Monday, July 8, 2019
It was cool in the morning, about 11 C ( 52 F ), at 4 am when I woke up but it warmed up to 22 C ( 72 F ) which is a comfortable temperature for working.
At 6:15 the table was set for us to make our lunches, and at 7 am we had breakfast, after which, Peter reviewed some of the background stories of the houses that we were helping to rebuild. Ike reviewed the job assignments with us and before 8 am we were all in our vehicles, heading to our job sites.
My crew consisted of Yvette, Deneise & John. We drove to the ‘ Radek ‘ house and surveyed the work before walking over to the nearby storage trailers to get the tools we needed.
There were a lot of different small jobs to be done. John, a retired landscaper and horticulturist, installed the baseboard heaters and then attached the baseboards.
Deniese ( who helps her father build real cabinets ) and Yvette built the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. The cabinet construction was not obvious so Deniese had to read the instructions.
I went to the ‘ Kirk ‘ house for the use of their saw, where Justin and Bethany were framing the windows,
while Abe was installing the cabinets.
In the afternoon, I stole Abe from the ‘ Kirk ‘ house to start installing the cabinets at the ‘ Radek ‘ house.
During the afternoon, a gentlemen walked into the house and said he wanted to give us something. I greeted him as he pulled $200 out of his wallet and handed it to me. He told me that it was for us to use for whatever we wanted. He informed us that his wife had died 2 months before the flood and that he had been one of the fortunate residents whose house was just high enough to have been spared any damage from the flood and he wanted to help others less fortunate. I was very moved by this gesture so I thanked him for his donation asked if I could share his name with regards to the generous donation. He said his name was Bill Hart and that he lived just down the street from the Radek house. He left almost as fast as he came and I was left amazed and speechless.
Compared to this extraordinary experience, the rest of the day was anti-climatic. At 5 pm we had cleaned up our job site, packed away the tools and drove back to camp.
At 6 pm we had supper, followed by a review of the work done at each of the job sites. At 7 pm, a few volunteers helped with the dishes while the rest of us had some time to relax.
Ralf Hamm 