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Day Two – The Gloves Come On! 
The work gloves, that is. Yes, finally time to get down and dirty. The sun rose in a beautiful Carolina blue sky. After a hearty breakfast we were anxious to caravan to the work site. Usually, a portion of the first day is spent getting the lay of the land, so to speak. But because we had worked on this house in the fall, we felt very much at home, and it didn’t take Fletcher long to determine exactly where we needed to focus our first-day efforts.
There is a lot of pressure on us this trip. We have a “We Can Do It Well” reputation to uphold from last fall and our Craven County Disaster Recovery Alliance (CCDRA) managers expect us to make a lot of progress this week. So…some of us put up moulding (trim), caulked it, put up some sheets of drywall, mudded them, pried screws and nails out of a bathroom subfloor, scraped and sanded hardened glue off bathroom walls, then washed those bathroom walls. Other volunteers, with engineering backgrounds, spent hours figuring out the plumbing logistics of unhooking and moving a sink and vanity from one bathroom to install in another bathroom. Others enterprised jobs such as washing and rehabilitating numerous paint brushes, rollers, and paint trays. We painted two ceilings. There was a veritable smorgasbord of activities today!
And yet, one of our “Safety Officers,” Karen Smith, lamented that she only had to give out one Band-Aid today. Karen is high energy and is equipped and ready to deliver a baby if necessary. Not happenin’ with this group, Karen! But you can freely dole out the Bengay and Tylenol.
At dinnertime the minister of the Neuse Forest Presbyterian Church (where we are lodging), stopped by with two loaves of rye sourdough bread that he had personally made. It was delicious! He is also the person responsible for creating the CCDRA and helped rebuild the church when it was damaged by Hurricane Florence. He gave us a very heartfelt thank you for coming to help his community.
That’s all we needed to make those sore muscles feel better and rev up our engines for tomorrow’s adventures!
