Lewis and Howard on the way down. Lewis is from Lakeville. This is his 6th trip
Bob N. - from Indianapolis, MN- Howard's big brother. This is Bob's 5th trip.
Ali St.- from Apple Valley, MN. This is her 3rd trip
Donna G. from Salem UMC. This is Donna's first trip. She is in charge of meals
Howard N. is in charge of one of the worksites. He knows everything. (almost). This is Howard's 7th trip to the Gulf.
This is Rod St. (That Rod) Rod is a pastor, recently reappointed to Pipestone, MN. This is his 4th trip.
Rod and Ginger St. This is Rod and Ginger's 4th trip. Hopefully, they will bring people from their new church in Pipestone on the next one!
Pete D. This is Pete's first trip
Kim O. from Maple Grove, MN. Kim has a Master's degree in Non-profit administration and is a seminary student at Bethel Seminary. On this trip, Kim is helping develop promo materials. This is her first trip to the Gulf with us.
Matt S. from Oakdale (Lake Elmo?), MN. This is Matt's third trip.
Maybe all she needs is a saddle.
This is a picture of the "pulpit area" at LaCroix United Methodist Church.
This is part of the Sunday School wing,"Tthe Reign Forest" at LaCroix. Outstanding
One of the Sunday School rooms at LaCroix.
Devotions at LaCroix before we left on Sunday am.
Parked in the street at North Rampart Community Center, New Orleans.
This is where we had orientation.
Getting tools
More getting tools.
Loading up.
Corrine and Ginger working on Janice's house.
Janice, the homeowner at the house the Howard is overseeing.
This the house Bob's team is working on.
Again.
Someone put up drywall before the inspector could check out the plumbing. this is how we found it.
We took all the existing off and started blank.
And ended up like this. -- We will re do the cabinets. We had to get them off the floor so looters wouldn't steal them from this house overnight.
At Howard's house, there was a difficult jigsaw puzzle drywall challenge. (Before)
I would say they did it! (After)
Howard likes it.....
How many Newton brothers does it take to hang a door? And how many extras to watch?
Ali calls this the Swedish model pose. Rod St. does it well!
Lewis and Howard
Lewis with a tile cutter
Corrine getting tile ready to re-set where she is sitting.
Ginger and Corrine working on a screen
viola!
We fear we may have turned Donna into a party animal!
See what I mean? You just can't stop her!
Pete and Matt working on the drywall
Pete and Matt resting from the drywall
Donna had the table set, the water poured, the napkins folded and dinner staying warm in the oven each night.
Dinner!
Jim P. asked me to show some pictures of the supply station.
This building also houses offices of the case managers and volunteer coordinators.
And they have a LOT of stuff!
Really
It is almost impossible to turn left in this town!
The red 'x' sign is seen on several buildings in the neighborhood Bob is working in. Reading the caption shows that this is a building that the Fire Department is going to burn or tear down.
Bob and Rod St. working on the cabinets
Voila!
Matt and Rod St.
Howard just after devotions.
Donna, Pete, Ali, Ginger Rod St. and Rod Sc. at Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter. Cafe Du Monde is home to famous coffee and "beignets" (pronounced: "benays" these are fried doughnuts covered in powdered sugar- sweet and greasy!)
Corrine
And finished the vanity
The vanity challenge in the house Howard was working on. Existing plumbing prohibited the drawers to work if installed the way they were going to.
The table saw challenge was that the on/off switch was missing. When it was plugged in, it was on. When it was unplugged, it was off.
Houses in Mississippi. Still
Still...
In Gulfport, it didn't take Ali long to find an admirer.
Thomas P.'s house today. We worked on this house on our "Biloxi 4" trip. (Fall of 2007)
Our crew with Thomas P.
Inside Thomas's house
Outside Thomas's house with all of us leaving
We visited Ida Mae (First worked on her house on "Biloxi 2" (fall of '06) She is still quite the spunky gal. She talks about how grateful she still is that we came and helped with her house. And oh does she like to talk about "That Ray!" (Ray B. from Hale, MI- was on the trip with us.)
We also visited with Rev. Elijah Mitchell, who was the director of Seashore Mission before Katrina, and in charge of the United Methodist response for Disaster Recovery for the first two years in Mississippi.
This is Emma W's house. We worked on it on our Biloxi 3 trip (Spring of '07). The gate was locked so I couldn't go knock on the door to see if she was home.
We worked on CeeCee's house on Biloxi 2 (Fall of '06).
Isaac was very pleased to see us. We worked on Isaac's house 6 months after Hurricane Katrina in the Spring of "06. It was our "Biloxi Bound" trip, or "Biloxi 1"
We tracked down Nate at his job to say hi to him. We also worked on his house in the Spring of '06. Howard and Lewis actually went and did more work for him on subsequent trips when time permitted.
On Biloxi 2, we went to this restaurant. On NOLA 3, we went back. Both times we had a lot of fun and the food was good. And both times, people came up to us to thank us for what we were doing there.
Bob and Pete ate raw oysters. Lewis is usually the one that refuses to eat anything out of the ordinary. For the first time, Lewis and I were in the same mind.
Pete blowing texture on the wall
Bob sitting down on the job?
Kim interviewing Pat, the homeowner of the house Bob's team worked on.
Pat told us a lot about her experience with escaping the flood and how she is slowly but surely getting her house more and more ready to move back in.
The beginning of the deck.
The final product. Remember the wall that we had to rip the drywall off and start over?
Donna came out of her kitchen and helped with this kitchen.
Back at Janice's house (Howard's team)
Has anyone seen the prybar? I'll bet it's right under my nose!
Ali's version of safety glasses
Janice made us gumbo
It had pieces of crab, chicken, sausage, shrimp, etc.
Corrine dishing up some gumbo for Lewis.
Even if Corrine made him a plate
Lewis will stick with the turkey, thank you.
Jeff doing group devotions via the internet since he couldn't actually come on the trip
And Howard falls asleep again...
The company I work for donated water bottles, rain ponchos, flashlights that glow in the dark, and string back packs.
At Janice's house, they finished the baseboard and trim
And reconnected the screen door frame on the front porch to the cement.
They look sad because Kim ran off with the keys to Howard's truck.
They look happy because Kim is on her way back to give them the keys!
Found in the Lower 9th Ward
Pete
We had a friendly pit bull come to visit. She made friends with Matt and Pete.
Still a lot of work to be done in New Orleans
Some houses look great, while others right next door still are not even started on.
There are fewer FEMA trailers, but that's because the government has been taking them back.
It's not just houses that are damaged.
Contrast
That porch looks like trouble....
Lewis wouldn't eat it.
Bob ready for dinner
The deck at Pat's house
Can anyone explain this? You can google "Falstaff building bunny men" and you still won't find much
The back deck at Pat's, complete with steps
Bob's crew in the kitchen
Pete looks like he may be eaten by an alligator. Don't worry, it's not alive....
Getting ready for a group shot.
The NOLA 3 team (l to r- irregardless of rows:) Kim O., Ali St., Lewis W., Donna G., Ginger St., Corrine M., Howard N., Pete D., Rod St., Matt S., Bob N., and Rod Sc. standing outside North Rampart, where we were housed while in New Orleans
Rod St. gave me one of these and Corrine gave me the other.
On the way home
Kim is still shooting video
Rod Sc. trying to be aerodynamic.
This is pumping gas in Albert Lea- the last gas stop.
"Give me 'strong!'"
"Give me, 'funny!'"
"Give me, 'group!'"
"Give me, 'When are we leaving?'"
"Give me, 'theologian!'"
Too much!
See you next time!
Rod Sc. Doing the last devotion. He looks kinda like he has a halo!
Riding off into the sunset.
