Top 3′s

As we prepare to depart from NOLA (as in New Orleans, LA), I figured it’s a good time to do a top 3 (sorry, not enough brain power at 6 AM to come up with a top 10) of things I will and won’t miss.

Top 3 Things I will miss

3.  Sleeping in the upper bunk (sort of like being a kid again)

2. Things back in Wisconsin are not covered with the Mardi Gras colors of gold, purple, and green

1. The enthusiasm of the people here….for the Saints, for their recovering city, and for playing host to anyone who comes to help out.

Top 3 things I won’t miss:

3.  The guy who sings our wake up call every morning.  Waking up and immediately fostering  homicidal thoughts is not a good way to start the day.

2.  The devotions at Camp Restore  are heartfelt but trigger all my Missouri Synod issues.  Get me out of here!

1.  Weak coffee at camp.  I mean, really, if you’re going to cut costs, don’t do it on the coffee budget.

Thanks for reading. We had almost 40 hits one day. Sorry about the lack of pictures.  See you when we get home.

jhi

Work continues while monsoon rages

Okay, there’s rain, and then there’s a LOT of rain.  New Orleans had a LOT of rain today.  All-out downpour for hours.

Driven inside, we finished everything we could on the drywalling we’ve been doing.  We also headed over to Bethlehem Lutheran to move  cabinets and help with some cleaning.  The work was a little on the sparse side, but we left Ms. Doris and Boris’ place in great shape for whatever crew works there next.

Thanks to our travel group….Bob Baudo, Sheila Schrieber, Marlene Scholz, and John H-I (can I thank myself?)  They’ve been typical COL travelers…hard-working, resourceful, and able to adjust on the fly.

We’ll tour the 9th Ward and other places hard hit by the Katrina flooding in the morning and then be on the road home by 1PM. We won’t miss the Camp Restore bag lunches (how stale can bread get?), but we do appreciate the long-term volunteers who make the camp work.

jhi

Drywallers are us

Yesterday was all about pitching stuff out.

Today was a building day.  The four of us continue work as Ms. Doris’ and her son Boris’ place.  Today we hung drywall, mudded, sanded and hung a little insulation.  Meanwhile, others in the crew we’re with continued exterior stucco work, window glass replacement (and breakage…opps), and a variety of other jobs.

Tonight, we returned to the French Quarter.  We did some damage shopping and eventually made our way to Cafe du Monde.

Again, no pictures. Sorry.  I’m just leaving the i-phone alone until I get home and can get it cleaned up.  If I had had the phone, the picture of the day would have been a ladder we leaned over a stairwell to do some sanding. It felt reasonably secure but looked like one of those classic “weeded out by natural selection due to stupidity” shots.  Use your imagination.

I’ll just end with the New Orleans phrase of all phrases….

Who dat?

jhi

A Dumpster Full of Progress Today

The four Cross of Lifer’s joined in with 2 Cross Lutheran folks and 9 from Ascension Lutheran in an all out assault on a 2 story house which also used to be a small corner store, right across the street from Bethlehem Lutheran.

When the renovation of this place is complete, it will be a gorgeous place, but right now it’s a mess.  Today, about half of us  hauled an entire dumpster full of trash, construction debris, and assorted stuff out of the home, making it much easier to move around.  Meanwhile 2-3 guys worked on applying a stucco exterior finish to the first floor, while 4 others did drywall mudding upstairs. A few of us ended the day installing some insulation.

The highlight was lunch, which was catfish fried up for us by Pastor Pat Keen of Bethlehem.  It was a feast and then some!

Of course, I have pictures of all this, but I got a bunch of dirt on my brand new i-phone..or at least on its cover, and so it’s not working too well at the moment.  I’m sure it will be happy once I pry the cover off, but lacking the time for that, I’ll just post this baby and be done for now.

John

Boris Hosts Us At Bethlehem

Bethlehem?  It’s our partner congregation in New Orleans.

Boris?  He’s a homeowner across the street from Bethlehem.

His home?  Needs a lot of work.

But…first, today, we worked at Bethlehem itself.

Marlene and Sheila outdid themselves readying gardens for planting and getting rid of plants killed in recent freezes.

Bob and John got out the ladders and did extensive caulking to try to stop a series of leaks over windows.

Meanwhile, another crew was working at Boris’ place.  Then, the long-awaited dumpster arrived!

That makes tomorrow’s project a “go.”  There’s a day’s worth of flood and construction debris to haul out of Boris’ house.

When we got back tonight, it was time for the annual Monday night meal at camp.  Red beans, rice, and sausage.

We’re having a good time hanging out with our Cross partners.  Thanks to Tom Jackson for his two cents worth on tonight’s post.

Now, they’re trying to turn the lights out on us.  Time to take the evening conversations underground and for tonight’s blog to end. Sorry, I forgot to take to pictures today.  Tomorrow will be pics!

jhi

Ice in Mississippi

We got slowed down once we got into the ice storm belt.  Our driver did a great job of negotiating the ice ruts on the road.  No salt on these roads!

We’re now at Camp Restore.  Everyone has showered and we’re ready to head into the French Quarter.

Marlene, Bob, and Sheila are all doing well.   Sheila wins the award for sleeping the least on the bus!

I’m guessing there’s a chance there will be some snoring in the men’s bunk room tonight.

John H-I

Cross of Life Goes to New Orleans

Off to the races….not really. 18 hours on a bus. We leave at 3 PM on Saturday in the hopes of reaching Bethlehem (Lutheran Church) in New Orleans in time for church in the morning. We shall see.