Rector's Blog

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Git-R-Done

Day 2

Now at the end of a long day, as I sit near the quonset hut, a little yellow sliver of the moon gets brighter as the sun slips below the trees at the edge of camp.

Today we had a productive morning and a relatively frustrating, unproductive afternoon.

Morning: We tore it up this morning. We started at 7:00 a.m. on Mr. Jones' house. We finished placing hurricane straps around the edge of the house.

So we went on to another project.

In the town in which we're working, in the "black" part of town as some say here, there is a playground that is really pitiful. An old swing set, basketball court, and a trenched out but unfinished baseball diamond are surrounded by a large chain link fence. (It is a telling contrast to some other, more beautified city-owned parks that we've seen in other parts of town.)

We spent the latter half of the morning making the park better for kids in this neighborhood to play in it.

SHUNK was the sound our shovels made as they dug deeply into large piles of sand at the end of the park. Soon our wheelbarrows were full, and we steadily wheeled them back and forth, dumping them on the diamond and the pitcher's mound. We stomped sand down and got it done—and, then in celebration, played baseball until noon.






Afternoon: After such a productive morning, our last two and a half hours were relatively unproductive (remember, we got up early to avoid working more in the hottest parts of the day, so we were going to be off at 3). With the baseball diamond finished, we came back to Mr. Jones' house but found that there was really nothing to do that we could do as a group. What needed to be done involved skilled carpentry in some very few areas. And these areas left most of the group sitting on their haunches, staying well-hydrated but really without business.
I expected, but did not articulate, that we would come here and—wham!—walk right into work well laid out for us—work that would clear, fully engaging, and at the groups skill level. But guess what? We're finding that that's not where people are here. Even well after the relief and recovery effort, and well into the rebuilding effort, there is more chaos than I can appreciate. When the work is clear as to what we're to do, we can do it. But sometimes the work simply isn't clear: the contractor needs to come by to tell us what to do here or there (and so we lose time waiting) or we don't have the right tools, etc. It reminds me that we're here to help as we can: to be productive and yet contribute as we can.

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