19 years old, attending a junior college nearby, and begins work next Monday. 
Cassidy is very hopeful. She is excited about the progress that she sees all around her. She beamed as she told us how green everything is again. It was brown for a long time after the disaster. I think all of us were affected by Cassidy's as cheerfulness and hopefulness.
Joanne and Cassidy shared that they came back because this is home. Most of the family wanted to come back and did come back. Joanne didn't want to live in another place than her family was living. It is a close knit community as well, and they wanted to come back to their friends and their church.
Today we arrived at the work site at 8:15 a.m. ready for work. We split into different groups to do our variously assigned tasks. I was back on one of the siding teams working with Carol and Doug. It has been slow going partly because we had never sided before, and partly because rather than using a saw to cut the siding we had to use a utility knife.
One task in which everyone got involved was putting insulation inside. A professional crew is arriving tomorrow morning to put up the drywall so all of us stopped our different projects for a couple of hours and put in insulation. Afterward, the dry wall arrived and we all became involved in taking it off the truck and stacking it inside so the crew can install it tomorrow.
During our morning break we met the owner of the home that we are building, Joanne.
She is a great grandmother with seven children, 15 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren. She and one of her grandchildren, Cassidy, who was there with her today, shared their experience during Hurricane Katrina. They had evacuated to a safe place further north and taken three days of clothing with them. They never dreamed that they would lose everything, but they did. Five months after evacuating Joanne's husband died. So she will be moving into the home we're building and hoping that Cassidy will live with her. (In the picture you will see Cassidy sharing home made cookies with us.) Cassidy is 19 years old, attending a junior college nearby, and begins work next Monday. 
Cassidy is very hopeful. She is excited about the progress that she sees all around her. She beamed as she told us how green everything is again. It was brown for a long time after the disaster. I think all of us were affected by Cassidy's as cheerfulness and hopefulness.Joanne and Cassidy shared that they came back because this is home. Most of the family wanted to come back and did come back. Joanne didn't want to live in another place than her family was living. It is a close knit community as well, and they wanted to come back to their friends and their church.
posted by UCC Medfield at 3:14 PM
1 Comments:
What a blessing to meet Joanne and Cassidy and to be able to share in the hope they have for a new beginning. God is good!
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