Wednesday/Thursday Recap

It's been a couple of days since we've been able to post, so I have updates from Wednesday and Thursday at the same time. On Wednesday our groups all worked for half a day so that we could spend the afternoon visiting with Rev. Charles Duplessis and his family, who evacuated the Lower Ninth Ward during Katrina and lost their home on Tennessee Street less than 200 yards from the levee. That moving experience was followed by a tour of different rebuilding efforts in the area. Several highlights included the "Make It Right" energy-efficient houses that Brad Pitt is spearheading, the "Musicians' Village" built by Habitat for Humanity volunteers, and several historic "steamboat houses" along the banks of the Mississippi River. On Thursday our groups wrapped up around 1:00 to spend the late afternoon and evening touring the city on our own, with stops at Cafe Reconcile and the French Quarter. Now I'll let Stuart and Ashley tell you more about their experiences over the last two days...

Hi from Stuart Smith, guest blogger. While most of the group went on a guided tour Wednesday night of the New Orleans area with our host from First Christian Church of New Orleans, my wife Linda and I stayed behind and continued working on the house we have been working on. We really hated to miss the tour of some of the areas affected by Katrina but we felt called to make some more progress on the house. While we did make some good progress on the house, the real treat was that one of the co-founders of the St. Bernard Project, Zack Rosenburg and some other staff visited the house we were working on to show some prospective donors the work going on with the project. He was explaining some of the steps they go through to ensure that the homes get re-built in a way that they are safe for the homeowners for years to come. Mold remediation is a major concern since these houses had been under water for so long. They actually test air samples taken from inside the homes when complete. So far, every home has passed inspection! After we finished for the day and cleaned up, we were able to attend the ceremonial ribbon cutting to dedicate the 200th home completed by the project. We were really able to see God's love shine through the tears of the homeowner who was an elderly gentleman that was so very grateful for everyone's hard work throughout the process. It was an amazing experience. The finished product is a very nice house that anyone would be proud to have.

Hey this is Ashley Ingram, today was really interesting and amazing. I have been to a few places. I've been to the animal shelter. The animal shelter did not smell good, but the animals were so cute. Mostly cats and a few dogs, (and a cute animal shelter volunteer named Don). The guy told us all about the shelter what they do how they do it where some animals come from and it kinda felt like I should be a volunteer at some shelter. After the animal shelter I went to a few places such as a restaurant called Reconcile. It was kinda good. We went to Jackson Square and at Jackson Square we went into this cute little knitting shop called the Knitting Quarter I think. Their dog Leif Ericson is a Maltese-poodle mix and he is so... wow. The lady and I along with Amanda were all talking about Leif Ericson. As a puppy he has gotten his tail cut off for no reason or maybe by mistake. We also found out he has been locked up in a backyard and was rescued a few years ago. I'm not sure but I think the lady mentioned Hurricane Katrina in her story. There was also a little sideline info such as his birthday is January 3rd and he gets crazy when other dogs come to the shop. He was actually startled today by this one big dog passing by. During my whole time at the Knitting Quarter when she was talking about this cute little Maltese poodle felt like wow. It kinda made me wanna be a vet more and do something like be an animal rescuer from "Go Diego Go" (lol). I so did not wanna leave, I wanted to stay and be with the little 2 years and 2 month old doggy and just learn more and get to know the people there more but I got 3 pugs at home so it's all good. That's all. Oh yeah today's my Mom's birthday!