Final Day in NOLA

We woke early and packed and carried our bags to the buses.  After our seats on the bus were secure, we ventured back to the Embassy Suites for one final breakfast and group gathering.  Once finished, we had 6 hours to explore and enjoy New Orleans before leaving on a 17 hour bus ride back to Cincinnati. My number one goal today:  making sure Michelle had a Happy Birthday!



Celebrating the music of New Orleans!



Jackson Square--one last time.

While waiting for the Roots of Music to arrive, I was able to stop and pay attention to the details surrounding us.  This fence surrounds Jackson Square--love the details.

The Roots of Music, after a transportation mishap, finally arrived at Jackson Square.  These students range in age from 9 to 14.  The program provides a tuition-free, year-round music education and academic mentoring program.  The kids are AMAZING!  They've been invited to march in the 12th Tournament of Roses parade--America will be blessed to hear their performance.  I still can't believe the kids are only 9 - 14 years old!

After enjoying the Roots of Music, we walked to the French Market for some souvenirs to take back to our families.

I am blessed to have spent the week with these individuals--Go Group 12!  We challenged and encouraged one another through hugs, tears, smiles, scripture and stories.  Michelle, thanks again for the invitation to join you on this adventure.  I loved every minute and will remember out time together always.  I hope that one day my path will return to NOLA, where I can serve and explore the e city again. Thanks again Go Group 12--you rock!

GO NOLA--Day 6

Tuesday morning, we were assigned to a "work bus" which we took to and from our Habitt for Humanity site daily

Bus #4 getting ready to roll toward our Habitat site for the last time

Together, as a team, we made amazing progress throughout the week.  Looking at the house as we began our final day was very satisying.  Even Ben commented on how we exceeded his expectations with the work we completed!

David, our friend who taught us how to easily remove nails earlier in the week.  His job for today was to nail the plywood at the roof level.

Shannon and Wendy nailing interior walls in place.

The wood was so warped, that more often than not, the boards were pulled together with a clamp.  Once the wood was clamped together, nailing the boards together was much easier.

Kevin and I were sent to Ben's truck to locate another clamp.  Poor Ben, his truck is organized chaos!  I noticed, in the very back of the truck, a clamp, hidden beneath other "stuff".  Kevin though it would be funny to take my picture while I was crawling in the truck.

Walls were passed up from a ground crew to the girls waiting on the house.  Once the walls were on the floor, we slid them to their location.

Melissa, Mandy, Michelle and myself--we worked together the last 2 days, hammering, hammering and hammering some more.

Kevin added to the group of girls--he taught us a thing or two this week also.

Shannon, Michelle, Wendy and David--header crew

Right before we were scheduled to leave another storm rolled through dropping buckets of rain.  We left in sch a rush and I never had a chance to thank Ben properly for his patience and guidance.  This is the picture I snapped before dashing to the bus.

Once back at the hotel, we showered and changed and headed to FABC for a celebration/baptism service.  FABC was kind to allow Crossroads to borrow their facility.  Then, we bused to land they purchased for a new plant church and enjoyed a picnic FABC style.  The food was fantastic! 

GO NOLA--Day 5

C&C Music Family permeates through a slowly awakening Crossroads crowd.  Before long toes were tapping, arms were swingin and Scott and Alicia were entertaining us all.

Missing Shannon today who reluctantly stayed in bed to reduce a high fever.  We moved from component team to interior walls.  All of the Jack/King headers that we created the day before were being used to form walls.  It was really cool to watch the walls of the house transform.

Michelle and I, on either end of the wall, hammering away.  At this point, we were pros at hammering straight down, but hammering sideways and on sand  presented a new challenge! 

Taking a little break as we determine which pieces of wood need to be placed where.

Today was HOT!  And, I admit, the first day that I wondered if I'd actually make it to the end of the day.  The VBC kids from FABC surprised us with popsicles mid-morning and it was just the break I needed to feel refreshed and energized to embrace the remainder of the day!  Thanks VBC team!!

The VBC kids were so happy and proud to be able to share popsciles with us--many smiles and kind words were exchanged this morning.

Hard hat time!  Michelle and I were the first to be included on nailing the interior walls to the house.  Ben insisted that we wear hard hats while working.  By the afternoon, we were all wearing hard hats!

A rain shower provides a little reprieve to the heat, but then the steam arrives!  Making awesome progress with horizontal placement of interior walls!

The next two pictures show the house at the end of Thursday's work day.  Hard to believe we only have one day remaining on our site!

Tonight, we enjoyed an intimate dinner with our respective Go Groups.  Go Group 12 enjoyed "Naked Pizza" in Kenny & Alicia's room.  We talked, laughed, cried and shared our feelings about how meaningful the week was to each of us.  After spending a couple hours talking together, we decided to enjoy an ice cream break, Creole Creamery, in the Garden District.  We shared a cab to the creamery, but then opted for the trolley back.

From front to back, Kenny, Alicia, Michelle, Moose and Tony

Michelle, Moose and I on the trolley

Can you see the Mardi Gras beads hanging from the tree?  St. Charles Street is on the parade route and the beads are remnants from Mardi Gras!

Thanks Mr. Trolley Man, we were lucky to catch the last trolley back!

GO NOLA--Day 4

Framing for exterior and interior work begins with most of the group.

Meanwhile, Brad, Michelle, David, Shannon and I get busy working on the porch header.  A 21' 9' board that had to be pieced together.  We had to make an oreo sandwich by having two sections of 21' 9" boards as well as particle board to be used as our "cream filling".  When you're out in the sun, crazy things happen and apparently someone was craving oreos while we were building the header.  I jokingly mentioned at the start of our project that it would take all morning; little did I know that would be an accurate assumption!

Measure once, measure twice and best to measure a third time too.

Shannon using some fancy saw (see, I'm definitely a construction guru--HA).   Since the boards are SO warped, we quickly learned that if someone sat on the board (Michelle's job) while boards were being cut, life was a little sweeter.

Lots of measuring occured this morning!

And here are the pieces of our "oreo" ready to be nailed.

Since we were hammering pros by this point, the girls volunteered to hammer nails.  Three on each end of the board, including where the pieces were joined together, as well as a zig, zag pattern down the board.  Ah, but one side wasn't enough, we had to nail on both sides!  We definitely had a lot of fun working together on this project!  And, we were extremely thankful when Ben suggested leaving the header in the front yard--ummm, that's heavy!

The first wall of our house is up!

Next door to our site was a constant reminder of the effects of Katrina.  We asked Ben why the house was still standing and he said that they were probably unable to locate the owners, or record of ownership.   He shared that unlike up North, where we sell our homes to new homeowners, Southern homes are passed down to family members making record keeping quite challenging.  The house was discolored on the side and a "watermark" line was visible as well.  It's amazing to me that the house even survived.



During our visit to the Katrina museum, we learned about the "X" and it's meaning.  No survivors or deceased victims were found when rescuers searched the home; the home was already vacant. 



One of the neighbors rode by on his bike and stopped to chat with us.  He was very friendly and I estimate he was in his early 20s.  After talking with us for a while, he got off his bike and walked over to the house.  He had been eyeing the house the entire time he spoke with us.   I asked if he knew who had lived in the house and he nodded.  He didn't give further explanation and I didn't feel right asking.  I remained on the front stoop and took this picture looking into the house.  What struck me the most was that a portion of the ceiling drywall was still visible with a perfect light bulb still intact.  I can't begin to imagine how devastating Katrina was for those that experienced her fury first-hand.  And, I can't begin to imagine how heartbroken I'd feel returning to my home to see it in this condition.  Maybe that's why the owners haven't returned.  There are reminders like this house visible throughout the city, not only here in the 7th Ward where we worked, but everywhere!  Seeing the constant reminders of the devastation Katrina left behind is what continually pulled on my heart strings and gave me the encouragement and strength to persevere.  A lot of work has been done to repair New Orleans, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Upon opening the front door, this is what the floor looks like.  This must have been their kitchen as tiny pieces of vinyl are still visible on some of the floor boards.

A side profile of the house next door.

Another Subway sponsored lunch break.  It was hard to find shade, so we all congregated in the shade offered by the house next door.

Subway was very generous in their lunch portions and each day we had an additional 10 or so lunches which we shared with the neighbors.  These little boys were sitting across from our site and were so excited for their lunch.  I overheard them comparing potato chips and offering to share with one another and it just made me smile. 

At the end of our second day on the site, we were excited about the amount of progress we accomplished as a group. 

All of the exterior walls were up, with the exception of the back walls.  A storm was quickly approaching and we had to clean-up earlier than scheduled.

Seeking shelter from the buckets of rain falling outside the work trailer (Kevin's picture).  Unfortunately, Michelle and I didn't move quickly enough to be a part of this fun.  Instead, we desperately tried to stay dry underneath our "shelter house", but to no avail.  We were soaked.  So wet in fact, that once back at the hotel I had to wring my clothes!  Felt sorry for the person that had to sit in my seat on the bus the next day as I'm sure it was still wet!!

Since we left the work sites early on account of the storms, our driver took us to Musician's Village.  Musician's Village is an area in the 9th Ward constructed of Habitat for Humanity homes.  "The core idea behind Musicians’ Village is the establishment of a community for the city’s several generations of musicians and other families, many of whom had lived in inadequate housing prior to the catastrophe and remain displaced in its aftermath. A central part of this vision is the establishment of a focal point for teaching, sharing and preserving the rich musical tradition of a city that has done so much to shape the art of the past century"--Musician's Village website.  Learn more about this amazing section of the 9th Ward by visiting: http://www.nolamusiciansvillage.org/about/

Habitat homes in Musician's Village

The first year Crossroads travelled to NOLA, the volunteers worked on homes in the village.  For many, it was amazing to see the fruits of their labor finished and the homes occupied by thankful residents.  The Center for Music was merely a dream when they first worked in the area and to see the building complete was very emotional for some.

The city of New Orleans, from the bus, on a very stormy afternoon.

Mercedes-Benz Superdome

After returning to our room, only to find two areas soggy wet, Michelle and I spent most of our free time before dinner, relocating to a new room.  The hotel handled the transfer wonderfully and Michelle and I were pleased that they were so accomodating.  Our new room was around the corner which made moving to another room very easy.  Our Go Group made plans to enjoy oysters on the half shell prior to dinner, so we were a little late, but we were determined to join our group. 

While our waiter was opening the oysters he found a pearl!  SO cool!

Enjoying our oyster appetizer before heading to the Foundry for another authentic Nawlin's dinner.

After enjoying red beans and rice, jambalaya, salad and king cake for dessert, we joined the jazz band for stroll around the restaurant.

This group of musicians put on quite a show for us!  You couldn't help dancing!