Working With Tom

Today was our second day of work.  Unfortunately, we had to break into two
groups to do our work this week.  My group did some moving and mudding at
a house yesterday, and today we were at a different house.  The man who
lived at the house we worked at today was named Tom, and he was quite a
character.  At first glance, he seemed like a packrat who was a little bit
crazy.  However, as the day went on and we heard his stories, we grew to
appreciate him and all that he had to say.  His house only had a little
bit of water damage during Katrina, and he didn’t evacuate because he had
already been through other hurricanes in the past, including Betsy back in
1965.  His house was very unique, with many different sections, decks, and
a pond in the back.  He built the house himself, dug out the pond, and is
in the process of creating his own “levees” in front of his house.  He
expressed a lot of anger at the government’s lack of action after the
hurricane struck, but he was nothing but grateful for receiving help from
us.  He has made it his personal mission to teach other people about the
Choctaw Native Americans.  The Choctaw were Mayans who migrated to the New
Orleans area.  His grandfather was Choctaw and he is creating a museum to
teach others about the Native Americans that were removed from that area.
It was amazing to all of us how Tom has so many ambitions and dreams for
his life.  Throughout the day we were constantly hearing about all of his
plans—from running a tour company to creating a stage for Choctaw theater
performances to building cabins for people to come stay and learn about
his ancestors—he is still dreaming big despite the damage that Hurricane
Katrina has done.  He kept telling us what a blessing it was to be able to
meet people like us who are willing to give our time and energy to help
others.  At one point he said, “You guys are doing more than restoring my
house, you’re restoring my dreams.”  We could feel his gratitude all day
long.  As for work projects, we moved some things (ironically, we moved
another boat—we’re thinking of starting a UCC UConn boat-moving company),
sanded and mudded a wall that another group had started, and put up
sheetrock on a ceiling.  In addition, we worked on some outdoor
projects—moving a walkway and some plants as well as cleaning up the yard.
Richie, Daniqua, Laura, Mickeve, Erich, and I were working on the
ceiling.  Laura, Richie, and Erich had done projects like that before, but
Daniqua, Mickeve, and I were inexperienced.  Each of us got a chance to
get up on the ladder and drill the screws into the ceiling.  Although
Daniqua, Mickeve, and I took awhile to get the hang of it, we ended up
getting the job done by the end of the day.  Alex, Hilary, and Brittany
were working with Tom on some of his outdoor projects that he had for us.
It was an exhausting day, but we got a lot of hard work done.  After
getting home and showering, the people from the church where we’re staying
came over for a potluck dinner.  I can’t even express to you how DELICIOUS
the food was!  We got to try lots of Southern dishes and spent time
talking with church members.  It was an awesome ending to an incredible
day, but there’s much more to come!  It’s only Tuesday!  Tomorrow we’re
only working in the morning and we’re heading to the beach in the
afternoon!

~Sarah Stockmann