In the last four days, we’ve had the opportunity to help in five different houses! We’ve been part of Rotary’s whole process from helping homeowners sort damaged possessions all the way to spraying for mold and setting up dehumidifiers.

We’ve pulled several hundred nails from walls, deconstructed a 100 year old wall with five different layers of materials, and even dug through soggy cardboard boxes to rescue fine china sets. I got the first, and hopefully last, injury of the trip, a large bruise from falling drywall and, on a different day, my clumsy self made a foot sized hole through a rotted floor which nearly gave Evan a heart attack.

As we work through all these different tasks, we’ve been able to learn so much from Rotarians and Disaster Aid USA volunteers. On each site, a DAUSA volunteer or a Rotarian is in charge of coordinating all of the details and tasks of the site. From them, we’ve picked up a few different skills ranging from victim advocacy to best practice construction safety. It’s inspiring to see the ways the community is coming together. The last two days we’ve been joined by random people simply out looking for ways to contribute, many from outside the area also join in. On Saturday, we got to serve the food we made earlier this week to a volunteer crew of about 15 students from Miami. We worked alongside a couple who drove down from Central Florida and a Disaster Aid volunteer from North Carolina.

It’s been a really productive work period and none of this would be possible without our incredible hostess. We are so grateful for everything she’s done for us from outings to rides to additional meals and Friday night, after a busy day on the job sites, she even spoiled us with a delicious dinner at the Lighthouse Waterfront Restaurant.

Overall, I’m just so grateful for all of these opportunities we have to be able to help this community recovery. Everyone has been so kind and good to us and getting to do this work is exactly why we came here.