Ms. Cynthia's house, my terrible Spanish...and a mold song
So today a few of us got up reeeeeeeeal early and made breakfast (and coffee, thank the lord) for the 70 people that are here now at Hands On. We made too much food, but it was delicious anyway- breakfast burritos with eggs and cheese and onions and peppers and salsa and sour cream and black beans and olives. It's easy to eat too much here...
Then we headed out on two different projects, mold removal and Ms. Cynthia's house. Mold involves lots of scubbing and painting and spraying and wiping...basically what we're trying to do is get rid of the gross rottenness that got into the wood frames of houses with the enormous floodwaters down here, so that the frames can be rebuilt-upon and turned into nice new buildings! The crew that went even got to sing a gorgeous song at dinner tonight (and apparently had the privilege to get close to some porta-potties, too. I'm jealous.)
Ms. Cynthia's house is a house (duh) that Hands On has been working on for a while now, turning it from a gutted frame to a drywalled building to a sided and painted almost-house, which is what it is now! The water came on today, they installed cabinets, and we painted, painted and painted some more. The baseboards and door trim needed putty, primer and white paint, so we tried (neatly) to apply the various coats. By the end of the day it looked GORGEOUS! And then we got to install doorknobs which was pretty much the COOLEST thing I've ever done, because they actually worked. But the best part was meeting Ms. Cynthia, a mother of five has been living in a tiny FEMA trailer next to the house, but who will now be able to move back in with her kids (before Christmas!) to the home her parents built! She told us all about how she used to climb on the counters when she was little, and you could just feel how excited she was to know she'd be seeing her kids do the same.
Afterwards we all ate dinner (delicious salmon and pasta), I caught up with a few friends from last year (Nate, Beau, Sue) and then we all headed over to the church across the street to speak English with some Hispanic construction workers who are trying to improve their conversation skills. I was worried I'd have nothing to say and would just make a fool of myself (and I did do that) but it was so much fun and I'm so glad I went. The people were great, even when they only knew a few words, and I felt as though we were all learning something. We spoke Spanish at the end and wow, they must have thought I was crazy, because I literally spent 15 minutes just making up words. So awesome.
Anyway, it's cold here but we're happy...Biloxi looks so much better than the last time I was here, and it's impossible to describe how unadulteratedly joyful that makes me.
Goodnight for now...I've gotta get sleep cause I'm doing mold. And mom...see you at the airport tomorrow,
can't wait!
-Sarah Hughes '07
Then we headed out on two different projects, mold removal and Ms. Cynthia's house. Mold involves lots of scubbing and painting and spraying and wiping...basically what we're trying to do is get rid of the gross rottenness that got into the wood frames of houses with the enormous floodwaters down here, so that the frames can be rebuilt-upon and turned into nice new buildings! The crew that went even got to sing a gorgeous song at dinner tonight (and apparently had the privilege to get close to some porta-potties, too. I'm jealous.)
Ms. Cynthia's house is a house (duh) that Hands On has been working on for a while now, turning it from a gutted frame to a drywalled building to a sided and painted almost-house, which is what it is now! The water came on today, they installed cabinets, and we painted, painted and painted some more. The baseboards and door trim needed putty, primer and white paint, so we tried (neatly) to apply the various coats. By the end of the day it looked GORGEOUS! And then we got to install doorknobs which was pretty much the COOLEST thing I've ever done, because they actually worked. But the best part was meeting Ms. Cynthia, a mother of five has been living in a tiny FEMA trailer next to the house, but who will now be able to move back in with her kids (before Christmas!) to the home her parents built! She told us all about how she used to climb on the counters when she was little, and you could just feel how excited she was to know she'd be seeing her kids do the same.
Afterwards we all ate dinner (delicious salmon and pasta), I caught up with a few friends from last year (Nate, Beau, Sue) and then we all headed over to the church across the street to speak English with some Hispanic construction workers who are trying to improve their conversation skills. I was worried I'd have nothing to say and would just make a fool of myself (and I did do that) but it was so much fun and I'm so glad I went. The people were great, even when they only knew a few words, and I felt as though we were all learning something. We spoke Spanish at the end and wow, they must have thought I was crazy, because I literally spent 15 minutes just making up words. So awesome.
Anyway, it's cold here but we're happy...Biloxi looks so much better than the last time I was here, and it's impossible to describe how unadulteratedly joyful that makes me.
Goodnight for now...I've gotta get sleep cause I'm doing mold. And mom...see you at the airport tomorrow,
can't wait!
-Sarah Hughes '07
posted by Dartmouth in Biloxi at 8:49 PM
1 Comments:
Hi:
Is this the same Sarah who went to school with Aaron Bullock? If so, PLEASE get in touch with me ASAP! I've been looking for you. This is Aaron's mom, Kim. Hope to hear from you soon, sweetie.
Kimmi
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