Thursday, July 18, 2019
We had our normal routine in the morning and then set out to our job sites.
Valter, Ingried and Ernie went back to Radek’s house, however, I went to Donna Lester’s house to start working on her bathroom renovation.
When I arrived at the house, I met Donna, checked the status of the bathroom and took time to talk to her ( after I had received my obligatory hug ). She told me that she had lost her sight about 5 years ago. The first three years after the loss of her sight were very hard for her. She was depressed and didn’t know how to cope with the loss of her sight, but 2 years ago she changed her attitude and she is doing very well now. She also told me that she always looked for a ray of sunshine when things weren’t going well and now MDS workers are her ray of sunshine.
Ike met me at Donna’s house shortly after 9 and we discussed the location for her standalone bathtub and the area she wanted to have tiled.
We took measurements of her bathtub and marked it on the bathroom floor to get an idea of how it would fit. I laid out the tiles to determine the area I would be tiling behind the tub.
After verifying my measurements, I went back to the storage trailers to cut the tile edging. While I was there, I saw two young fawns running across the lawn of one of the houses.
When I returned to the house, I connected the shutoff valves for the vanity and the toilet and then prepared the edging around the shower for tiles, which took longer than expected. I didn’t finish until 5:30 pm, but I was enjoying my time and the song ‘ Man of Sorrows ‘ came to mind. I find the lyrics very poignant and inspirational.
On my way home I couldn’t help but notice the picturesque view of the mountains that surround the town of Grand Forks so I had to stop and take a picture.
I finally arrived back at camp just in time to change for supper.
The volunteers at the Redding house completed most of the drywall installation. This house has designed by the owners and has a unique shed-style ceiling that is 8 feet high at the entrance and about 12 feet high at the back of the house so it has presented the team with some interesting opportunities. Valter, Ingried and Ernie finished everything except for two minor items that required material. Justin and Bethany finished most of the painting and trim work at the Walter house, while Sharon, Deniese, Mark and Jonathan made good progress on the painting at Barbara McClelland’s house. Yolanda and Egon mudded the drywall at Kent’s house.
Barbara McClelland joined us for supper and she talked about her experiences during and after the flood. Her experience was very similar to the stories told by the other homeowners. She had also been interviewed by Global News after the flood, but I couldn’t find the link to it. A common theme with all of the homeowners, is the fact that they were all caught unaware of the potential flooding that had occurred.
We spent the rest of the evening socializing with each other; some around the fire pit; until the volunteers slowly started to fade away.
Ralf Hamm 