Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011

The team did a great job!  Turning a very daunting challenge into a front wall that can be built upon.  But it may take up to 3 years before the 106 year old grandmother and her multi-generational family can return to it.  Walt told us that next week he has a team of 12 volunteers. Our team of 5 was the first team in this "season".  Now through the end of the year, they primarily have adult teams from all over the country.  During the Spring, they frequently have college teams, totalling up to 150 in one week.  Overall, last year, they had 4000 volunteers.  So far this calendar year, 2500.  click <here> to get to the page where you can download the Camp Restore September 2011 volunteer newsletter.
  When downloading and the Adobe Reader opens, but does nothing, click on the zoom size buttons to see the display.

In the meantime, we are watching for opportunities to help in the recovery efforts in the eastern half of New York State, which had flood and storm damage this summer.

Also, watch your church bulletin for scheduling of a report from our Nashivlle and New Orleans teams.

We left New Orleans at 10:00 AM CDT and got into Rochester at 3:00 PM EDT via Air Tran.  No, we didn't use a NASA rocket assembled in New Orleans (plant now essentially closed):

And we need to remember that the construction materials were provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans through a grant from their "Care Abounds in Communities" program:

Previous days below.

Friday, Sept.30, 2011

Today Tom and Liz removed the roof shingles, sheeting, and rafters from the front "triangle" of the house.  Ed and Sharon did the corner re-inforcements in the second apartment.  Karen spent most of the day helping out at St. Paul's Lutheran school.  In the afternoon the crew replaced the "joists" and sections of joists that were termite riddled.  A group next week will put up rafters, roof panels, and tar paper.  We finished packing up about 5:45.  After our showers, we ate pizza in the lounge.  It was only 84 degrees today, not humid and with a breeze.  We have to start out at 7:30 tomorrow to make our 10 AM plane. 

One note about the need to "build communities":  One of the churches has identified that because of the extensive use of "charter schools" in the area, students are not attending a neighborhood school -- and thus don't know the other kids in the neighborhood.  To address this, they are providing a community center where the kids can get together.

Pictured today is our team:  Walt (RAI construction manager), Sharon Kiellach, Ed & Karen Wright, Tom and Liz Chrzanowski in front of one of those "famous" Orphan Grain Train bedroom trailers. 

Faith Mission team to New Orleans 2011

Throughout the week we had problems with roofing nails getting stuck in our boots.  Take your footware seriously, particularly when you are on a rehab site.  Here's one that "missed":

Here's a shot of the "chicken beeks" (joists) where you can see that we spliced new lumber all across the front of the house:

It's obvious that Tom's glad to see that job done.