These past two days have been very exciting! On Saturday morning, we arrived at the church very early. We packed everything into the vans and attended a mini church service inside, out of the cold weather. Some of the “veterans” from last year that could not attend this year came and said a few words about their experiences. It was encouraging and got me super excited! We received black stones (every year the team has been given a different color) to symbolize unity through missions. After bathroom visits, we all piled into the vans, and we were asleep pretty much instantly. I don't really remember the next several hours. We stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs, but I chose to stay in the van…. I was too tired to move! Before long, we stopped at Subway for lunch and went to the Dollar Store. I found a giant chocolate bunny!!! But I didn't buy it. L Then it was back into the vans. Before I knew it we pulled into the parking lot of the church in Birmingham, Alabama. We were a little early so we played Frisbee outside. Then, we brought our bags into the church, and almost instantly went outside. We stood around a fountain and talked and watched cars and people. It was so refreshing. The weather was beautiful! Next, we went to Cosmo's for dinner. We got pizza with alligator sausage, cheese, veggies, etc. I got a chicken sandwich! Yum! After dinner, we four ladies had a little workout session. It was nice to finally move around! Then, we made tea and watched the movie “Facing the Giants.” It was such an emotional movie! Then, it was time for bed!
Sunday morning, cleaned our rooms and attended service. Everyone was so friendly! There was a baptism, which was exciting! After the service… we were back on the road. So I decided to sleep some more! We stopped at McDonald's/Taco Bell for lunch. We continued to drive, meaning I continued to sleep. I woke up when we stopped at a gas station and got ice cream! Then, I was glued to the window. I stared for the last two hours of our trip at the devastation of Katrina, as well as the evident progress. We went over bridges, and saw broken ones only yards away. Houses were roofless, boats were sunk. The water was choppy, so the ferry was closed, so we found another route to the church. Once here, we unloaded, shopped, and ran a couple miles to stretch our legs. It's time for bed now! I'm anxious to find out what we are doing tomorrow.
-Laura Shaus
Monday
Today was our first day at the work site. We started out the day with orientation. There was a bit of an error in the paperwork (they thought that we were not starting until Tuesday), but we still managed to get in a lot of work today despite our delays in getting started.
We met our homeowner. His name is Big Al. He is a very nice man and seemed to really enjoy talking to us. He told us that we were the answers to his prayers.
The work we are doing on the house is mostly insulating and drywalling. Big Al hired someone to do this work, but he did it incorrectly. So we are redoing the job. It's a bit frustrating to have to redo someone else's work, but we're making good progress.
Tonight, Sherlithia came by the church with a bunch of her family members, including her mother and great-aunt, for dinner. Dinner was great—we had sloppy joes and potato soup—and everyone had a great time. Sherlithia showed a slide show of pictures from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was very emotional. She and several of her family members then shared their stories and opinions of what had happened in the storm. It was very interesting to hear what they had to say. We plan to see them again on Wednesday when we go to the Lower 9th Ward.
We are excited to go back to the work site tomorrow and continue making progress on our house.
-Hannah and Keanu
Tuesday
Today was our second workday. We finished drywalling the ceiling in the main room today. Our home owner Big Al gave us a few prayers to recite every night, he said that he had recited the prayers every day since Katrina and that if we recite them good things will happen.
Our work site manager came in today and said there was nothing that she needed to do. For programming James shared his own experiences and struggles with life/God. We also watch several clips on the internet on what it means to be a Christian.
Peter and Todd
Wednesday
We all woke up at 7:30 AM and had a breakfast of sunshine on a cloudy day, which is eggs in the middle of toasted bread.
After breakfast we cleaned the church that our group has been staying at. Everyone was assigned a room to clean. I cleaned and mopped our room, and also mopped the girl's room. Peter and James D. had to clean the upstairs bathroom, which was really disgusting! They had to pick up another group's underwear as well as their shampoo and soap bars.
When we were all done cleaning the church, we headed toward Sherlethia's house for lunch. On the drive through the Lower 9th Ward, which is where Sherlethia lives, I noticed the destruction that Katrina caused. There were many houses where only the steps to the front door were left.
James Van Hook
Once we got to Sherlethia's house she had made lunch for us. We had red beans and rice, ribs, Jambalaya, chicken, and potato salad and bread. After lunch we went on a walk through the 9th Ward. On the walk we saw Brad Pitt's houses which are really weird. And we also saw the destruction that Katrina caused to the area. For example, we saw a completely empty lot where all that was left was steps to the front door.
When we got back to Sherlethia's house we were greeted by a birthday celebration for Todd. This celebration consisted of a 69 year old woman, Sherlethia's aunt, giving Todd a “booty dance” and pinning money to his shirt. Throughout the rest of the visit, several other proceeded to pin more money to him. I wished it was my birthday!
When Todd's birthday celebration was over we all gave our goodbyes. I am truly grateful that we got to meet Sherlethia and her family. They are some of the kindest people I have ever met. It's as if we are a part of their family and they barely even know us.
Later in the evening we went to the French Quarter and walked around for a couple of hours. It was fun. We walked through the shops and saw some cool stuff. We also went to Cafe du Monde where we had cafe au lait and ate beignets.
-Christina Degraw
Thursday
On our last day in New Orleans, we woke up and went to Al’s house. We worked very hard all day to accomplish as much as we could. We did a ton of drywalling and cleaned up the trash and rubble in the yard. Saying goodbye to the house of Al was very emotional and difficult. Al appreciated all of our work so much and couldn’t wait to meet the next group of workers. After leaving a note on the wall of the house, we departed Al’s and returned to Aurora. Once back, we cleaned up and went to Applebee’s where Mark managed to make another waitress ‘friend’ who thought he was sexist. It was hilarious and she was very nice, but talked forever! Then we got snacks next door at the grocery store for the ride home. We got back to Aurora and played a big game of Apples to Apples before going to bed late.
-James Degraw
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