House # 4 Pics

I was one of the "non-SEIers" who attended the Gulf Volunteer trip to Bay St. Louis, MS last week. First, let me extend a HUGE thank you to SEI and all of those who organized the trip. I am extremely appreciative for the opportunity to attend and can say without question that this was an experience that I will never forget. We first arrived at the New Orleans airport on Sunday and we had about an hour-long drive to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where we would be staying for the week at Lagniappe Church. As we drove to our destination, it was amazing to see how much devastation still exists in this area since Hurricane Katrina hit almost 3 long years ago and how much rebuilding and help is still needed along the Gulf Coast.

Our mornings started off very early (around 6AM) and our work days were very long (lasting until 6PM or so). These long days were necessary if we were going to be able to "blitz build" 10 houses in 1 week in the beautiful community of Diamondhead. SEI volunteers were assigned to 8 of the 10 houses. Each house had about 25-30 people working on it (5-6 of them were SEI volunteers…the others were volunteers from organizations such as AmeriCorp, Habitat for Humanity, other churches, and individual volunteers).

I had the pleasure of working on House # 4 with other SEIers: Larry, Victor, Christian, Bruce, and Ben. Here is a photo of what House # 4 looked like when we first arrived at the work site on Monday (only the foundation, floor, and carport were there to start with).

It was amazing (and a bit intimidating) to think that we would be able to finish building this house in one week! But, after a few short hours, we already had most of the exterior and interior walls built and secured into place.

By Day 2, we already had most of the trusses up in the front of the house.

Here's a picture of Victor showing me (Kim) how to install hurricane straps. We must've put up hundreds of these things all around the house! These straps help the house to withstand extreme winds and secure all of its connections.

Here's a picture of Christian carrying some of the roof sheeting to the back of the house.

And, here is Bruce, hammering away installing more hurricane straps and nailing down the roof sheeting.

Here's Larry installing the windows and making sure that they are all "plumb" (or level).

Christian, Larry and Victor – all up on the roof – getting it prepped and ready for the roofers on Thursday.

Day 4 – Thursday – after a crazy rain storm, the roof is finished, the front siding has been installed, and it's ready to be painted. We were frantically trying to get the front of the house "picture-worthy" for Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's visit on Thursday afternoon.

During another rain delay, the SEI team posed with the proud future homeowner of House # 4, Stephanie for a quick photo (Bruce, from SEI, is missing from the photo – sorry Bruce)!

Final Day – here's a photo of how House # 4 looks at the end of the week. Because of 2 days of rain delays, the house isn't completely finished…but we made great progress.

And, here's a picture of the entire team who worked on House # 4 on our final day.

Here is the homeowner of House # 4, Stephanie, with her two sons Mario and Vincent on their way to the House Dedication ceremony. Here, the entire team blessed each room of the house together.

As we got ready to depart for the airport on Saturday morning, SEI made its mark at Lagniappe Church, with "Captain Jack" nailing up the sign below showing SEI's support and love for the Bay in May 2008.

As many of the other bloggers have written, it is extremely difficult to put into words what this volunteer experience has meant to me and the other volunteers. What I can say, is that this experience has been life-changing. It was a true example of teamwork, partnerships, camaraderie, family, love, faith, appreciation, hard work, perseverance, and rejuvenation. All of the early mornings, long days, aches, pains, swollen ankles, swarms of love bugs, sleepless nights and black & blue thumbs wouldn't keep me from doing this all over again and again. Seeing the smiles on the homeowners faces and the renewed hope in their eyes made this experience extremely worthwhile!

Thanks again SEI for all that you do and for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it all!

~Kim Julius

SEI Volunteer on TV!!!!!

Robin Bortz is a consistent Gulf Region volunteer - having participated in three of our four trips and one church-affiliated trip prior to our first trip down to MS in November 2006. It was actually Robin that was the initial spark for the idea of SEI playing an active role in the Gulf Region rejuvenation in partnership with Kevin Johnston - who also participated in a church supported volunteer effort prior to his participation in one of SEI's Gulf Region trips.

The visit of the Carters was quite newsworthy and the below two links contain footage of the Carters' trip to the Diamondhead worksite where all of us where. You'll also view an interview with our own Robin Bortz!!!

http://www.wlox.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=2483579&h1=Al%20Showers%20Reports%20On%20Houses%20Going%20Up%20In%20Diamondhead&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=94000&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=80437857

http://www.wlox.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=2492121&h1=Al%20Showers%20Reports%20On%20President%20Carter%27s%20Visit%20To%20Diamondhead&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=170233&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=26055382

Check out the below link to view photos from our job sites. You'll see pics of SEI volunteers at House #10 on Day #4 and a number of shots of SEI volunteers on the other builds incorporated amongst the other days as well:

http://www.habitatbaywaveland.org/photogallery/index.php

Reverse Engineering

hi,

I like to blog as though I was making a personal diary entry.Almost as though I was talking to a living breathing person and I guess I am, talking to all of you who check in to see how the SEI team did in the Rejuvenate week.

The excitement began when the list of volunteers for trip IV was announced.It was,for me a wish that came true.So I will in this post and the next few,attempt to weave the fabric of 'Rejuvenate week'.One filled with intense hard physical labor,fun and most of all giving of ourselves.

The week began on sunday afternoon when I arrived at the SEI oaks office to take the shuttle for the late flight.Prep began in the week before with trips to Walmart and Kohls.Never before had I gone looking for protective sunglasses or even a rain poncho for that matter.Anyways since it was on the 'things to bring' list I decided to trust the wisdom of the people who compiled it and deligently checked each one off.

So here I was at the SEI office ready to leave for the airport.My mind at this point was BLANK,surprised huh!!! After all that talk of excitement.I was excited but somewhere I was willing to let life take me and experience everything the week of 5/11/08 would show and teach me and it did.Probabaly because for the first time I let it;without resistance.Will tell you more about how in my next post.

See you all again on the other side of my next stream of thoughts.Until then happy sailing on this one.

Back Home: The One Question

Upon coming back home, the one question most seem to ask is, "So, how was the trip?" It's a question I frankly don't have the ability to answer, so I typically summarize by responding, "Great" or by using a similar adjective. This despite I began reflecting upon it all by taking one of those few well deserved naps in your life: and in this case a nap under the morning sun on a picnic table bench on Saturday, as well as the 7 hour journey back home, and throughout Sunday.

However even after thoughtful reflection, it remains mighty difficult to explain to anyone in a few simple words what this experience has truly meant to me, and I imagine it's the same for most all of us volunteers. This is because the trip was many things to everyone involved. It's the relationships you develop amongst the SEI crew, the friends or acquaintances from afar that you make at the work site, learning and applying new skills everyday, the pride you take in your given or chosen task, the drain of energy if you are not used to standing and hammering all day long. It's overcoming the fears of being on the edge of a rooftop, contemplating and still not ever understanding the life of a love bug, an hour long conversation with a resident who apologizes to me that he finds it too easy to vent sadness and frustration at having lost his fiance, driving an 8 passenger van for the first (and perhaps last) time, plugging $10 in a jukebox and enthusiastically choosing John Anderson as one of those songs (again, perhaps for the last time), talking with Carl about the first time he heard Jimi Hendrix, it’s Robin changing the fate of man by impressing on him her experience during a 3-hour flight home, the paranoia of misplacing my Estwing hammer because I love it more than almost anything I have there with me, sleep deprivation for every sort of reason, fried green tomatoes, pulley systems developed for a shower.

If you approach each day as another opportunity to help as we all did (none of us missed a work day, and as far as I know, we were on-time each day as well), you find it in yourself to wake up at 6a and work until 6p each day and you learn a lot about a person, yourself included. I certainly learned a lot about myself each day. For instance, I learned I can carry a big hammer but I am nothing without our incredible site leader Russ, and the help of other more knowledgeable and patient volunteers such as Galen. I learned that I can burn and tan and then burn again so I chose to wear a functional, kinda ridiculous straw Panama Jack hat instead (a hat with with lead based fake South African shells, or so I learned when I went through the metal detector at the airport). I learned that I want to apply the skills I have learned and get involved in Habitat (iBuild, or a similar organization) in the Philadelphia area.

As Robin Bortz was quoted as saying during a local news interview (which you can find on the link posted by Robb Muse above), “Where else can you work where someone thanks you everyday for what you do”? Of course, it’s very true. In Mississippi, the families you build for are so very grateful and most everyone in the community shows their gratitude in some way, and when they express this it's usually in a way that one can tell that by volunteering to help build homes, this raises the spirit that had at once been taken away in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In this sense, it's quite profound. It's this aspect of the volunteering that is by far the most rewarding for myself; experiencing the genuine gratitude of many of the residents. I say this because we can build a house for someone to live. However we can't give anyone back their lives. It seems almost too cliché to mention anymore on a blog and especially amongst those affected by Hurricane Katrina (because they ALL lost everything) but it's fact- Almost Everything Was Lost. From the remote control to your family scrap book to your car and home, it's all lost and gone forever. You are told to provide receipts in order to be properly compensated. Your receipts were lost. So you are given a $5,000 check to cover the cost of the three vehicles (two you utilized in your own business). That might buy you a few tools to get back in business and a clunker from an auction in Florida that you now can drive to a job, when and if you find work. You are given a FEMA trailer, but then eventually told to move. FEMA then restructures as a result of Katrina and the bureaucracy of it all is so overwhelming to penetrate that you must foot the bill on your own. The local church and local non-profit organizations (that may have nearly been dissolved before the disaster, i.e. Americorp) are now your only salvations, but they can only prop you up in so many ways. You've heard the stories. Everyone has one. It's disheartening to hear and it must be a nightmare to live. When your home is destroyed, your business destroyed, your community in shambles, and for a week you don't even have water or a port-a-pot for a month... it's inconceivable to imagine how much most everyone in this community has lost. Let alone the grief of losing a loved one or someone close to you. It most certainly must challenge your spirit. It's probably only too easy to give up hope. Though even after all of this, when I speak and a resident of Bay St. Louis who hears my northern accent asks me why I am here, I explain, and I see and hear this gratitude when I hear “God Bless you all” by a local, or we are provided a home cooked meal prepared by a neighbor, or a tearful speech or hug by a Habitat home owner. The Gulf is definitely rebuilding. Though when you hear the stories, the realization is that in many ways, it will never be the same. It's a paradox that once you acknowledge is true, in my opinion, only then can you perhaps begin to understand what the families in this area have been through.

You take all of this with you back home. As a result you reflect, and perhaps you want to prioritize and learn and do more, or perhaps you simply are grateful in that moment. We all take something different from the experience. It's impossible for me to explain in detail all that I have taken from this trip. Though I know we all built 10 homes in a week. I know that we made a difference in those families’ lives. I know Habitat-For-Humanity and Americorp will carry on the work to be done without me there. I know it will be an experience I will not forget and I hope that this is not the end of such experiences for myself, SEI, Lagniappe Church (which housed and fed us volunteers), and I know it's not the end for Bay St. Louis, Diamondhead, and the Gulf Region.

Yours,
Alan