How Not to Fiberglass: A Cautionary Tale

During our trip to Anguna this past fall, we found out that we would not be leaving when we thought we would be. Somehow our helicopter out of the village had not gotten scheduled. Elizabeth and I, of course, took this as a great opportunity to get some stuff done that we hadn't yet gotten around to. For Elizabeth, there were numerous chores of varying interest, but for me there was the boat.

Over the years that Martha had spent in Papua New Guinea, she had often used a fiberglass canoe to get up and down the river. During that time it had taken quite a few bumps and beatings, and as a result the canoe had developed cracks in its surface. Despite my being not so handy, Martha presented the repair job as a way that I could spend my time. At my hesitation, Martha insisted that I could patch these cracks much better than her and whip the boat into ship-shape! I had never done such a job before, but that didn't deter me in the least. So, with no instruction whatsoever and a hurried assurance that I would do fine from Martha, I stepped outside the house and began my first forays into the world of fiber glassing. The lessons I learned are cataloged here.

• Less is more - One of the key components of fiberglass is a hard polymer that is composed of two different liquids mixed together and brushed and dabbed into the fiberglass patches. It sort of acts like a glue that sticks the patch to the surface of the boat and hardens it. Seeing as how the patch I was working with was larger, I decided to mix a large enough batch to last me the morning. This was a bad idea. Whether on the boat or still in a plastic container, when the polymer decides that it should be hard, it becomes hard. So, one moment I was dabbing a liquid onto the top of a boat, and the next moment my brush was stuck in a rapidly setting container of polymer going through a chemical reaction. The reaction produced enough heat that the plastic container holding the polymer began to warp and melt. This was rather concerning for me, mostly because I was holding the container in my hand at the time. The rest of the week I mixed polymer 2 ounces at a time. 

• Haste makes waste - Since my first experience with polymer happened because I took too long to  use it, I decided moving quicker was more important than making sure everything was lined up properly. So instead of taking the time to sand everything even before putting down the patch, I just threw the patch over the cracks and poured on the glue. Turns out that if the patch isn't laid flat the fiberglass will form air bubbles over the hull of the boat. This isn't a good thing, as I realized after having to sand down the fiber glass back to where I started. It wasn't a complete waste of time though, because it taught me another lesson. 

• Exposed skin is vulnerable - It was hot in PNG. After all, it was the tropical rain forest. So, not only was I not wearing long sleeves, but I wasn't even wearing a shirt. For those of you who don't know, fiberglass is basically a sheet of small splinters that all are eagerly looking for exposed skin which it can impale. I itched for days. 

• Whistle while you work - Despite all these setbacks, I was able to finish a pretty good portion of patching on the boat during my week. I worked mostly in the mornings, and as the missionary house was more or less in the center of the village, I had my share of watchers. From the twenty or so kids who came and sat with me for hours, to the men who yelled out encouragements as they walked by, I rarely was alone. Often times the boys around me would whistle out tunes while they watched me. I would listen to them and then whistle it back and they would laugh with each other and with me about the clumsiness of my whistling. I never had to stop working to whistle back, and playing with them definitely made the time go by faster. 

• Slow and steady builds a boat - By the end of the week, I had actually gotten significantly better at my job. While the back half of the boat, where I started, looked like a lumpy mess, the front of the boat was smooth. I had broken off some of the more splintered areas of the boat so that I could start with a flat area, and had patched the boat in layers, so that it would be fairly smooth, and I sanded down the rougher areas. Once I had finished, the boat looked like it would float again without springing a leak, and, whats more, I felt that I had accomplished something. 

I still may not be an expert on fiber glassing, but I did learn a little that week. Work in the shade, protect your skin, sand down the surface, and don't overdo the glue. Still, the best part of the week was whistling with the kids and being encouraged by the men. On the mission field, we all have jobs to do, whether its the odd jobs handed to us, like fixing a boat, or its something bigger and longer lasting, like teaching people to read or giving them the Bible in their own language. Whatever the job may be, it is important that we find joy in it. It may take a week, or a year, or longer.