Our day, which promised to be in the 80s never quite made it. It was very pleasant this morning, but this afternoon the wind came up, and the clouds danced across the sky promising rain. That's the forecast for tomorrow and Friday. (I wonder how the weather has been at home?)
We continue on our projects. We were able to put on another coat of mud. I'm actually very pleased with my growing ability to get it pretty smooth. Tomorrow we need to add yet another coat to some areas and then we hope to prime coat the livingroom and kitchen area on Friday morning. They are hoping that Angelique can get into her home by Thanksgiving. They haven't told her that, though, because there's still several things that will need to get done. We haven't met her yet. Still hoping for that.
Kathi put grout between the tiles in the bathroom and they set the toilet. They continued to move forward, tiling down the hall and will enter the kitchen tomorrow. That will be easier since less cutting will be involved. Jim, we discover is a perfectionist. He's not as happy with the tile, because he knows where the problems are, but I sure can't tell. The problem is that the entire house is this same tile and the bedrooms don't flow perfectly into the hallway. The tile seems to have been purchased in 2 different lots because there are very small differences in the measurement. That adds to the difficulty.
We learned today that Presbyterian Disaster Services (PDA) has completed 742 homes right here in New Orleans in the last 4 years. That doesn't count the homes in other parts of the Katrina area. It also doesn't count the homes where they mucked out and then the owner took over or where they helped with some aspect of the work to move the process along. They will be here through 2010, and then a decision will be made about whether the village will continue and in what way. This is where a portion of our One Great Hour of Sharing money has gone these last few years. I don't know about the others in our group. But it makes me proud to be Presbyterian! The amount of work yet to be done down here is staggering. So many homes vacant and sitting sadly destroyed in the aftermath of the storm.
The house where we are working sits a block from a HUGE apartment project (probably subsidized housing through the government) that is completely empty and destroyed. To get to Angelique's place we have to drive past about 5 blocks of these destroyed ghost apartments. The belongings still litter the rooms with windows broken, bricks falling loose and huge holes in the sides. They have put up a 10 foot fence around the complex, but we can still get in to look around. These apartment buildings stand on both sides of the streets to remind any who might forget for a moment that a whole city's way of life has been destroyed. Pretty depressing.!
On the other side of that issue, we took a short tour at lunch time when our construction assistant, Austin, who is a young adult volunteer with the Presbyterian Church, took us to a Barbeque place to eat. We went by the neighborhood in the lower 9th ward where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are funding the rebuilding. That neighborhood is growing quickly. Since we saw it last year there are a ton more houses. These structures are ultra modern with eco-friendly solar electricity, and other energy saving features. They are up on stilts and are very nice. There are signs all around down here suggesting that Brad Pitt should be mayor. He's very popular.
It's good to see the new growth, and that is the bright spot against the tremendous need we see. Of course they say that only about half of the residents returned to New Orleans. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years here in this city.
Tonight we are helping to prepare dinner. We signed up on the night that a professional cook comes to fix a typical cajun meal, sausage and chicken gumbo with bread pudding for desert. I enjoyed it very much.
See you soon.
Joyce
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