Lessons Learned

Today the work began 37 people 7 sites and a huge amount of work to be done. The day started bright and early at 6:30 am. Breakfast by 7:00  and in the van and on our way by 8:00. Here is a list of the sites and the work that was done at each the sites are identified by the name of the owner:

Lilly - The team at this site was Rich B., Kerri Lyn, Tara, Lyn and Steve. They were able to replace the main drain for the house. This means crawling into a small space under the house (houses in New Orleans do not have basements) and re-piping all the drains that connect to the main drain a major job and dirty work but they got it done. They also were able to get some sheet rock put up a very productive day.

Troy - The team at this site was Bob Dowen, Dan Tomik, Ryan, Dot, Mira and Joan. They hung cabinets, Prepared floors to be sanded, grouted tile and fixed some issues with the texture that was sprayed on the wall. This is a house that we have worked on in the past and it is almost ready to be moved into. 

Lavorn - This team at this site was Kenton, Maryann, Carol, Pat  and Bob Jeram. This team ran almost 1000 feet of electrical wire. This team was repairing damage that was caused when thieves broke in to the house and cut a large amount of the newly install copper wire from the house.

Robert - The team at this site was Bob Strune, Ray, Pat Healy, Lyn H., Pam D., Brittney, Heather, Chelsea and Debbie. This team worked on sheet rock and were able to get siding on three sides of the house. The siding on this house was cement board which is very heavy so this was no easy task.

Ama (not a name a place) - The team at this site was Nathan, Jim K, Jim R., Sue and Dick. This team did a lot of different finish work including rehanging doors finishing window surrounds and most important of all getting the electricity turned on! Could you image this house has not had power for almost 4 years.

Eddie - The team at this site was Ralph, Fred, Rich, Roger and Me. Outside we worked on re-attaching the plywood sheathing of this house and we also moved some drain pipes to allow for the rest of the plywood to be attached. Inside we corrected some issues with cabinets that were hung by a contractor. This job was very frustrating because we spent the entire day repairing work that had been previously done by paid "proffessionals". 

OK now to the lessons learned:

1. Patience and flexibility are the most important tools that you carry in your tool belt! After working on Eddies house and seeing and hearing how they had been taken advantage of by some of the contractors they hired I was angry. I really wanted to help them fixes some of the things that had not been completed but we soon found that some of the materials we needed were unusable. This made it impossible to do one of the jobs that we had hoped to do. Very frustrating but we moved on and found some other things to do. Thank God I remembered to pack my patience and flexibility.
2. The things that we consider small or inconsequential mean more than we can imagine when given freely and with the love of Christ. This came to me after seeing a picture of the owner of the house in Ama hugging her power meter(I don't have the picture but I'll get it and added it to this post soon). How often do we flick on the light with out thinking about it? Now imagine not having power in your house for almost 4 years. While it only took a small amount of work on our part the rewards for this home owner were tremendous.
   

I've posted pictures and video from some of the sites  and will add more as I get them. Tomorrow I'll try to focus on one site and give you a little bit of back story on the home owners and what they have been through since the storm.

Jessy