Deb's Group

LEAH, HANNAH, RACHEL AND LIZA'S FINAL BLOG!!!!!

hey guys, we have had a super dooper time here. Today we met a lady that had an adorable doggy with her, she almost bit me... but thats okay! As we got talking to her, she told us all about how her mother's house was rebuilt by volunteers like us! She thanked us for all that we have done this past week and that she really appreciates the work that organizations like ours does. Then yesterday we met Lonnie!!! He was an amazing guy that passed by and told us that jesus loves us! He was very dehydrated and diabetic and almost passed out. So we called the ambulance and they gave him a pill for his diabetes. Once he took his pill he got up and walked away with Mr. Paulson and Mrs. Russell back to his house; right down the street. Also today we painted almost the whole first floor of the house and a picture of the sun rising with the words faith in the cloud. It was pretty amazing! We hung the sign outside so everything could see, and help brighten up the neighborhood. The sign also looked complete with the flowers we had bought and planted out front earlier in the week. There was a point where we went to this big store, called The Bayou Country General Store. This place had so much stuff! They had t-shirts and cookies called Palines. They have peacans in them! Also, even though people already talked about the swamp tour we wanted to bring it up again. It was AMAZINGG!!! The gators came right up next to us when they recognized that our boat wasn't going to hurt them. The captain put hot dogs on a stick and fed them to the gators right along side. They literally JUMPED out of the water to get them! We got some great action shots! On the third day we visited the other worksite and man was there such a difference. On our street, we could walk into it and dance around in the middle if we wanted too. But on theirs, they couldn't walk off the porch without people trying to make comments about their work. It was just such a different scene. Their street felt and looked so unsafe and unwelcoming that we were extremely happy with where we worked. For working it was all sanding and spackling and really looking at what we had to do. But we had a plan for the house so thats what we looked forward to during the week. For day one, we went to the FRENCH QUARTER!!!! This is a place in downtown New Orleans, where there are all sorts of shops and restauraunts right on the Mississippi river! At one famous place, Cafe Du Monde, we all got their world famous Beignets. They're these fried dough pieces CAKED in powder sugar. Talk about yummy! Earlier that day, we went to a church service. We called it a "hallelujah church." It was just like in the movies! There was all sorts of singing and really preaching towards god. It was just an incredible experience. They had us for lunch after, which they served gumbo and chicken! Talk about a great meal!

Well that really sums up the week. Right now we're packing up to head home tomorrow morning. This entire week has gone by so quickly ): we wish that it didn't have to end so soon! We'll miss this place and we'll always remember the times we've shared here as a group and family.

Wednesday!

Today was a productive day for both groups. Despite the fact that we worked a half of day, we made a great amount of progress. One group weeded and replanted flowers in honor of Ben. On another work site, the group started and finished painting the outside of the house. We went to the General Store where we got another taste of the Louisiana culture. We then went on a swamp tour where we came face to face with alligators. The tour guides were really fun and know a lot about the area. One of the alligators, which was really big, was name "El Guapo". He was a "player" and had lots of ladies. And there was a dominate female. She attacks the other girl alligators to show her spot. The tour guides fed some of the alligators jump up as shown in the picture. Overall the tour was really, really fun and when we got home, we had tacos for dinner (Greta's fave food) and ice cream sundaes. It was a fun day for all!

Spackeling Good Day!

Hi Everyone!

It's Chelsea, Tori, Chris and Cody. We are all having a great time here in New Orleans. We are in Richard's group and we are working on a two family home with Marjorie and two other groups. We had a great day full of spackeling! We spackeled the walls and sometimes each other :). Tomorrow we are sanding, so hopefully we will get to paint on Thursday. That is our goal. Tomorrow we are also going on the swamp tour and to the Bayou store. We hope Chris and Ethan don't push each other into the swamp! But we can't always get what we want, can we? Everyone says hi! Daddy we had 16 inch long white van twizzlers! and we saved some for you, so you have to feel better soon so you can eat them! Hope ya'll are having a great week!

Love,

Chelsea, Tori, Chris and Cody A.K.A The Carppa family :)

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NOLA-DRCC-Monday-July 18

That's alot of acryonyms. It stands for New Orleans, Lousiana, Deep River Congregational Church. And NOLA is code for our 2011 mission trip to New Orleans to help rebuild post Katrina. Yes it was 6 years ago. Yes it got alot of media coverage. And yes it was (is) catastrophic. But until you are here you can't fully appreciate it. Hundreds of square miles of heavily populated area were flooded with water that reached (typically) about half way up folks 1st floor. That doesn't do a house much good. 6 years on the devastation is still pretty vast. On our tour of distressed areas yesterday we saw various neighborhoods where the houses were 70% devastated, 50% devastated, 30% devastated. Still.

Today, Monday, we got to our work sites. You never know what you're going to do. All of us this time are mudding (compounding, spackling) drywall in anticipation of painting finished rooms. It's a final step to the home owner moving back in (after 6 years). That's a good thing. The job of sanding compound and patching rough spots is a bad thing. Incredibly dusty, hot, sweaty stew. Our modest, temporary inconvenience is a small sacrifice for the gift we can provide a homeowner who has waited years for this day. We are a tiny part of solution but it feels good.

A Message from Simone, Jill and Hayley