UMOM

Here are some of the things we have been doing since arriving at UMOM.

UMOM clothes closet. The racks are so full it's hard to get a good look at clothes.

UMOM clothes closet. These shelves are hard to keep full as soon as you fill them up someone comes in and takes everything! I spend several days here folding sorting and restocking.

Master bedroom long term apartment. There is not carpet on the floor this is painted cement. In the past there has been bed bugs and so the carpet went out. The gals and myself cleaned (really cleaned!) 2 apartments while I was here. You can't believe how bad the refrigerators and ovens get! I met a woman with 7 kids living in one of these apartments. You can put another double bed and possible a crib in this room.

Kids room long term apartment. Very small room. It used to be a bathroom. No closets or dressers to house clothes. I think they use boxes and put them under the beds.

Living room, kitchen, dinning room in long term apartment. The kitchen table only holds 4 at a time. It does not get bigger. So if you have a big family you have to eat in shifts, or sit on the floor.

Vegetable boxes that Mark helped to build before Christmas. There are 12 boxes. Mark and the guys are now hooking up electricity and irrigation the boxes for those really hot summer days.

Pam in the desert. We went 4 wheeling with our jeep. It was fun!

Quartzcite is a small town that booms up to a million people in January when they have the rock show. People just pull up there camper any place in the desert and stay the night. Clear in the background are hundreds of rv's.

Spinners Cafe. UMOM is in hopes of getting this up and running. To help the families to waitress, hostess and cook. The gal in the picture is Cathy, one of the hard working NOMADS.

The vamper and our home in the parking lot. ( We probably lowered the property value of the motor home next to us.)

Yellow water table almost finished.

Hope you enjoyed some pictures. Hopefully it makes you thankful for what you have or don't have (like 7 kids!)

Jan. 17, 2012

Today is Tuesday Jan. 17,2012 I have been working on a water table for the preschool. Took it apart, sanded it went to buy really good paint, (wow! Was it expensive!) Then, painted it. Put it back together painted it again. Just finished when someone came in and told me I painted it the wrong color. He brought me some paint that was yellow and usually used outside to mark no parking zones on curbs! Most of my day was spent cleaning a room that we are getting ready for a new family. Man was that room dirty! There was a broken egg in the refrigerator that had been there a LONG time. The stove top was also pretty black with cooked on food and grease and needed a pumice stone to clean!

Mark spend his day repairing tables then put a $12,000 dinning room table, book case and china hutch together that is going on the auction block along with a baby grand piano. Those things were donated and really not practical for a person lining in one room. The end of the day Mark and a couple other guys were exploring a street sweeper thing to see if it could be repaired. I hope they can fix it because it is so dusty here and the sidewalks and parking lots are pretty dirty. I was hoping I could be the first to drive it. It looks like a baby Zamboni. Fun!

Have a great week! Mark and Pam

Back at UMOM

Mark and I are back at UMOM United Methodist Outreach Mission in Phoenix. We arrived here on Saturday and set up camp on the black top parking lot out back. UMOM is the largest women's shelter in Arizona. UMOM houses about 100 families who are homeless and/or abused and there is a section for veterans without homes. The mission is made from two hotels that sit side by side. UMOM has a 50's restaurant and they hope to get it up and running to help teach waitressing, and cooking. They help people get there GED if needed. UMOM has free babysitting and they help women apply for jobs. Before we left in December UMOM was holding a boot camp to help people apply for jobs, make resumes and hold mock interviews. The clothes closet has interview clothes that they give away to those who are going to an actual interview. The success rate here is 87%. That means, homeless families find employment and affordable housing move out and don't need help again from UMOM. I think that is really good rate. The families come into a 90 day emergency housing (one hotel room) and when space is available they can move into a two room with a kitchenette. The families can now stay up to 2 years.

It is currently Sunday night and we will be getting our assignments on Monday morning so I'll try to keep the blog going as to what we are doing and take some pictures to make this a little more interesting. Hopefully I've worked out the bugs in blog.

Pam