Presbyterian Hurricane Ike Recovery
Week 5, Texas City
It was a great week in many ways. Twenty nine people from Sibley, Iowa, Baldwin, WI and Luverne, WI enjoyed time with each other and those of us working long term here in the warmth and sunshine of a warmer than normal week in Texas. We even saw some sunscreen being used! It was a good week for a finish layer of dry wall mud to dry, for texture on all ceilings and walls to dry and for 23 gallons of primer and paint inside and five gallons outside to dry. Tile floor was put down in the bath, kitchen and hallway; peel and stick in the new room on the back and washer and dryer installed there. The front porch was replaced and what a difference that makes. God sent a plumber too and so all the plumbing going and coming under the house is new. It is really starting to take shape and look like Mahn and his family can move back in soon. The smiles on their faces are a joy. They came for dinner Thursday to our ‘family night’ here at our village and gave hugs to all the volunteers they met. Even though English is not our common denominator, hugs given and smiles shared say it all in times like this.
The people who did not work on Mahn’s house went to ‘O Street’ house in Galveston to work. This is a Hispanic family and Gloria, the mom, and one son are very involved learning and working alongside the teams. Gloria’s English is better than most of the mid-westerners Spanish! They had a setback at this house Wednesday when an inspector shut the project down. The team kept their sense of flexibility and humor and were allowed to work on the outside of the house and within two days were back at work with the blessing of the city!
What a team it was! On the one hand, there was a natural excitement of nearing the finish of Mahn’s house, seeing it all come together with an end in sight. On the other hand, a setback, a disappointment and tons of work yet to be done on the O Street house. It was a pleasure to see the groups support each other, sharing in the excitement of the one, even going all the way out to Rosharon to see it one morning, and encouraging and supporting the other as they had to be flexible and patient. It was another great week.
