Well, the skies opened up last night and graced us with about 5 inches of rain. Yea…muchos rain… And it didn’t stop. So no gutting today. After doing a small amount of inventorying early this morning, we’re just kinda hanging around, trying to occupy ourselves. Lauren had a fantastic idea this morning to go play football outside, so the bold members of our group braved the torrential rains and played a rousing game of football for the ages. Other than that we’ve been playing Dutch Blitz, reading, talking, and anything else we can find to pass the time. The rain is coming down so hard that we often need to scream just to hear one another. Hopefully our roof stays on!
Yesterday I was so busy I was too tired to write. Unbeknownst to us, it was our last day of gutting… But it was a good one nonetheless!! My group traveled back to the palace, yes, palace, we started the day before and did quite a number on it. We finished the main portion of the first floor and a couple of the rooms coming out of the hallway. Included in our treasures that we pulled out was a refrigerator, a treadmill, a dishwasher, a kitchen sink, furniture galore, and two enormous rugs filled with hardened mud. We were all quite impressed with out progress. We were hoping to go back today to finish, but apparently God has different plans.
So it seems this trip is coming to a close. That means no more crow bars and sledgehammers, no more moldy walls, no more Fema water, no more roaches, no more 6 am mornings, no more gas masks, goggles, and hard hats. But more significantly, never again will this group of 25 rugged Bucknellians spend an entire day together serving people who we’ve grown such a heart for. Sure, we’ll see each other around campus and maybe even have a reunion, but it will not be anywhere close to what we’re experiencing now. Our group has grown such indescribable bonds, formed by our same passion for serving our needy neighbors. It is very depressing to think that we will never be together like this again. But it is exceedingly hopeful to think of the potential we will have back on campus. We can remain united together to educate our fellow classmates about the extreme need here. And we can promote and even lead more trips down here to see that our unfinished work continues. On top of that, we can locate needy people back in Lewisburg and join together to serve their needs. We may never all enter a moldy, cockroach infected house together, but when we return, we will reunite to do far more than fix houses.
Comments (1)
Hello Matt and Team Bucknell,
Just read your blog through e-Bucknell World and wanted to commend you all for your work. I'm a '71 alum now living in Central Texas. I've made 4 trips w/ Habitat building new homes near Houma,LA in the last year. Worked w/ Americorps vols who have also been involved in the "gutting" process so I know how nasty it is and how rewarding also to work w/ people there who lost virtually everything.
As I'm sure you know from folks there, one of the most important things is to make people elsewhere aware of how much is still to be done. You do this by going there and then relating your experiences through the blog and any other forum available to you.
Also, by coincidence, I worked with 6 Bowling Green students the same week you were in NO. They were here in Georgetown volunteering with our affiliate.
Keep up the good work and pass it on to the rest of the team.
Bill Gardiner
Posted by Bill Gardiner | January 17, 2007 9:59 AM
Posted on January 17, 2007 09:59