Midi Pyrenees Work Camp April 2005
Once renovation starts on an existing house the state rapidly becomes worse before it gets better and so we arrived to see lovely spaces and bathrooms but cement splattered walls and upstairs inches thick in rubble and dust. The garden had been made ready for the tents but also needs a lot of tidying up.
In all we were 12 adults plus the local contributors and 5 children ages 7 - 14. It was four and a half days of perseverance and laughter and chatting amongst the paint pots. In fact at times it was a positive party! The children went walking and playing amongst themselves plus they enjoyed a trip out bird watching with Caroline Brown. We were all intrigued by the owlet resting in the branch of an olive tree in the garden, asleep in the sunshine.
We managed to achieve a great deal on the ground floor and on the front door and gate. Unfortunately because of distemper and damp coming up from the new foundations the paint kept peeling off, but we tried many paints and scraped off and resealed and repainted to keep ahead of the problem.
We were members of the Midi Pyrenees meetings plus Libby Perkins of Lewes meeting (whom we were really pleased to see again after quite an absence). We had periods of worship including a paint infused meeting for worship on Sunday morning and a peaceful worship in the burial ground before we left. We parted feeling elated and exhausted but we could not complete everything and left a lot still be done.
Together we achieved: enclosing the meeting room, the interior of which was finished from top to bottom: the corridor was painted, and the toilet and bathroom were finished: the kitchen was given the preparation and a quick coat of paint (awaiting some more investment): the second room downstairs was painted and the ‘office’ prepared for painting: the front gate was removed, repaired, all the iron work treated and painted and undercoats put on: the entrance door was burnt off and rubbed down and undercoated.
Let us hope that other work camps will be as much fun as this one was.
A great thanks to everyone who contributed.
Brian Cadman who had kindly offered to organise us as foreman was almost hysterically laughing when he saw the physical scale of the work to be done by a group of volunteers. Dennis had been putting even more time in at MQC during the week making sure things were as ready as they could be. There was no lighting but we had one electric point and flushing toilets. As there were no hot water the campers either showered at ‘Les Trois Puits’ or at the sanctuary of Francoise and Dennis’s relaxing home. Francoise had been very unwell but as the stay progressed resumed some of her vigour and energy and a friend, Marianne, helped prepare food for the exhausted workers. The weather was against us the first couple of days, it was cold and the rain and humidity delayed drying time, luckily the sun came out on the afternoon of the third day. The tents weathered the storms but the sunshine was more welcome