Day Five…last work day!

It rained most of the night and we woke up to cold temperatures and gray skies, but we were ready to put in our last big efforts to finish up our work the best we could.  Some of our workers were heading out early to party van back.  But those of us staying were getting fun night out to dinner.

The Dave Teams:
Team Bastine finished shingling their roof…almost, we’re told they ran out shingles at the VERY last minute.  They were, however, able to remove two toilets, one tub, and lots of little pink floor tile - complete with sparks.  Next week the beginning of a rotating team of 46+, from Lake George, NY, will come down and finish the rest of this home - including plumbing, electrical, and everything else.  Their representative feels they can be done in three weeks.  We hope they’re correct.  Quentin, our homeowner,  thinks his house already looks like a castle!

Team Fosdick came close to completing their goal of finishing all the drywall in their homeowners’ new house.  We enjoyed the back deck for the last time, as well as working with one of the owners - she was a great help hanging drywall (don’t tell John).  She said if all goes well they hope the house will be completed by this summer.  Those driving left after a great lunch provided by the church, and although we who were remaining were bereft, we drowned our sorrows in wonderful meal in Waveland.  The trip was successful and enjoyable in many ways….Thank you John and Jane, our camp manager and work site manager.

Alexandra Parker

Fletcher’s Fans:
    We, make that Fletcher, spray primed all the rooms we couldn’t finish painting.  With our best Girl Scout manners we wanted to leave our house in better clean shape than we found it, and I am proud to say we did.  I should share that Charles Tanner served as our cat wrangler all week.  Our homeowner had two cats, and Charles bonded with the Calico named Pumpkin.   That cat nestled its head under Charles chin, put its paw on his shoulder and generally seemed to be in heaven in his arms.  We also, courtesy of Jean Beard, got to tour the other two houses that we hadn’t worked on.  It was really nice to see the other teams’ work.  And our last hot lunch provided by the good and talented Church Lady Chefs was catfish to die for.  It may have been a gray and cold day but we felt warm all over with the good that we were able to accomplish in just one week’s time, and the good times we shared were as bright as the best sun shiny day.  Good Night Pearlington, we loved you!      

Lucille Baur

A post script from Charles and Marjorie Tanner, friends of the Travises who have joined us on the last two Gulf coast trips.  Charles is the cat "wrangler" featured in the picture on the Friday, March 7, blog.

Things I learned at Pearlington:
1) Spackling compound can be removed from a cell phone, if you do it immediately after contact.
2) Paint can be removed from a camera, if you do it immediately after contact.
3) Sister Suzie sings serious soul songs super sonorously!
4) Don't plan to leave Pearlington before Friday lunch.  That's when the Missionary Baptist church ladies serve the catfish!
5) Tree frogs like the insides of the pods.
6) The "Presbyterian pods" will keep you safe and dry during the fiercest of thunderstorms, like we experienced Monday night.
7) NEVER (and I mean NEVER!) apply "texturized" paint to a wall or ceiling.
8) Be sure to speak to those you see at camp in the evenings.  They may be people you worked with all day, but just don't recognize in their cleaned-up condition.
9) For men only:  If you find flowers in the urinal, you have strayed into a women's portapotty.
10) The Gaithersburg group has a truly remarkable set of skills and abilities which they bring to the demolition/construction tasks, and it is truly an honor and a privilege and a blessing to be able to work beside all of you for a week.  Thanks for the opportunity!

Our fourth day of work: badly battered and bug-bitten bodies but inspired spirits - loads of lunch with the Missionary Baptists - working frantically to finish each house before Friday - a celebration repast with residents- devotions with our dedicated young people and singing with splendiferous Ms. Susie!

Alexandra, Ronni, Jean, and Mary (too late at night)

Rachel has nails for eyes!
- At this point in the day, Elliott, Nick and Rachel started putting down the roof shingles and what she’s putting in place of her eyes are the nails for said task. What definitely makes these days great is the complete tomfoolery that occurs while we’re working!

Elliott and Nick be roof workers
- I just think this photo really shows how these two really are a team. They work so well together it’s inspiring.

Shredded blue tarp drapes house
- One of the many, many broken-down house photos I’ve taken so far being here. They catch my interest artistically because they deviate from the norm but at the same time I almost have guilt in capturing an image so forlorn and wrought with dark memory.

Elliott learning from a master
- It really struck me to see, especially with the boys, the younger generation learning from the older generation. It’s a craft that used to be such common, household knowledge that the fact that it’s now only a specialty, really, says something about what kind of skill we value today.

Elliott Nick and Rachel hard at work
- Nothing much to say about this one except for hurray teamwork!

Ronni Keszthelyi

I woke up this morning the most beautiful and unusual way, I woke up praying. The prayer began in my sleep and continued on as if I had no control after I had awakened. This indeed is a very special day, a very special week, and a very special community.

It began on Sunday afternoon when the entire Presbytery gathered at our camp here in Pearlington, Mississippi. The camp was ablaze of meeting and greeting, fellowship and camaraderie, and anticipation and goodwill towards the coming week of giving our sprit and energy to the families of this wonderful little hamlet in the far southwestern corner of this State.

We began our visit here in Pearlington by dividing into teams, all destined to the completion of the homes that our host families will soon be living. Our team leader in this week’s endeavor is David Fosdick.  Our family is a family of three, Lindsey, John and Hallie. The home is a beautiful one-story rambler, which is in the built-out stage. Our anticipated goal this week is to drywall and spackle the interior for them. Everyone on the team has worked side by side in accomplishing this goal and in mid-week a group of four from Wisconsin, including the owner, blessed us with their experience and willingness to contribute. If we don’t complete or goal we will be close, with a prayer in my heart, thank you Lord.

Ruth Ault

We had the most unbelievable thunderstorm last night.  I went to bed around 9:30 and woke up around midnight with the thunder.  The rain was so heavy on the pod roof that it sounded like someone turned a fire hose on.  I was concerned about a tornado, but fortunately we were spared that excitement!

We have made great progress in our first 2 days at our house.  We are hanging drywall and the team has jumped in with both feet. 

Our homeowner is living in a MEMA trailer behind the new house.  (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency)  This house replaces the FEMA trailer in Mississippi.  See the picture.

PS.  Have you seen the pictures of Jerry, Ron & Nancy, and Charlotte in the Presbyterian  Planning Calendar?  I had Jerry autograph copies for Linda & me.

Dave Fosdick

Report from the Tukes team:   Fletcher, as always, has everything under control.  We spent much of Monday morning scoping out the work opportunities, and Fletcher focused on the finishing of the drywall, and painting it. The house has two stories, but the open kitchen-dining-family room area at the back of the house has a high and sloping ceiling and a stairway at one end leading to a small balcony upstairs, which also serves as a hallway to all five of the upstairs rooms.  Since the high water mark in this area was about 13 feet, all the downstairs drywall had to be replaced, and some of the sloping ceiling also.  The drywall is all up and mudded with at least one coat, but Fletcher wants to apply more mud.  We spent the rest of Monday doing that, and painting the brick on the front of the house.  Soon after Katrina some authorities spray-painted the instructions “Do not Demolish” on the front wall, and we were able to finally cover that up.   When the owner came in late that afternoon, we consulted with him on colors for the wall paint.  The walls had sticky notes on them with instructions, and the phrase “Think Tuscan”, which has become our team motto.  Today (Tuesday) we applied more mud, and sanded the areas that were dry and ready.  Plans are to continue mudding and sanding tomorrow, and to spray paint on Thursday, using about 17 gallons of various (Tuscan) colors. 

Charles Tanner (Christian Community Presbyterian Church, Bowie)

The guys and Rachel just about finished the removal of the shingles and tarpaper from the roof of our house and repairs to the wood underneath.  Dave B., our leader, hopes to make great strides tomorrow with the new roof.  The rest of us continue to clean up after them!

Mary Wasik

Here we go, work day one of our Pearlington Tour.  We’ve divided into three groups led by the ever-popular GPC stalwart Fletcher Tukes, and two ringers: Dave B. and Dave F. (Dave Bastine and Dave Fosdick), also known as the Dashing Daves Duo.  Having people in charge who know what they are doing is really more than half the battle.  Here now is a little peak at what we did today:

Fletcher’s Fans…
    The day started with Fletcher assessing the last volunteer group’s work and determining that it needed some correcting.  That meant that Fletcher, Joe, and Charles were tasked with re-mudding drywall.  Stan, Lucille, and Maxine set off to find Lowe’s to get supplies.  We ended up purchasing from Home Depot.  Maureen won Fletcher’s approval to prime over black writing on the front of our part siding, part brick house.  By the end of the day most of the mudding was done, and the house had a newly spray-painted front.

 I think that all would agree a real plus of this camp is that a local church has volunteered to make us a hot lunch each day.   The weather was mild, the food was good and plentiful, and tomorrow we’ll be tackling sanding the mudding that was done today.  We are hoping that the rain holds off tonight.

Lucille Baur

The “Dave” groups were busy fixing up their houses today also.  One is remodeling and one is mucking with the hope replacing the roof.

Tonight’s pictures show the progress that those groups have made.  Tomorrow watch for pictures from Fletcher’s group.

Jean Beard

We had great weather for travel, both by car and plane.  The group who drove, made their traditional stop in Alabama for the famous BBQ, and mysteriously arrived at the camp later than expected.  The group who flew arrived in New Orleans early, and was able to view some new bridge construction over Lake Pontchartrain, and dined in style at Subway.

Once we arrived at the camp in Pearlington we were greeted by John Hill, brother of our own Chris Knapp.  We were given the grand tour which included new multiple sleeping quarters, the always present port-a-potties, and the best shower facility in a volunteer camp this side of the Mississippi.  The camp also boasts an art component, previous volunteers created a map of Pearlington in rock, brick, and colored glass.

The camp is only blocks away from the Pearl River, and is reported to have great sunsets. Along with us this week is a group from Wisconsin, a second group from Maryland (Howard county), and 12 people who identified themselves as the soon-to-be dirty dozen from a church in Springfield, MO, a church with a minister by the name of Greg Seckman.

Everyone was so ready to get to work that several started with a bench by the fire pit.  Judging by their skill in fixing the bench, we are in very good shape for the coming week.

Alexandra Parker