Monday, 7 April 2008
Today we left our home-away-from-home at the Metairie United Methodist Church at 07:30 in a small caravan of one car, one taxi-van, one scooter, and one monstrously big diesel pickup truck pulling a large trailer. Our last three members arrived at 11:42 pm on Sunday night, and they brought the big truck and trailer all the way from Belgrade. The taxi-van driver was a marvel, he conspired with the truck and trailer to sort of play leap frog while merging into thick morning traffic as we headed into the city. Each vehicle took turns letting the other in front at the merging points, thereby avoiding a nightmare in gridlock and enabling us to stick together.
We were impressed by the damage that’s still visible everywhere. Many abandoned and overgrown homes were stuck in the midst of others that have been restored. Empty businesses likewise were found on many blocks. We haven’t yet seen the areas where entire sections of town are yet to have any restoration started.
Orientation started at 08:30 at People’s United Methodist Church, in a quiet neighborhood a couple of miles from the Superdome. Other mission teams were there from Baltimore, Indiana, California, Maryland, Colorado, and even Bermuda. Several teams had been there before. The little church was packed, and we learned how it wasn’t flooded by Katrina, but the storm blew over their steeple and it crashed through the roof. For over one year the roof was open to all the weather of New Orleans. Volunteer teams have put the church back together beautifully, and some day they might even rebuild the steeple.
We got our work assignment and met our site coordinators. Because our team is so big, they broke us into two groups. We picked up tools from an impressive storage facility next to the church and split up. One group went to hang sheetrock in a home and slather all the joints and corners with sheetrock mud. It was tough, because almost all the sheetrock needed to be hung on the ceiling, a very high ceiling. A jack helped tremendously to lift up the 4 x 12 sheets of sheetrock, while two people screwed them into place. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite that easy. The old house wasn’t exactly square, and there were plenty of corners to go around, light sockets to cut out, and duct work to plan around. Ceiling joists were ancient, and some weren’t precisely where they should have been. The team before us was a youth team, and they apparently weren’t expert sheetrock hangers. Some was hung in the wrong direction, sheets of 5/8 inch thickness were side-by-side with ½ inch sheets, and some impressive gaps required a lot of finesse to tape and seal with mud. By the end of this first day, the team is becoming semi-expert at all the tasks required, and we are confident that by the end of our week, the home will have smooth walls, a smooth ceiling, and possibly some vibrant paint on its walls. Best of all, Reggie, the chef living next door came to give us a blessing and promised a special bar-b-que for lunch on Friday.
The second group went off to do finishing and touch-up work on a home that is much further along in the restoration process. It was beautiful inside, but there were enough things left to finish up that it’s likely the entire week will be used up doing so. They hung a little drywall, did more than a fair amount of sanding, and corrected some minor mistakes performed by other teams. The home’s owner, Mary, and her son came by to visit and had a marvelous meeting with the team. Mary works in the Tulane teaching hospital. Her son is a professional artist, and he has done a lot of the work on the home. He told them a lot of history about the house and the other teams that have helped there.
After work today, the folks of Metairie UMC had a welcome dinner for us. And thus our eating tour of New Orleans was resumed – with spaghetti and meatballs, sausage and chicken jambalaya, garlic toast, salad, and several desserts.
Health status report:
One slightly sliced thumb.
Two nasty head colds.
12 with sore muscles.
18 with full bellies.
19 happy to be working so hard for such good reasons (Christ is here with us!)
By Don Skillman
Today we left our home-away-from-home at the Metairie United Methodist Church at 07:30 in a small caravan of one car, one taxi-van, one scooter, and one monstrously big diesel pickup truck pulling a large trailer. Our last three members arrived at 11:42 pm on Sunday night, and they brought the big truck and trailer all the way from Belgrade. The taxi-van driver was a marvel, he conspired with the truck and trailer to sort of play leap frog while merging into thick morning traffic as we headed into the city. Each vehicle took turns letting the other in front at the merging points, thereby avoiding a nightmare in gridlock and enabling us to stick together.
We were impressed by the damage that’s still visible everywhere. Many abandoned and overgrown homes were stuck in the midst of others that have been restored. Empty businesses likewise were found on many blocks. We haven’t yet seen the areas where entire sections of town are yet to have any restoration started.
Orientation started at 08:30 at People’s United Methodist Church, in a quiet neighborhood a couple of miles from the Superdome. Other mission teams were there from Baltimore, Indiana, California, Maryland, Colorado, and even Bermuda. Several teams had been there before. The little church was packed, and we learned how it wasn’t flooded by Katrina, but the storm blew over their steeple and it crashed through the roof. For over one year the roof was open to all the weather of New Orleans. Volunteer teams have put the church back together beautifully, and some day they might even rebuild the steeple.
We got our work assignment and met our site coordinators. Because our team is so big, they broke us into two groups. We picked up tools from an impressive storage facility next to the church and split up. One group went to hang sheetrock in a home and slather all the joints and corners with sheetrock mud. It was tough, because almost all the sheetrock needed to be hung on the ceiling, a very high ceiling. A jack helped tremendously to lift up the 4 x 12 sheets of sheetrock, while two people screwed them into place. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite that easy. The old house wasn’t exactly square, and there were plenty of corners to go around, light sockets to cut out, and duct work to plan around. Ceiling joists were ancient, and some weren’t precisely where they should have been. The team before us was a youth team, and they apparently weren’t expert sheetrock hangers. Some was hung in the wrong direction, sheets of 5/8 inch thickness were side-by-side with ½ inch sheets, and some impressive gaps required a lot of finesse to tape and seal with mud. By the end of this first day, the team is becoming semi-expert at all the tasks required, and we are confident that by the end of our week, the home will have smooth walls, a smooth ceiling, and possibly some vibrant paint on its walls. Best of all, Reggie, the chef living next door came to give us a blessing and promised a special bar-b-que for lunch on Friday.
The second group went off to do finishing and touch-up work on a home that is much further along in the restoration process. It was beautiful inside, but there were enough things left to finish up that it’s likely the entire week will be used up doing so. They hung a little drywall, did more than a fair amount of sanding, and corrected some minor mistakes performed by other teams. The home’s owner, Mary, and her son came by to visit and had a marvelous meeting with the team. Mary works in the Tulane teaching hospital. Her son is a professional artist, and he has done a lot of the work on the home. He told them a lot of history about the house and the other teams that have helped there.
After work today, the folks of Metairie UMC had a welcome dinner for us. And thus our eating tour of New Orleans was resumed – with spaghetti and meatballs, sausage and chicken jambalaya, garlic toast, salad, and several desserts.
Health status report:
One slightly sliced thumb.
Two nasty head colds.
12 with sore muscles.
18 with full bellies.
19 happy to be working so hard for such good reasons (Christ is here with us!)
By Don Skillman
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing your experience... I will continue to watch the blog and I will continue to pray for you all.
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