My Little Corner, by Erica Baron

Erica Barron is a participant in the JustWorks Katrina Relief camp in Mississippi.

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, someone came into the women's dorm and told us that they were going to be doing work on the bunkhouses and we had to move all our stuff outside. This was greeted by groans and protests as we began packing everything up.

I was as annoyed as anyone at having to leave my comfortable little corner. But as we were moving everything outside, it hit me that we had all gotten incredibly attached -- in just two days -- to the arrangements of our lives here. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose your whole house, all your belongings, and your neighborhood in one day -- given how attached I had become to my little corner of the bunk house.

That move outside began two days of work on the Turkey Creek Community Initiatives campsite. I've spent this time helping to put up plywood on the walls and ceiling of the bunkhouses. The first day was SO frustrating! The buildings aren't square, so nothing fit without at least one -- usually several -- trips to the saw. It's been years since I tried to wield a hammer and I've never used some of the power tools at hand. I rarely spend this much time doing things I'm not particularly good at. It was a good but hard lesson in humility.

Today was so much better. I had come back to the same project, and now I had a feel for it. We worked much more quickly today, now that we knew not to expect anything to fit the first time. We all worked on the men's bunk today, so we had more hands on each project. We could actually see our progress, which was great. And since we weren't working on the women's bunk today, I got to keep my new little corner -- right by the heater!