Work Day #1 at Gulf Port

Today we began our work for Hope CDA, which is an organization separate from Back Bay and a government-funded house repair organization. Their focus is to repair the houses already existing, not to completely start from scratch. However, today we found that our assigned project desperately needed to be completely torn down and built up from the ground. It seemed like a daunting task, but we quickly got to work. We began by cleaning all of the trash around the property and then began working on the house. By the end of the day we had ripped out most of the flooring, laid down floor joists, ripped out many of the walls, and laid down the subfloor. Although we have a lot of work yet to do, we made substantial progress and it already is looking so much better. Today some of us learned to apply more sunscreen, some learned to never use a port-a-potty, some learned to saw (Go Go Gopher and Twizzler pretty much beasted this one...), and some learned how to use a nail-gun. By the end of the day most of us were a few shades darker partially because of the sun but mostly because of the dirt. Around nine-thirty we were refreshed by some Mississippi rain soon to find that we were completely drenched from head to toe, despite our hats. Overall it was a fulfilling day and we are all looking forward to going back tomorrow. - P-Fitty, Mad Eye, Twizzler, uP Dog