A Bathroom Project

It’s just a small leak in my shower…at least that is what John told me.

John has spent 10+ years in a refugee camp in Liberia, Ivory Coast and Guinea.  He lived in a tent, and I am sure he used an outhouse (if that).  I doubt he had a bathroom or a shower.  But now he is the very proud owner of an older house in Muscatine, filled to overflowing with a blended family of people rescued from war-torn Liberia.  And now the basement bathroom shower was leaking.

I offered to help.  Before you laugh, that meant I picked up the phone and called a plumber who has a big heart and gave him my sob story.  Dave showed up and was glad to help, for a very small price a fraction of what he would normally charge.  Finally, help was on the way.

But then we had some bad news—the shower was leaking from the drain, and to get to the drain we had to remove the shower, and to remove the shower we had to cut out the wall, and to remove the wall we had to dismantle the ceiling, and to dismantle the ceiling we had to remove some paneling, and to remove the paneling we had to hammer out the studs, and when we hammered out the studs, we found that there was a dip in the floor which would have to be leveled, and to level the floor we had to clean up all the stinky, sewer water….you get the picture.

In the meantime, the entire family of 7-15 (depending on visitors) was using the one upstairs bathroom.  John informed us that in his culture, it is not appropriate for children to use the same bathroom as adults.  He explained that he had always hoped to separate the bathrooms, and so this was the perfect opportunity—downstairs for the kids, upstairs for the adults.  But could we turn the shower into a bathtub??

There you have it.  A small leak turned into a major bathroom remodel.  And all I know is “righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.” Thank God for Dave who knows what he was doing.  And we got to taste some wonderful Liberian stew in the process, with rice and chicken and beef and shrimp and palm butter oil.

That’s what UNLEASH is all about—helping people where they are get to where they want to be.