gypsum and pliers and stairs, oh my
Today instead of destroying things I got to build things. And this was good.
Most of the work that Hands On does is either (a) gutting or (b) molding. “Molding” is maybe a misleading name because we are really de-molding, but this word is perhaps too long for the sign-up board.
But this week, One Time Only, we have donated ourselves to another nonprofit called Rebuild Together. Under ordinary circumstances, Rebuild Together is a national organization that does minor repair work for elderly residents. After Katrina they expanded their mission in
And, if I may make a rash and biased appraisal of this effort based on my one-house experience, the new mission really needs some work.
Monday morning twenty of us went to the Davis House. Mr. Davis is the step-father of the trumpeter for the Dirty Dozen, if that means anything to you. The
This is not going to happen.
Once again, I’m hesitant to talk shit about anyone related to the relief effort. People down here are working under rough conditions, often for little or no money, with less recognition. They are making life possible for many
But on our site, there are between two and four coordinators at any time. They have no working hierarchy. They don’t even seem to get along that well. And they are all either inexperienced with construction or inexperienced with teaching. Or both.
So the day goes like this: We all stand around. Steve and Yvonne, smoking, argue about who will do what and how many people it will take. James tries to get a crew together for painting. Yvonne, smoking, steals his crew. He gets four new people and they start scraping paint. Steve tells them they’re doing it wrong. Yvonne smokes. And so on.
The normal Hands On style is to descend and conquer, preferably while playing Very Loud Music. We work independently, we work hard, and we work fast. The Rebuild Together style is to talk a lot about all the things they'd really rather do themselves, then reluctantly watch us do them while criticizing. And No Music. Music means you're goofing off. Ditto for laughter.
The real highlights are when Yvonne sees two women carrying timber and says loudly, “Let’s get a gentleman on here!” or when Steve says, “Here’s a hammer, lovely lady.” Because we all really love to be called weak (but don’t worry, still cute!) when we’ve been lifting and hammering and sweating in the heat all day.
So mostly the whole thing is an exercise in frustration. With good management, our crew would kick ass on a site like this. We would tear through it. But no one is there being a leader, so we waste tons of time.
The wasted time was abundant enough yesterday for a very sweet boy named Ian, who used to work in construction, to explain all the different parts of a house to me: floors, ceilings, walls, roofs. Materials and insulation. And then we had a fight with spackle, because – if you will think back 10 years or so – that’s the sort of thing 20 year old boys do when they don’t know what to say next. Which is ridiculous and kind of fun.
But in the too-rare moments of productivity, it’s great to be building, and to know the people you are building for. And today I got to make and install a doorframe, which involved a circular saw and a table saw and a sawsall. AND I now know how to patch drywall.
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