Louisiana 4 - Friday

As soon as we got to Ferry Place this morning, some of the crew walked down to the railroad tracks with coins in hand. They carefully laid them out on the tracks in wait for the next train.



Meanwhile back at the house, the first wall was going up. Wow!



After we learned the procedure for putting up the walls.

1. Lay bead of adhesive to the floor half way between the edge of the floor platform and the chalk line.

2. Move wall into position.

3. Line up inside of wall with the chalk line and nail bottom plate to the floor with one galvanized nail on each side of each stud (except in door openings).

4. Plumb the wall and attach braces to keep wall in square.

The platform became a bee hive of activity. Walls were going up everywhere you turned.







The Trinity Episcopal lunch truck arrived at about 11 a.m. and we ate lunch in the shade of the next door porch.





We also had to make a run back to the train tracks when we heard the whistle blow to pick up our flatened coins.




As we finished eating the reality that we only had two hours of work left and knowing that we were hot, tired and dragging, we circled up – hands in the middle – to charge us up for the final push.




It worked. By the end of the day all of the exterior and interior walls were completed. What an amazing sense of accomplishment. And to think that just four days ago, we eleven knew next to NOTHING about building a house. Now – just let us know where you want a new wall and we’ll build it for you! We’d also be glad to explain what a “King and Jack” is.






As the work of our work week ended, both groups gathered within the walls and circled up. We gave thanks to God for the gift of this week to us, for Billy and Seth from Habitat and Sarah from Rhino, and we asked God to bless the house and the family for whom this house will become home.





After a quick shower it was down to the Quarter for a couple of hours walking taking in the sites.





Then, like the groups before us, we had dinner at the Gumbo Shop and beignets at Café DuMonde (with the same waiter we had in April).






And now a word from Richie . . .

I came here not really knowing what to expect, and I am now leaving with the satisfaction of knowing that I had made a difference in these peoples lives. When I arrived at the church I didn’t know that many people. Throughout this trip I feel as if I made a special bond with each person here.

We started off the final day with another 6 o’clock morning. This is a hard thing to do considering all of the snoring that occurred in our room. We arrived at Ferry Place at 7 o’clock in the morning. We all started hydrating expecting another hot and humid day. The walls we were working on were now being put up and the house was looking great. After working all morning on the exterior walls we began putting in the interior walls, and by the end of the day we finished all of the walls. Meanwhile on the other house the other group was working on the floors. Towards the end of the day everyone had a greater appreciation about all we accomplished on both of the houses. All of us learned a lot about ourselves throughout this trip especially me.

After we put in our last interior wall David led us off with a prayer. I was touched by this prayer and wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave anymore. Later that day we went out for a great dinner at the Gumbo Shop and walked around Bourbon Street. I met this man on Riverwalk across from Jackson Square with a set of drum sticks in his hand. I ran up to him and grabbed the extra set of drum sticks and we played a beat together. When we finished he led us to a inspirational prayer and this was when I knew how much of a difference we are making in these peoples lives.



Now we are going to play an intense game of monopoly. Here we are done with our trip and what a difference it has made on me as a person. Each piece of wood that went up into these houses is a part of us and just as the house bonded together so did we.

-- Richie Davey




What an incredible week is has been. As Richie said, we're bonded together - one to another and all to a house.

Louisiana 4 - Thursday

Sorry for the delay in getting today’s blog posted but a family from church invited both the Dayton group and us out to dinner. We wended our way down Tchoupitoulas Street to the Hilton Hotel – the home of Drago’s restaurant – famous throughout New Orleans for it’s Char Broiled Oysters. The food was fine, fine, fine – but we got home too late for us to run to Starbuck’s for the wifi connection.

Today was an incredibly productive day. We managed to complete all the first floor wall assemblies for the first house and the vast majority of the flooring platform for the back half of the second house.









One of our Habitat supervisors couldn’t be with us today and so Steve Hart donned his contractor’s persona and we didn’t miss a beat. Billy better get back tomorrow or Habitat may be kidnapping Steve.



David had a momentary flash of genius last night. Yes, hard to believe but true. And so as soon as Frankie’s and Johnny’s opened at 11 a.m., we were on the phone ordering Po’ Boys. It is alleged that it is the bread that makes or breaks a Po’ Boy sandwich. Another New Orleans masterpiece. As the picture below shows, Sarah (the Rhino coordinator) likes them too. In fact she’d rather chomp into hers than hold it up for a photo op.



Again today, the heat index topped 100. In order to be more consistent with water/shade breaks during the work day, David purchased a Harpo Marxesque horn that he keeps close at hand and which sounds every hour. The generator is turned off and mandatory 10 minute break is declared.



Today we went through 6 five gallon coolers of water.




A wonderful thing about tomorrow is that the anticipation of seeing walls go up easily counteracts our cumulative exhaustion of the week.







And now a word from Michael and Geralyn. . .


Greetings from New Orleans! Today started off strong; we had a fabulous breakfast of Lucky Charms and fruit. Every day we’ve been reading inspirational short stories called “Morning Watch” before starting construction; little nuggets of wisdom to remind us how to be good Christians (Today’s title was the Golden Eagle- TBD later). We arrived at the construction site and we were informed that one of the Habitat leaders would not be there today so we took direction on completing the interior walls and exterior walls from Steve (good thing he had his Lucky Charms as well).



We started the day off working on the last interior wall and by the end of the day we nearly finished working on the exterior walls. We had Po’ Boys for lunch; they’re the best sandwiches we’ve ever had, although that’s a serious understatement in itself. We’ve had some great food down in New Orleans and we simply can’t thank the chefs enough for providing us with fabulous Southern dishes.

Since we hadn’t discussed the Morning Watch in the morning, we decided to debate about it in the car on the way back to the house (which, by the way, is very, very comfortable). The story was about an eagle that grew up as a chicken. Thinking it was a chicken, the eagle looked up to the skies and saw an eagle flying. Another chicken told the eagle-turned-chicken that eagles belong to the sky and chickens belong to the earth. So the eagle lived and died as a chicken, because he thought he was a chicken. We had quite a heated discussion over the point of the story, as well as whether eagles are better than chickens. Tonight a family from our hosting church is taking us to Drago’s, a restaurant that reopened in New Orleans. The restaurant is known for its exquisite char-broiled oysters which we all look forward to eating. Afterwards we look forward to playing another intense game of Monopoly which we’ve played every night since we arrived.

We anticipate completing the first-floor framework on Friday. It’s really too bad Friday’s our last day for a number of reasons. We’ll miss the people we’ve met and the new friends we’ve made. We have completed a great amount of work on both houses, but we would love to have had the chance to finish both. Working on construction in New Orleans has been a beneficial experience in body, mind and soul. We hope you enjoy today’s pictures.

-- Michael & Geralyn




For all you folks who are jealous readying our blog – be the first on your block to sign up for Louisiana 5 – November 10-17.

Thank you for your prayer support. It has kept us strong.

Louisiana 4 - Wednesday

We arrived at Ferry Place at a little after seven this morning and got to work unloading the equipment trailers and setting up our work areas. We are working on two houses which are next door to each other. At the first one the first assignment was to fabricate the window and door systems. At the second house they were at work installing the floor joists.

Meanwhile the cutting shop was in full force.



The day was quite productive, but it was all “on the ground” so to speak, getting all the different components ready for the “raising.” If all goes well tomorrow should produce some dramatic visual changes. Let’s hope so!





For the third day in a row Trinity Episcopal Church supplied our lunches. They have been providing lunches to volunteer groups five days a week since October 2005. Normally they serve Rhino groups once during their stay, but luckily for us, their scheduled groups have canceled and we are the beneficiaries. As you can see, Richhie likes the idea!




Here's a window "in process" and "finished."





At the end of the day, as clean up time came, the Cowboy Preacher with his super squirter showed up to cool things down!



Dinner tonight was jambalaya. And it was delicious.

Now a word from Emily. . .

After returning last night from dinner we took a group trip to Walmart to pick up all of the things that we had left behind. We rushed home and started an extremely crazy game of monopoly on our brand new Disney and Pixar monopoly board that we bought at Walmart. Tired from a long day’s work, most of us headed to bed pretty early.

This morning upon another 5:30 wake up call, we got our things together and headed back to the worksite for our second day with Habitat for Humanity. On the first house we continued to cut and fit wood to specific dimensions and even began building the walls of the house. On the other house, we began putting up joists in preparation for fitting the floor boards. All in all, it was a very intense day with the heat and the increase in work load, however, actually seeing the production of all our labor provided all the more satisfaction.

As for now, we’ll probably play another game of monopoly.

-- Emily Anderson




And a sidebar from David . . .

Let me tell you that this team is an absolute blessing! The kids are working like demons. They take care of each other. They are representing you exceedingly well and carrying on FPC Stamford’s reputation down here. AND they are a delight to be with. The laughter is almost non-stop.

Pray hard that we will be able to keep the energy going. It is dang hot!