20 home Blitz Build

Saturday morning, May 19th, about 3:30 am I'll be headed to PDX to catch a flight to Houston and then on to Gulfport/Biloxi Mississippi.

As part of my Americorps VISTA Volunteer year I am being sent to work with the Habitat for Humanity to build 20 homes in a week to help replace the housing lost to Hurricane Katrina.

We will be staying at D'Iberville volunteer camp set up on what used to be softball diamonds where the youth played ball.

http://www.dvolteam.org/menus/camp1.html

It looks like a refuge camp with the military style tents and cots.
And from the director's own orientation notes, it appears they don't have much regard for Catholics.


I've always wanted to be able to travel and help build homes. But I will be honest and admit I thought it would be in another country, and it might feel a bit more glamorous than how this feels.

Our packing list included such things as our own tools, bedding, hard hats, bug spray, and pain reliever. Oh and to be sure and bring a signed copy of the drug and alcohol code of conduct.
What if alcohol IS my pain medication? Should I just bring a prescription for it?

In any event I leave in the morning and won't be back until Saturday the 26th.

Check out the website and pray for all of us going to build as well as those who are still struggling to get back into decent, affordable homes!

It's another Saturday and work calls me away from the kids and Jeff.

It is days like these that I wonder if I did the right thing in getting so involved in Habitat for Humanity and the Americorp VISTA program.

My Americorp pledge keeps me from saying 'no' to a lot of things that I might otherwise say no to. So I gather up my toolbelt, head to the office to pick up the necessary supplies of the day.

This Saturday is different though. We need cookies and punch, programs and prayers, free t-shirts, cups and plates.
Because today we are having a wall raising ceremony.

As I drive to the build site I run through the mental list of items I was supposed to grab with only Dave Matthews Band to keep me company.

I have never been to a wall raising ceremony and I certainly have never planned one... at least not until this week. And I feel a bit nervous.

I go through my mental list one last time, and doubt and question myself before setting it aside as I turn down Evergreen court and see the build site...

There is work to be done now....

It isn't long before people arrive. Maria arrives like she does every Saturday. She always has a smile to share as, together, we build her a home. But this week is different for her too. Her brothers and friends are here.

All goes well and the joy shared around the build site is contagious! Standing side by side raising the walls with Maria makes it all worthwhile.

I just wish Jeff and the kids would have decided to come and join me.

Sunset Service at Confirmation Retreat

Today we finished up the St. Edward's confirmation retreat in Newport, OR.
What a good group of young people. Only 16 youth and 3 adults.
Considerably smaller than what I am used to at St. James.
Some aspects of working with a smaller group I enjoyed,
and some aspects of not having a large group of 60 I missed.
But overall a wonderful retreat.

My favorite part was the sunset service on the beach with a nice roaring fire to keep away the evening chill.

Excitement in West Salem

A couple of days ago there was great excitement in Salem!

The whole city was abuzz with the weather.

We had Hail!

Not the golf ball size, not baseball sized hail, not even the grapefruit size devastating hail that we had in Kearney a few years ago that literally broke through roofs and landed in living rooms.

No this was different all right.
It was so light and so small and gathered on the ground and from a distance looked like snow!
And native Oregonias were excited!

After 10+ months of living here I have found the people to get very excited over high winds, temperatures over 90, and snow and now hail!

Where I come from high winds, extreme high and low temps, snow and hail are the norm! In fact there have been times when I experienced all the extremes in a span of three days.

Oregonias are spoiled! And I, for one, am glad to be living in such a mild climate!

Happy May Day!

May 1, 2007!


It's May Day.


For me, growing up in Kansas, May Day meant you went to your garden and cut flowers, put them in a small basket, like the old green plastic baskets that strawberries come in, or we would take a piece of construction paper and roll it like a cornucopia and slide the flowers down in.

Then we would take them to the neighbors home. Sometimes we would leave them on the step, ring the doorbell and run, sometimes we would hand our neighbors the bouquet of flowers.
It was partly a way to be neighborly and partly a way to brag about your garden and all the flowers you planted in the fall.

When we moved to Nebraska that tradition ended, mostly due to the longer winters and not having many flowers to cut and share. Instead, the kids traded bags of candy with the other neighbor kids and had fun trying to leave the candy, ring the doorbell and run without getting caught.
If my kids were writing this reflection, they would say it was more important for them to get candy and be able to catch the neighbors as they left it on our porch and had a long way to run to reach the end of our driveway.

Now we are here in Oregon, and I don't know what to expect. I told the kids Happy May Day this morning and they remembered... asking...
Do you think the neighbors will give us candy?

I think on the way home from work I should stop by the local hardware store and pick up some flowers for my neighbors, because I didn't plant very many last fall.

Maybe next year I will have flowers I can cut and share with my neighbors.