Do you know what it means...?

... to miss New Orleans?
(posted by Michael)

I've had the experience I wanted. We spent 5 long (ok, only 5 hours each, but they sure FELT long), hot (avg. 85*), sweaty (smell our clothes! -- or better don't!) days building a house. We started with a "potential" house, just floor work in place -- that is to say, long joists framing where the floor should be. We left with most of a very visible house in place. Getting the roof on would've been a nice touch, but it was clear early in the week about where we'd finish.

We put floor boards on the joists, we built exterior and interior walls, we hoisted the walls into place, we sheathed the walls with plywood, cut out the doors & windows (I got to do most of that!) built and positioned the front porch, covered the exterior with Tyvek, and we would have gotten the windows in, too, if not for a sizing issue the supervisor was unprepared for. We got all the interior walls in place, cut out the doorways, and blocked in most of the walls (so the sheetrockers can get to their work).

Most of the days we headed out around 7:15 after a nice breakfast at Camp Hope. We went first to Musician's Village the first couple days, but from Wednesday, we went straight to our site - having proved our worth as good volunteers who could be relied upon for a solid day's work. Our supervisors Dan & Nora were terrific. The Baptists and Chicago ladies, and the other solo folks, and the later group that joined us were great. We made the kids drink a half-bottle of water at the top and bottom of each hour (after one gave us a scare Monday). At Marianna's suggestion we brought watermelon to the site the last 2 days. On Friday I sawed the watermelon into pieces with the SawzAll (reciprocal saw) that I was cutting windows out with. :o)

Lunch found us either snacking on the lunches we'd made at Camp Hope in the AM, or going out to eat nearby. Midweek we found a nice place half a block down, at the levee on the Mississippi,
where they gave us 15% off, and, more importantly for the ladies, let them come use the restroom, instead of the porta-potty!

Each afternoon, we made a stop for provisions -- water, snacks, medicines, etc. -- usually at the Winn-Dixie or the Walgreens. Then we got home to Camp Hope, showered, did laundry, etc. had dinner and went on to evening plans. We went into New Orleans a couple times, toured the St. Bernard Parish other nights, played games, got on the computer to blog, had youth service, etc., etc. Then we slept at a cool 60* (to cool down the central-air-lacking-site for the heat of the day).

I'd do it again!

Last week of June 2008, anyone?
:o)