Brandishing shovels and wearing masks, they came together to rebuild communities thousands of miles from their own.
From two different countries and two different cultures, they volunteered to clear out the destroyed homes of the Gulf Coast. They carried away, in bits and pieces, the destroyed possessions of families they would come to know.
In the last week of February, 30 men and women from Central New York and Campeche, Mexico met in Gautier, Miss., to muck out devastated homes. They hauled out mud and mold and tore down Sheetrock to clear the way for homes to be rebuilt.
The volunteer group was organized by the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery as part of a nationwide effort by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to rotate volunteer groups in Mississippi every week.
Six days after returning from Mississippi, volunteers gathered at First Presbyterian Church United in Syracuse to share stories and celebrate their partnership with a group from Mexico.
Every year, volunteers from the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery travel to Campeche to work with the local Presbytery to help build homes and bring needed resources.
This year volunteers decided their help was more urgently needed in Mississippi, so they called the Campeche Presbytery to apologize. The response surprised them.
"They told us they would meet us there and help," said Tom Packard, a group organizer. "It was very humbling."
During the last week of February, the group of 24 Central New Yorkers and six Mexicans traveled to Gautier to help in whatever way they could.
The most difficult part of the job, said volunteers, was not the mold or the rot. It was carrying out prized possessions while homeowners watched.
Several volunteers recalled being forced to tear apart a rotting grand piano and haul it out as trash in front of its owner.
"It was just heartbreaking," said volunteer Sarah McTyre. "It was hard work, and it was sad work."
They did it, volunteers said, because, more than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, people in the region still need lots of help.
Aracely Nunez-Chi traveled from Mexico to Mississippi
to help. She said she was taken by how barren and desolate the region
looks.
"Just knowing there were so many people in need, people that had lost everything. We had to help," Nunez said in Spanish.
For
McTyre, a Syracuse volunteer, it was the chance to help after Katrina
and the opportunity to build a friendship with her church's
counterparts from Mexico that made the week memorable.
"In the middle of so much sorrow and tragedy," she said, "there was also new friendship and celebration."
Brandishing shovels and wearing masks, they came together to rebuild communities thousands of miles from their own.
Every year, volunteers from the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery travel to Campeche to work with the local Presbytery to help build homes and bring needed resources.
The most difficult part of the job, said volunteers, was not the mold or the rot. It was carrying out prized possessions while homeowners watched.
Aracely Nunez-Chi traveled from Mexico to Mississippi
to help. She said she was taken by how barren and desolate the region
looks.