Re-Entry

Well, we're back.  We left Tutwiler at 7:15 am and got in to Evanston around 6:00 pm.  I certainly noticed the difference in the mood going down vs. the mood coming back.  Going down excited and full of energy.  Coming back, exhausted but satisfied with a job well done.  I have a couple of reflections from Jan and then some photos that didn't make it into my other blog posts.

Casey

Jan

May 23, 2014

On Friday morning Marie and I took a break from to worksite to attend to a task Sr. Maureen, Community Center Director, asked us to do.  We replaced the roof on a pergola like structure that stands across the street from the Community Center.  The challenge here was that the 4x4 posts supporting the structure had about 12, maybe 18, years of warp and twist in them.  We debated for some time whether to replace the posts, straighten them, or leave them as is.  We opted for the last, reasoning that we did not want to change what was an established Tutwiler landmark, but the roof did need to go.

I had designed and built some trusses using lumber I found on discard pile earlier in the week, and after demolishing the old roof, managed to frame up the new roof.  In the meantime Marie set about touching up the paint on the 5 foot harmonica that hangs beneath the pergola, taking care not obscure the designs of the creator.  This is truly a piece of folk art.  In fact, while Marie was working on it, a passing driver stopped to ask if it was for sale.  JD eventually arrived with the sheeting and shingles and we completed a credible job that I hope will last or another 18 years.

About 30 yards down the street is a collapsing shell of a brick building with a brightly painted sign in front that identified it as the funeral home where Emmett Till’s body was brought after it was found nearby in the Tallahatchie River, and where it was turned over to Emmett’s uncle on condition that the casket not be opened.  We learned later that evening that someone had secured a grant to turn the funeral home into a museum and historical site.  It certainly deserves more than it is now.  Tutwiler deserves more, so this is good news.

Later that evening out group walked by the funeral home and a few very sketchy looking juke joints to a new restaurant that opened just a few weeks ago.  Landers grill sits across the street from the library in the Masonic Hall.  We were greeted by the owners, Marvin and his wife Mary (JD’s little sister), Marvin’s daughter Nikki and husband Johnny, and their 3 year old son Lander, for whom the place is named.  They’re only open on weekends and offer a limited menu.  The sign on the door lists “rib tips, polishes, and how wings” and that’s what we had.  The setting and décor was inviting and comfortable, and the food was as great as the hospitality.  We all hope that their business thrives.  A spot like this would be a huge anchor for revitalizing the center of town.  Those of us who had been to Tutwiler for several years were buoyed by these recent changes, evidence of people showing their pride in their community and taking control of how things will be done.

Finally, there was a lot of talk about the upcoming, first ever, Tutwiler Day on June 7, something I wish we could attend.  One of the young fellows who was working with us was planning to show his “stepping horse” and his “racing horse”.  There’ll be pony rides as well.  The Community Center Blues group will be performing, and the Tutwiler cheerleaders will be there too.  JD is planning to enter his ribs in the BBQ competition and Johnny will be there with his rib tips.  There will be a car show too, which, judging by some the cars I saw cruising by, should be something to see.  

JN

We ate everything they put in front of us!

May 24, 2014

We returned home from Tutwiler last night to find the expected stack of mail collected by our neighbor on the kitchen table.  In the pile was a magazine, the Rochester Review, a publication of the University of Rochester directed to alumni.  I usually scan through the pages looking to see which faculty had retired, or died, and news of some of my classmates.  This issue, however, includes an article about Matthew Zwerling, class of ’64, who was moved to participate in Freedom Summer, the 1964 effort organized by the NAACP and the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) to recruit college students to help register black voters in Mississippi.  Zwerling travelled from NY with another student from his apartment building, AndyGoodman, and they spent a week in training together before receiving their assignments.  Matthew was assigned to work in Clarksdale, a town about 25 miles from Tutwiler that our HFH crew is very familiar with.  (Four years ago, after mass at St Elizabeth’s, I met Paul Clark, whose grandfather gave Clarksdale its name.  He directed us to Abe’s where he joined us a few minute later.)  Andy was sent to Meridian. Within a week, Andy Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner had been murdered, their bodies being discovered several weeks later.  In this article Matthew described some his experiences in the Clarksdale area and some of the heroic people who worked with him.  I encourage you to read the article (http://www.rochester.edu/pr/Review/V76N5/0501_voting.html).

One of the issues I struggle with every time I go to Tutwiler is trying to understand how the local folk perceive us.  What must they think when they see this convoy of white people from Evanston, in their pretty nice SUV’s, pull into the HFH dorm driveway. (I have to believe that our reputation for eating well has made its way into local legend.) I feel their sincerity in welcoming us and I think they truly appreciate our being there. I feel very comfortable among them, but the people we meet, mostly blacks, have a history that I, a white person, cannot really comprehend.  I worry, too, that what we might like to think of history, is still pretty active.  We spend a week there, among friends.  What is their life like when we leave?  We may have returned to Evanston, but my mind, and a piece of my heart, is still in Mississippi.

JN

We'll be back next year with more tales from the Delta

Going Home

We are heading home in the morning, early, real early. Tonight there is a flurry of activity as we sweep and mop the floors, clean the bathrooms, divy up the remains of our food and drink..the minutia of packing up after a busy week. It is bittersweet, I don't want to leave the fellowship of this group but I'm ready to go home and sleep in my bed.  The question for me is, what else will I bring home? A sense of belonging, to this group, to Sheil, and to Tutwiler.

I have three reflections to share with you tonight and a few pictures.  I plan to write the final post on Sunday.  Thank you all for traveling with us on this journey.

Casey


John

My week here is coming to an end.  I am leaving tomorrow morning in order to get home in time to take some pictures at Sheil Fest.  This year’s Sheil Fest will be a special event, part of the celebration of Sheil’s 75^th anniversary.  So I guess it is time to offer my thoughts on what we accomplish here. 

Of course, like all the volunteer groups who come here, we have a positive effect on the community.  My first year here, we had a chance to tour one of the houses our group had worked on in previous years.  Vanessa, the owner, was happy to invite us to take a look, but not until the next day, so she would have time to clean the place.  So late the next afternoon, we all dragged our sweaty, dirty bodies into Vanessa’s clean home. 

The houses we build here are sturdy and comfortable, but hardly luxurious.  The bedrooms are not large.  I have lived in many apartments with bigger ones.  They are single stories with no basement or garage, so there is not a lot of room to store all your extra stuff or accommodate a hobby.  I could live pretty comfortably in a house like this, but I am a single guy, and I would still have to get rid of some of my superfluous stuff. 

But the people who get the houses are always thrilled.  It is their home, the place they own.  They choose the color of the walls and the tile on the floor.  No matter if it is soon crowed with kids and sometimes grandchildren.  No matter if it is smaller and less luxurious than one might find in Chicago’s suburbs. 

So when a band of strangers invaded her home, far too many to fit comfortably, Vanessa was thrilled.  The women in the group looked around and complimented her on her decorating skill.  A few of the veterans looked closely to see if anyone could notice the imperfections they left behind a year or two before.  And Vanessa started crying, which brought many of our group to tears as well. 

This year, we were able to meet both the women who will be getting the houses we are working on this week.  Felicia will be moving into the first one, which should be finished in a couple weeks.  We worked on the same house last year, so she has been waiting a long time.  She will be moving in next door to her cousin LaShonda, who owns the other house we worked on last year.  Both LaShonda and Felicia dropped by to see the progress of Felicia’s house, and dropped by to see the other house we were working on, which should be finished by the end of the year.  That will be Sarah’s house.  Sarah spent plenty of time working on her house this week, but could only drop in for a few hours at a time as she maneuvered between her two jobs.  Sarah pretty much did whatever we asked her to do.  She seemed less disturbed than we were about the imperfections the previous group of builders had left behind.  She is just happy to be getting a home. Of course we want to take the time to do the job right.  Of course we want to build a house that we would be happy to live in.  She deserves no less. 

Yesterday, we visited the clinic to drop off some supplies, and Dr. Brooks was happy to spend some time with us.  Jan has already related some of the stories she told us, so I will not repeat them.  But she loves to see our group  because we come back year after year and take an interest in the community.  She thanked us time and again for our work and told us how important it is.  When someone owns a house, that person feels like they are somebody.  And if they are somebody, it becomes more important to take care of their health.  Building houses is actually public health measure.

Late in the week, two young men started coming by to lend a hand.  One has been showing up for years, and some of the long time volunteers have watched him grow up.  The other was a young man who has completed two years of community college and is trying to decide where he will go from here.  While he helped put up siding, he peppered the rest of the siding crew with questions.  How to you decide on a career?  What is the best way to get started?  How did you get your job?  Today, he joined us for lunch.  One of our volunteers gave him a brief introduction to electrical wiring, then suggested that instead of being an electrician, he might want to be the guy who supervises the electricians.  Another person told him that he was a whole lot smarter than he thinks he is, that he could certainly succeed in college.  He was grateful for the attention, and said he learned more from us in a few days than he had in a couple of years of school.  Not too many people around here encourage young people to go to college or beyond, or tell them how bright and talented they are. 

We arrived for the potluck dinner tonight during the weekly music lessons at the community center.  This being the home of the blues, that is what the center provides musical instruction in.  The participants are all high school age, and they are pretty good.  They are preparing for the big community festival coming up in a few weeks. Three local professional musicians offered instruction. The drummer sounded surprisingly polished.  A couple of bassists got along pretty well.  One of them is also the group’s lead vocalist.  She is not Koko Taylor, at least not yet, but even in the brief time we watched, we could see how she was gaining in confidence.  She is becoming someone who can stand up in front of a crowd and belt out the blues, not a task for the faint of heart.  Meanwhile, the instructor for the guitar players explained cord progressions while his students listened to every word. 

Later in the evening, some of us went into Clarksdale to watch a couple of those instructors perform, and I got to speak to one of them.  She said this was the best teaching experience she has ever had, that the students pay attention to everything.  The center has a few donated instruments, so some of them can practice at home.  It is something important to them.  And it’s free!

We bring many things to the people of Tutwiler.  I am a relative newcomer, here for my third trip.  Some of our crew have been here for most of eleven years, and most are far more talented at building houses than I am.  But each of us brings our time and talent, and we effect the people here sometimes in ways that we do not expect.  Perhaps we do more by simply telling them that they are significant, that they have gifts of their own to offer, that there is a purpose and a mission for their life, a message they hear far to infrequently.  Perhaps in giving them that message, we might even hear it ourselves.  

Bill

So what  is it that brings me back to Tutwiler? It is an important question because of what it means to me each year.

We go together with some of the same people , meet new neighbors and find a common ground of what it takes to form a community.  It does not require any common bond of race, education, religion,or political group.  The base of community is found in all being willing to use each other's gifts to build something bigger than any of us could do alone and I thrill in the accomplishment that gives life to others.  It is amazing how egos are set aside and turn into intimacy that touches each member of the team. Each of us is free to be who we are with no blame and no shame.  It is each of us giving to someone else a feeling of belonging in a society that doesn't allow entrance easily.   I return to Sheil with a resolve to be more accepting, a better listener, and to look for the face of Christ in all who touch my life.

Natalie

Today was our last day and I can't help but wonder, "What did we accomplish?"  We finished siding two houses, put in closets, stained wood, installed molding, hung dry wall and did a lot of mudding and sanding etc.  However, with so much still left undone what did we really accomplish? Two families are one week closer to having a home and I guess that that is reason enough for being here.  I look forward to returning again next year and helping another family in their journey toward home.

Lorenzo is helping with some final sanding

Before...

After

Before

After

Every year we make a plaque to commemorate our trip.  Andy made this one incorporating Sheil's 75th Anniversary.

Here is the Sheil Wall.  We have a plaque for every year.

Casey

 

Community

You'll notice that I changed the above title photo.  The other day after Bernadette's Aunt Mae challenged us to look for something new I decided to try and find the letters of HABITAT on our work site. Most of the letters I had to stage a little but with John's help and photo shop I think it turned out well.

Tonight Jan has three reflections which highlight Sheil's commitment to this community.  Tonight we had our annual potluck at the community center.  Every year towards the end of our stay the community has a potluck supper for us.  It is a chance for us to connect with past Habitat families and  hopefully the ones whose houses we've been working on.  It also gives the Tutwiler community a chance to thank us for the work we've done. Sarah was there, she greeted me with a big hug.  We've asked her if when we come down next year she would give us a tour of her home.  She gave us a resounding yes.  After the dinner I was walking back to the dorm as she drove by. "I will show you my house next year! Ya'll have a safe trip home!"

Jan #1

May 22, 2014

Marie made her delivery of books to the Tutwiler Library today as she does every year.  The practice started a number of years ago when she worked for the Evanston Public Library.  She and Linda Balla, another booklover, EPL employee, and HFH veteran made the acquaintance of Roshella, the Tutwiler Librarian.  The Tutwiler Library is, remarkably enough a relatively new building just over the tracks from the decrepit downtown.  It is a very pleasant, modern library that attracts an enthusiastic clientele with its holdings, PCs, and internet access, and Roshella is a dedicated librarian, but perennial budget cuts threaten libraries here as much as they do in Evanston.  Marie and Linda discussed with Roshcella what kinds of titles she might like to add to their collection and arranged to cull theregular EPL discards for suitable books for Tutwiler.  One shipment usually accompanies our HFH crew. Another happens sometime in the fall. Two librarians from Evanston connecting with a librarian in Tutwiler.

John also has a delivery of books to make to the library and community center.  He managed to have a huge donation made by some discount booksellers and is working on securing a way to ship the books to Tutwiler.

What is remarkable about all this is that the people who make the trip to work for HFH every year do not stop thinking about the Tutwiler community when they return home, and even those like Linda, who no longer can make the trip, continue their work in their own way. (Linda and husband Randy also funded the purchase of several pies for dessert for our 2014 crew.)  We are invested in this community.  Our minds are here even as we go about our work in Evanston.

Marie, John, and Roshcella

Jan #2

Thoughts for today

In leading our devotional this morning, Charlotte quoted St Francis: “Preach the gospel at all times.  When necessary, use words.”  This suits me just fine. I’m not much of talker, and I admit I’m lousy party material, but I’m quite happy to let my actions speak for me.  That’s not to say I don’t appreciate effective communication.  The noted semanticist and former US Senator S.I Hayakawa once said “Say what you mean and mean what you say”.  I’ve taken that to heart.  I may not say much, but when I do, I mean what I say.  The same goes for what I do.  I take my actions quite seriously, as seriously as anything I say.

Marie, Harriet, Bernadette and I finished trimming out the closets in house 39 today, in record time I might add.  Trim and finish work here in Tutwiler is a particular challenge.  We’re presented with four closet “spaces”- rooms finished with 2x4’s and finished drywall. There are no door jambs, no shelves, no clothes poles, no base boards, no closet pole supports.  We are given access to pile of 1X lumber and left to our imaginations to build a closet. So we get to design a closet from scratch that we hope will please the future homeowner, based mostly on what we would like to see in our own closets, had anyone asked us.  So with a flurry of staining, applying polyurethane ( 3 coats please), measuring, re-measuring, cutting, trimming, locating studs, drilling, nailing and coping we produce a closet that I cannot imagine being hidden behind closed doors.  That’s how good we are at this.  That we pretty much completed all this by Thursday is a credit to the skills of our “fit and finish” team.

That we do a good job at this is important to me. That HFH houses are built with a limited budget with only the most basic materials, typically not top of the line stuff, makes it particularly important that the work we do for the prospective homeowner be of the highest quality, certainly no less than the quality we expect in our own homes. That’s what I’m thinking of as I do this work – what will the homeowner think of this?  I’m hopingwe delivered this year.

JN

Here are the closets!

Jan #3

On distance and time

We’re 640 miles from Evanston.  It is not uncommon for someone to question why we need to travel so far to work for Habitat for Humanity.  There are plenty of HFH opportunities in the Chicago area, are there not?  Would not our time and money be more efficiently used locally?

There is a change in your mind and spirit, however, when you travel, especially when you’re moving away from home and work and all that is familiar to you.  Eleven hours of riding in car is not particularly arduous, but it does give you plenty of opportunity to think – about the place you are leaving, about the place you are going to, and why you’re going there.  Watching the changing scenery gradually brings you into a different world.The contrast between Evanston and Tutwiler could not be greater, but a sore butt and a few stiff joints really brings the point home.  You wouldn’t get this experience if you could fly to Tutwiler, or somehow be instantly transported here like Captain Kirk.  How you get here is part of the experience of being here.

The trip home is just as important.  We’re typically a little more anxious to get home, and thoughts start to move toward the tasks at home and work that has gone undone, but, again, there is plenty of time to think about where we’ve been, what we’ve done, the people we met, and what it all means.

JN

 

 

Jessie and Marie looking over lab equipment, Jessie is the lab tech for the clinic

JD and Kristin workin' in the Mississippi sun

Kristin showing Lorenzo how to cut siding

Lorenzo helping out Dino

Here's a crop duster just across the road from our work site

Dino and Russ making sure it's level!

Playing games at the potluck

Maybe he'll have a CD of his music in about 15 years

The future of Blues!

These kids sounded great

A quiet moment in the midst of the potluck

We are beginning to think of home.  Andy, Harriet, and John leave in the morning.  The rest of us head back on Saturday.

Casey

It's Not just About the House

Although building a house is where we devote most of our time this week, we are also here to build community, both among ourselves and with the families of Tutwiler.  One connection that is dear to all of us is the Tutwiler Clinic and Sister Dr. Brooks DO. Over the eleven years we've been coming to Tutwiler we have found many ways to support the clinic and Dr. Brooks. One of our group members, Natalie, compiled donations from doctors in the Northshore area who are supportive of our work.  This year they donated: medication samples, an x-ray view box, lab supplies, and splint and cast materials. We went over to the clinic today to deliver the supplies and to talk with Dr. Brooks.  She has such a gentle spirit I feel inspired and renewed every time I hear her speak. I encourage you to visit the clinic's website: tutwilerclinic.org  In addition to the mission and history of the clinic there is a link to an interview with her that was done by 60 Minutes. The following reflection is once again from Jan. He speaks more eloquently of Dr. Brooks than I ever could.

Casey

Reflection by Jan

May 21, 2014

We met with Dr. Brooks this afternoon after delivering some medical supplies to the clinic.  She told us of an elderly couple who lived down the street in a house that is typical of much of the housing in Tutwiler.  It looks like it started life as a pair of mobile homes (very old mobile homes) set at right angles to each other, with a makeshift addition and screened in porch where they join, all covered with clapboard siding painted a shade of yellow that reminds me of Hollandaise sauce. I’ve seen this house many time over the years and wondered if this was our purpose here, to replace this kind of housing.   Dr. Brooks explained that this devoted couple had 15 children, now scattered around the country.  The elderly father had always wanted to live in a brick house, so in the past year the children got together and had their parent’s house faced with brick, at least the two mobile home wings.  A very wabi-sabi look, but it is brick. The children all gathered together at the house the day before Mothers’ day to say good-bye to their father who died on Mothers’ day from lung cancer.

More than 50% of the housing stock in Tutwiler (and rural Mississippi) is below standard.  Dr. Brooks told me that the number of cases of impetigo that she treats dropped dramatically when the state mandated in-door plumbing for all dwellings.  What strikes me as even more remarkable is that Dr. Brooks has only been here about 30 years, so this is a pretty recent change.  She told me once that when the law passed, some plantation owners (they’re farms, but they’re still called plantations here) preferred to tear down the worker shacks on their property rather than make the investment in in-door plumbing.  Those shacks were what some folks called home.

Several years ago Dr. Brooks gave me a tour of the area, driving through the towns of Tutwiler, Glendora, Webb, and others, relating story after story about the twins she delivered on this back porch, the single mother with the cancer stricken son in that house, the farmer, pinned under his overturned tractor, that she was called to see on that farm, etc.  Every house had a story, a very human story.  Many of the homes were not much look at, some in serious disrepair, others hobbled together with makeshift materials.  It would be easy to feel sorry for these people. What I noticed, though, was that many of these homes had a tended vegetable garden, and some flower gardens as well.  Laundry hung on a clothesline was a common sight.  Impoverished as the homes might seem, the people who live in them do take pride in their lives and in themselves.  They do have dignity and self-respect.  They have a culture that is no less valid than our own on the Northshore.  Lord knows we enjoy their cuisine and we seek out their music in the blues bars of Clarksdale.  I’m left wondering what it is I really have to share with the people of the Delta.  Maybe it is I who is being enriched by them.

The philosophy of Sr. Anne Brooks, D.O. and the other sisters who came to Tutwiler 30 some years ago is that it is not sufficient to simply treat a patient’s physical ailments.  To overlook the social conditions and the cultural background a patient lives in simply not good medicine.  That is why the practice of medicine dispensed at the Tutwiler Clinic isn’t simply about physical exams, and diagnoses, and treatment regimens, but includes talking with patients, knowing where they live, asking about who is at home and how they’re getting on, and figuring a way to be sure they will take the medicines they need to be taking.  Often it means going to the patients, wherever they live, if only to sit with them a spell.  So part of what happens here is making sure patients have a decent place to live, and that is why Habitat for Humanity was invited to start building houses here some 25 years ago.  We’re working on houses 39 and 40 this year, all in a housing tract surrounding the Clinic and down the road from the Community Center.  We are building not only houses, but a community.  The folks in this neighborhood all know who we are, and are happy to see us.  There’s always a chance that one of us has worked on the house they now live in, so we have a connection with them.  At the end of every week that a volunteer crew visits Tutwiler, the neighborhood residents host a pot luck dinner for them at the Community Center.  We’ll have our chance to see some old friends tomorrow.  That’s how it works here in Tutwiler.

If anyone thinks this trip is only about helping to build a few houses, they are sorely mistaken.  For me, as a physician who knows how to pound a nail, this is every bit part of my medical practice as anything I do in Evanston.

JN

Natalie and Dr. Brooks with some of our donations (this is the supply room for the clinic)

Unloading the supplies

Jan cutting closet trim work

Bernadette is working on baseboards

Russ enjoying the Mississippi sun

Nicole and Mike up to their usual antics

Thank you Harriet for offering grace

Andy, the head cook extraordinaire along with his sous chefs. This was one of the best meals I've ever had in my life!  A barbecue blowout, with pork ribs, chicken thighs, pulled pork and beef brisket from his smoker; baked cheese stuffed potatoes; roasted corn on the cob; beans, greens and cole slaw.

Andy's talents know no bounds! He carved this square to be a part of the Sheil plaque we create and leave here every year

Most of us plan on attending Sheil Fest on Saturday.  Some are leaving Friday and some of us are leaving VERY early to make the 640 mile trek back to Evanston. We'll be the ones looking a little disheveled!

Not one of my most glamorous moments!

Nicole has been sanding and mudding, can you tell?

Marie is mudding the wall in a home without electricity!

Charlotte and Bill our resident electricians

On the right is the house we just finished siding, in the foreground is house number two!

Dino with our old friend and helper Lorenzo. He has come to visit us for years and has grown before our eyes!

This is Felicia with her two daughters, they will be moving in to house #1

Natalie is covering Sarah's hair so she's not full of dust when she goes to work

And...the Hawks lost

That's all folks!  More tomorrow...

Casey

Day Two- We meet the soon to be homeowner

This morning Bernadette was in charge of our morning reflection.  She has a system.  Every year just before the trip she calls her 93 year old aunt who is also a nun, Sister Aunt Mae.  They talk about the reflection.  This year Aunt Mae was saying what a perfect time of year this was for a Habitat trip, Spring..all is new. Bernadette said, "But this year nothing is new everyone who is coming on the trip has already been here before." Aunt Mae told her that there was always something new we just had to look for it.  So we set out for the day in search of something new. 

I didn't have to wait long. Just as I walked on site a woman hopped out of her car, she was so excited.  This was going to be her house!  Sarah had been watching the progress and noticed that the front yard was full of dirt and left over wood. But this morning when she drove by it had all been cleared, the wood removed and the ground leveled. We talked briefly, she works two jobs and was on her way to work.  Her daughter just graduated from high school.  It will be a time of new beginnings for her and her family. Sister Aunt Mae was right, there is always something new!

Casey

Sarah and Mike

Reflection by Jan

The theme of today's pre-work devotinal was renewal with a citation from Revelations stating that all would be made "new". Bernadette's Aunt offered the idea noting that "Easter doesn't end when the candy goes on sale." The thought resonated with me and I could not keep from thinking about it throughout the day as I mudded dry wall, trimmed out closets, and otherwise struggled with studs that aren't plumb and corners that are not square.  I enjoy working with tools, the excitement of envisaging a project and the gratification of having made something functional, and, hopefully, beautiful. But working with your hands gives you time to think, time during more mundane tasks like sanding or moving lumber, when your fingers aren't so much at risk.

This is my eighth year here in Tutwiler, and indeed everyone in this year's crew has been here before. We all know the history of the Habitat work here, the history of Dr. Brooks and the Tutwiler Clinic, and the import of the Community Center in this community. We all know about the work and we're afforded a good deal of independence in getting our assignments done. Our communal living arrangements are familiar, and most of the stories we tell are reruns we're willing to hear yet again. So the challenge that there might be something new to be gotten from being here, I thought, was right on target for our group. In part, my motivation for coming back every year is to relive and continue a very significant experience, and I like to think that my being here makes a difference - to the people here in Tutwiler, for my Sheil coworkers, and maybe even my friends and neighbors who I tell about my Tutwiler adventures. All this seems to be reason enough to continue doing this, but I have to admit, the notion of finding something "new" in the experience has given me pause. I suspect I'll be thinking about this off and on all week, but that's the beauty of coming on this trip. I don't have much doubt that I'll find an answer eventually, maybe not for a few months, but I do think I'll have to work at it, mulling things over as I work, and maybe making myself more open to see something I have not seen before - in my friends here in Tutwiler, in my co - workers, or even in myself.

JN

Casey, who has worked dutifully on this blog, concluded that it should contain a few pictures of her too.  Here is one.

Marie and Harriet staining wood trim.  It will be on the walls pretty soon.

The siding crew is making progress!

Nicole finally has her grades in and can join the fun!

This is just to prove to my young friends at St. Paul that I really am working, and not just shooting pictures.

Bill and Kristin are preparing for lunch.  Did I mention that the food is great?

The siding crew is nearing the end!  The front is almost done.  This did not seem possible yesterday.

Here are all the cabinets which will find their ways to the walls.  

Nicole is quickly making up for lost time.

Dino hanging in there.  

Almost finished!

And on to the other side!

Here is the front of the house, now that the siding crew has completed thier work.

Meanwhile, Jan is hard at work next door mudding the laundry room.

The job isn't done until clean up is finished.  Casey and Niciole are hard at work.

Charlotte installing a light fixture.  Charlotte is not afraid of heights.

This is LaShonda and her kids and nephew and niece, standing on the porch of the house we worked on last year.  I told her I knew where some of the mistakes are.  The Habitat residents love thier new homes.

Captions by John