Once again we decided to leave early to get as much work accomplished as possible. The “demo” crew was at their demolishing best as attested by the huge pile of rubble and mounds of insulation. The pile stretched the full width of the home’s front yard.
Hopefully the FEMA contracted clean up crew won’t be too long in returning. The good news is that by the end of the day – the job was done, finito, over and out, completed. The site is ready for the next stage in its rebirth.
Unfortunately, the demo team wasn’t able to have any contact with the owners of their house. In some ways it makes the work more difficult without the personal contact. But though, no doubt, disappointed, the team never complained and certainly didn’t let it affect their effort.
Before locking the door and heading home the team “circled up” for prayer: thanking God for the opportunity to serve and lifting up those who will hopefully one day be able to move back in.
* * * * *
The earlier 7 a.m. departure time didn’t do a blessed thing for the drywall team. Traffic on I10 was the worst of the week. It took almost an hour and a half to travel the 38 miles from Luling to New Orleans East.
But once on site the house was soon a flurry of activity. The kitchen was soon completed. Bob and Charlie kept plowing ahead on the second bedroom. Wes donned long sleeves, gloves and mask and headed up the pull-down attic ladder for insulation duty. What a blessed relief for the older folks on site to have a “young-un” on hand – and especially one with such a wonderful attitude in the face of dirty work.
Joe began removing three termite destroyed studs in the front corner of the garage. One essentially disintegrated, another put up a bit of a fight, but the third one needed to be cut. The challenge became to find some electricity. We approached a young man painting a home a few doors away. When asked by David if we could plug an extension cord in, David “thought” that he said yes, but wasn’t totally convinced. Unfortunately the stretch of three extension cords couldn’t quite reach. So David set off for Home Depot. Soon after the next door neighbor returned and Joe went over to see about plugging in. The initial response was less than enthusiastically helpful, but the Colonel (Joe) doesn’t easily take “no” for an answer. David’s trip was aborted and the final stud was history. Not satisfied with simply procuring electricity, Joe successfully engaged the neighbor – inviting him over to see the progress.
More and more wallboard was measured, cut and installed. If Janna and Sue had a nickel for every screw they drove into that wallboard, they could have paid for their trip!!!
Kitchen before
And after
We were treated to lunch by one of the owner’s sisters. The fried chicken hit the spot.
After lunch, another sister, Cheryl took us to see the home of a friend who is a New Orleans police officer. He had gotten his wife, daughter and son out of town ahead of Katrina, but he remained. The water began as a trickle running down the street. Within two hours it was six feet up his walls and he had to make his way to the roof. He spent four days there before being airlifted. The house remains untouched. Video tapes, photos, toys littering the floors. His daughter’s clothes rotting and moldy in the closet. The home will have to be demolished because the water took too long to recede. He can’t do anything yet though because he is involved in a class action suit. Because he was able to swim out of the house and on to the roof instead of having to break a hole in the roof to get out, the insurance company contends that the damage was all water related and therefore denied his claim. Meanwhile, his life remains in limbo. This area of New Orleans East still looks like a war zone with very little signs of life.
By the end of the day, the second bedroom was completed and two of the living room walls were up as well. Cheryl and her daughter, Ashanti, stopped by to take our picture and then we all gathered in the house to pray God’s blessing upon the owners Ruby and Wilfred in anticipation of the day when they can return and the house once again become a home.
*******
The return to camp soon found Wes at work on mounting our sign on the new “totem pole” which Kelly and Kerry erected. During their time as Village Managers ( and hopefully beyond) each group will be invited to add a placard to the pole to mark their time in NOLA. Groups to come will have a hard time topping Wes’ design – even if it was larger than it was supposed to be. We made ours retroactive by listing our three trip dates. BTW – it took at least 4 Presbyterians to hang the FPC sign.
Since the Minnesota and North Carolina groups had left on Friday and some of the Minnesota group was going out to dinner and others were going to a concert, we opted not to prepare dinner but to go out for pizza. Kelly and Kerry (the Village Managers) joined us for a good time of fellowship and food.
We ended the night sharing our thoughts, our learnings, our moments of grace and the glimpses of resurrection that we each experienced during the week. And then we slept the sleep of tired satisfaction.
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