Well, 11 weeks to go. This week went by fairly quickly. I met a whole new crew of people. New names and new personalities. Our crew is around 20 or a few more. Gulfport is an interesting city. The neighbourhood we are in, as well as the surrounding ones, are quite poor. Just down the street is around 10 Habitat for Humanity homes. But, only 1 or 2 are occupied. Apparently the water main isnt large enough to handle the new homes, so the city wont provide the occupancy permits. But weve seen crews out there working on a new home the last few days, so maybe the city worked something out.
On Monday and Tuesday I worked with another guy doing a few odd jobs. Fixing some holes in drywall, leaky drains and so on. On Wednesday we were given the go-ahead to tear apart a house. So myself, the other guy, Don and another gentleman, Henry, went at it. We filled a dumpster and started making piles. We replaced about 50 ft of the exterior beam supporting the house as it was rotten and termite eaten. We tore off some old siding, all the drywall, the ceilings, kitchen and a few patches of the floor. Quite a site. Lots of work to be done. And now that they have funding for it, on Monday we can start putting it back together. Replace some studding, put plywood on the floors and all that other good stuff.
Today, Saturday, the same 2 guys that I work with, went down the street to help with putting on a new tin roof on the Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church. A couple from Michigan, one who I worked with in Slidell, are helping with that. He works on the roof with a few guys from the church everyday. They really appreciated the help today. The old roof was too flat and leaky, so a whole new set of trusses is going up and all new tin. Its quite a job. I have a feeling I may be back there on my other Saturdays here.