This week I was part of a crew that poured the concrete floor for the garage of Scott Randall in Moss Point, Mississippi. There was a lot of work that had to be done before we could pour the actual concrete. First, we had to spread a few inches of sand and dirt in the garage and that took up the first couple of days. Second, we laid a blue FEMA tarp over the sand and dirt because the water comes from the bottom up and the tarp combined with the sand and dirt that we had spread would work to keep the water out. Then finally we were able to pour the concrete. In order to get the concrete to the very back of the garage the cement had to be poured into wheelbarrows and moved to the back and spread around with rakes. After the concrete had a little while to dry we went in with metal trowels and smoothed the imperfections in the cement while standing on boards. A concrete floor in a garage was not the only thing that was created this week.
Scott Randall is the owner of the house where we poured the concrete floor and our group was able to give him something much greater than any concrete floor in a garage. After Hurricane Katrina, the people that were supposed to help him fix his house either did a really bad job or didn’t do the work at all and they stole his money. Having our group come there to pour this concrete floor in his garage was meaningful because we came there and poured this concrete floor for him and we didn’t steal anything from and we gave him something. We gave back to him a faith in people and we gave him hope. I think that meant much more to him than the concrete floor because in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when he was trying to rebuild his house he was robbed of his faith in people and we gave him hope for the future. For me that was the most rewarding part of the work that myself and my group did this week.
The concrete truck. You can't pour a whole bunch of concrete without a concrete truck.
The whole crew.
