This is the second house that Richards team worked on. ON the first day they got their first house painted. The rest of the week they worked on painting both sides of a really big duplex. You can see the water level on this door. It's at the bottom of where the 0 is. The 0 means that there were no dead bodies.
Every day they had to Take down and put back up the wood for the windows.
Here is Richard spraying popcorn on the ceilings.
The day is over and the girls are hanging back up the wood.
There use to be another brown door behind this wall which leads up the upper apartment.
The livingroom with the drywall on the ceiling and walls and now we are mudding the seams.
This was my wonderful team that I got to work with. From the front left Me, Kelly Ms. Williams, Jessie, Katie. From the back left to right, Sam, Shane, Wyatt, Mason, Corey, Aubrey, and Mark (the other adult leader).
This is the finish product of the ceiling in the livingroom with the insulation.
Now we are hanging the drywall. This is one of the bedrooms.
This is another bedroom. This is Ms. Williams bedroom. She has not slept in her bed since August of 2005. She was so excited to see the transformation of her home.
And thats exactly what was happening...she saw her house become a home again. =] She called us her new family!
This is what the ceiling looked like before we started.
Here are some pictures of them installing the insulation. We had a livingroom, kitchen, bathroom, 2 bedrooms, a stairway and 4 closets that we remodeled.
Here are some more kids working.
Here we finished putting the insulation in and now we are starting to hang the drywall. These youths truely come here to work and they work hard. We leave at 7 am and will finish a job around 5:00pm. Then we get back to the chruch to shower before dinner at 6:30 and a youth meeting at 7pm. Let me just add the girls only had 3 showers and the guys had 4. There was always a line for the showers. Some teams would finish earlier than others so the line wasn't to bad. We usually will have free time around 9:30 to 10:30. From 10:30 to 11pm they have to get ready for bed before lights go out at 11pm.
This is Wyatt carrying in the ladders.
The rest of the team getting our tools out of the trailer.
Here we are inside of Ms. Gloria Williams home. She is temporarly living in the upstairs apartment. This house is a duplex. They are in the living room area.
This is the kitchen area. Our job was to put in insulation in the ceilings, hang the drywall and mud the walls once they are up. I was on a team without anyone from my family. Sarah and David were also on differents teams but both of their teams put in flooring. Richard, Rebekah, and Jonathan were on a team together. We had 4 teams total working on different job sites.
We saw a lot of these trailer parks. This is an actual neighborhood. These people still don't have a home to live in.
Then there are some trailers that are parked right in front of the home.
And believe it or not there are some homes with tarps still on them.
A view of New Orleans city from the interstate.
This is what their graveyards look like.
Due to being above sea level.
As we were driving into New Orleans, Louisiana, I could not believe the destruction that was still in the communities. Some of the pictures are a little blurry due to moving in a bus.
I think this picture was a neat one to see. The HELP is still on the roof and you can see where the people climbed out.
Where there is vacant building there are also rebuilt or new buildings close by. Katrina hit east of New Orleans on August 29th, 05. But on August 31st is when the levee's broke and the flood waters came in.
Richard having fun cruising.
Richard trying to splash them with the jet ski.
Richard about to pounce on Uncle D. =]
Uncle D and Richard feeling the need for SPEED!
Uncle D, David, and Jonathan having a little need for speed!
Jonathan skiing
David skiing
Look! No Hands!!
These Bengels were so active. I have never seen them behave like they were this evening! They were running around, chasing each other or chasing the birds. It truelyt was enjoyable to watch these beauty's.
Our zoo had an evening walk for the members only on Saturday. The animals were so active and fun to watch!!
The gave the elephants these balls that had treats inside of them. The elephants would pick them up and drop them on the ground to get the treats out. Or like this one, he would roll it around. =]
I just love these guys!!
David and I were on the way home and just down the road from our house David spotted this cutie!
Isn't she a beauty!
CONGRATULATIONS DAVID !!!! Yesterday, July 12, David went from being a Delta to an Alpha 1. David had to swim, I believe he said 450 meters in order to become an Alpha 1. As a lifeguard you start out at a level called Delta and you can make your way up to level 3 which is the highest. The lake that you see in the background of these pictures is where David had to do the test. He also has a bruise on his knee for his reward. As he was swimming his knee hit a rock. I'm guessing he was swimming back to shore when it happened. I am so PROUD of my SON!!!!!!!!! =]
