TGIF in Joplin

The week in Joplin flew by and was sooo long, all at the same time.  By Friday, I was physically very tired.  It was still hot and still hard work.  We got up on Friday, ready for our last day of hard work.

We were again divided into groups.  One group helped a woman clean stored items from her home.  One group finished the landscaping at the house where we built the retaining wall.  My group, went to a home where we helped clear debris and haul dirt for landscaping. 

The home where I was assigned, was right by a railroad track.  It brought back memories of my childhood as we had a railroad track in our backyard.  Even now, when I am about to go to sleep, I hear the train passing by in the distance, near the Academy, and a flood of memories always come.  For me, there is something soothing about that lonesome sound of a train whistle.

Becca and I worked together as we cleared debris.  I was impressed at how hard Becca worked.  She got teased that she worked "like a boy". She went with a group to take the debris to the dump.  After clearing the debris from the bed of the truck, she jumped down and landed on a rake.  She sprained her left ankle, though we didn't find that out until we got home on Sunday.  She was a trooper and kept going. 

We finished working and headed back to the church. We then had to clean to get ready to go home.  I got kitchen duty.  That was a huge chore as 26 teenagers had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day.  There was sticky stuff EVERYWHERE.  We finished cleaning and walked to a local restaurant for dinner.  This didn't help Becca's ankle, but she didn't complain. 

We got to the restaurant and it turned out to be a burger joint in a convenience store.  We basically bombarded them. My burger was forgotten and by the time I received it, I had a kiddo vomiting.  We did not have enough water during the day.  When the student got to the restaurant, he chugged 3 glasses of iced tea.  This was too much for his parched, over heated stomach.  I really didn't want my burger after that.

We were in the restaurant when a policeman came in.  He was patrolling the neighborhood and noticed that the window in the boys house was broken.  It had been broken since we arrived, but he thought perhaps someone had broken into the house.  It was funny as it was something right out of "Mayberry".  The neighbors knew someone, who knew someone, who called someone, who talked to the policeman.  We couldn't figure out how he knew we were at the restaurant. The policeman basically knew that there was no other place in town to go.

I took the kiddo, who was sick, to the air conditioned girl's house.  He curled up and slept for hours.  I think his body was just done.  I think all of our bodies were just done.  The rest of the group went up to the church for the final debriefing, but I stayed behind with my patient.  The pastor's wife, Dana, came to see me and check on my patient as she was an R.N.. The sick kiddo was fine, but I had the best conversation with Dana.

Dana and I talked about Carthage and she told me how there were many corporate headquarters located under the city.  After the Civil War, only two buildings were left. Quartz and rock were mined to make the buildings downtown.  That left a hole in the earth, so an underground corporate center was made.  There is everything down there, but it is very secure and you have to be "invited" to tour it.

Dana and I talked about our fire and their tornado.  We talked about how God is good through all. We talked about what it is like for her to live in such a small town.  She told me how she and her husband made the decision to move to a close knit, small town because they wanted to have the right values for their family.  She told me how she felt like she needed to know everyone in their church as everyone knew her.

The kids got back from the church, bags were packed and we all went to bed. We needed rest to get ready for the long trip home.