Day 5 and Trip Wrap-up

Thursday was early rise for Rob and Chad as they had to get Chad to the airport bright and early. Rob had enough time to get back, fall back asleep, and be woken up not long after.

We were all up and adam pretty quickly and had left-over french toast and the super yummy waffles that Stacey and I told Kevin he HAD to make. It was fabulous. So after a nutritious meal, we all got workin.

Most of the day was finishing up and typing up loose ends at the church. Everyone worked pretty hard getting the sanctuary cleaned up from all of our traffic, dry wall dust, and paint, and most everyone was up pretty late (myself and Judith, who was not feeling well, excluded), but Tom, Tess, Jenn, and Craig were up until 4 in the morning making certain that the office got almost completely finished including the floors, shelves, the desk was built, most of the touch-up paint was done, it looked great, I mean, really absolutely wonderful. I'm certain Pastor Eunice was absolutely THRILLED to have her office back after being in the fellowship hall all week, and not just any office, but one that was filled with love and hard work.

Chris completely cataloged the tools for the two volunteer ladies at the center. People were having a hard time finding tools and things like that, so he made up a list of where everything was so that way it would be easy to find things.

The best part of Thursday was that we got to go down and see the 9th Ward finally. It was positively heartbreaking to see all of these houses in disrepair and only a few families coming back and trying to get back what they lost. Each house had a large X spray-painted on the front of the house with four pieces of information: the organization that searched the house, the date it was searched, how many people were found alive, and how many people were found dead. I am glad to say that most of the houses we saw had 0 for that last category, but not all of them did and everytime someone saw something other than a 0, it just kind of took us all aback. We saw houses that had been completely ripped off the foundation and turned on their sides, homes where the roofs had collapsed and nothing was left. The most heartbreaking was seeing messages on the homes that said, "Help!" or "Thieves, look in the window before you break our door again, all the copper has already been stolen." Even when these people thought they lost everything, looters were stealing the copper wiring and pipes and selling them all. It was extremely disheartening. This made us realize why we were there trying to help out, what we went there to do. I only wish that we could have stayed longer, done more, helped another family, but we did what we could, what we were able, and will do it again if the time is right.

We went through and saw the habitat houses that are being built. They are all these crazy colors like green, fuscia, blue, I loved it! There were two gentlemen sitting on a patio, so we all stopped and got out and chatted with them for a bit. It was incredible the luck that we had. It wasn't just anyone that we had stopped to talk to, but a well-known local blues drummer, Bob French. And while talking with him and the pianist from next door, Smokey Johnson, who had played with Fats Domino for a long time, cruised by in his wheelchair "listening to his tunes." It was quite the chance encounter, that's for certain. After hearing his story and how this wasn't the first storm he's weathered and lost everything to, but the second (Hurricane Betsy being the first in 1965), and how he couldn't be happier than where he is right now with what he's got right now, we all appreciated things a bit more. Bob gave us all his CD's and everyone got at least one, but Chris, who is the music junkie and the one that Bob teased about being the youngest of the group (and actually thought was in high school), got all three of his CD's and I think was very excited to have done so. Afterwards, we all went back to the center and the church and finished up working. At about 11:30, I made cookies for everyone to give them a bit of a sugar kick and something to keep going on as everyone had a late night.

We were all up before the crack of dawn at 4:45 and out the door and at Enterprise by 5:15 to turn the van in and get on the shuttle to the airport. We were a bit nervous as to whether we were going to make our flight or not because we only had an hour and a half to check our bags, get through security (which didn't look like it was moving at all), and get to our gate, but it turned out alright and we got there right before they started boarding our section. I think we all were asleep before the plane even took off and didn't wake up until it had landed. We landed 15 minutes late, so we only had half an hour to get to our connecting flight, but we all made it, passed back out and woke up long enough to get a muffin and a drink and then we were all back out until we were almost to Phoenix. We were all exhausted by the time we got home and I know that as soon as I got food, I laid down in my bed and slept the day away, it was great.

After having been home for a few days and having time to reflect on the trip, I wish I had thought of things differently while I was there and made more out of the trip than I did, but I truly appreciate the experiences that I had and the memories that I will forever keep. I've become closer to the people from our group and truly look forward to where we're all going to go and the things that Pastor Eunice can do with her new office. So a big "thank you" and "I love you" to all those that took part, including the kids across the street, the congregation from People's UMC, the Reno team, and everyone that made this trip what it was - the trip of a lifetime. I look forward to the next time that we can go and enjoy the community and share our gifts of labor to those who need it.

Peace and God Bless to all those who need it.

Joyce

written by  Joyce on March 17, 2008 from New Orleans, United States
from the travel blog: New Orleans Mission Trip
tagged Tom, Abbie, Tess, Jenn, Craig, Judith, Rob, Chris, Kevin, Chad, Stacy and WayneAndTobie
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