On our way home...

Yesterday, Saturday the 21th of November, we stepped into our trusty Honda CR-V again homeward bound. We got up around 6 am. The night before we hugged everyone said goodbye to most people. However, 2 men had to wait for their flight to Boston on Saturday. They volunteered to ferry a number early birds to the airport and were hanging around until mid afternoon when their flight left. We said goodbye to them, grabbed some fruit and set off for home. The weather was around 15 deg C and it rained. Fortunately, just when New Orleans disappeared from our rearview mirrors, the rain stopped and as we got further along I10, the clouds started to disappear slowly. The further north we travelled, the sunnier it got. As I write this on Sunday evening, we encountered nothing but great weather. All along the sun was out and the temperatures in the mid to high teens, even in Indiana and Michigan (God is good!!). Our trusty GPS allows us to sail smoothly along the Interstates and through the big cities. Once we went wrong because I thought better and then of course we had to make a U-turn to get back on track. Oh well, another lesson learned. BTW, we're taking a slightly different route home. When we went to NO, we went down I75 to Cincinnatti and then took I71 to Louisville, KT. On the way back, in Louisville we continued on I65 to Indianapolis, IN and then took I69 direction Lansing and Flint MI and will continue on I69 to Port Huron where we'll cross the border into Canada again. This way won't have to go through Cincinnatti, Toledo and Detroit. All these cities are very busy and often have bad roads. Besides, we've never been in Indiana before :-) Talking about Indiana, it could be Ontario you're driving in, it just about looks identical, flat with lots and lots of farms. It looks like a prosperous state, lots of new construction in the cities and neat farms everywhere. Yesterday we made good time and stayed overnight in Franklin, Tennessee. The wireless system in the hotel didn't work so we could not get into our email. Today we are in Coldwater, Michigan and are staying in a nice place that does have a working wireless. We're a little later getting to our hotel because we found that the hotels in Indiana and Michigan are quite expensive.  They wanted around $70-80 per night in the La Quita and Super-8 motels. So, we decided to travel a little further and since we obtained a coupon for the Red Roof Inn in Coldwater, MI for $45.99 we decided to check that out. It turned out that this is a brand new hotel with all the amenities and it's clean so here we are for the night.







This is likely my final blog since we're hoping to arrive home tomorrow afternoon. It has been a great experience working with great people and for great people. Thank you for following Annie and I via this blog. We hope that is was of interest to you and that you have better idea what your CRWRC dollars are doing when they're spend on DRS work. It sure gave us an eye opener. Be assured that the people on the receiving end of your faithful donations to CRWRC-DRS are profoundly thankfull for helping them get their homes back. Moreover, we thank our faithful Father for the opportunities we have to extend His loving care to people in need.

The end is near...

It's Friday today and as I'm writing this blog, we've completed our assignment (hoorah!!). On Thursday evening we had a fun time together to celebrate the completion of our tour. Tom and Grace made it a fun evening with lots of sharing of our experiences and some fun games. I produced a set of DVD's with a photo slide presentation that Tom handed out to all the couples and single guys. Also, us first timers received our CRWRC pins and a Kenner pin. We worked only 4 hours this morning and then cleaned up the work site and handed in our tools. After cleaning the work trucks thoroughly we took our showers. We were pleased with the amount of work we have accomplished in the past three weeks. In my particular house, we put on the siding and got the house 80% insulated. We also completed drywalling the master bedroom and about 50% of the kitchen. The next DRS crew should be able to complete the drywalling, mudding and painting. The lady that owns the house will come over next week for Thanksgiving and have a look at how far we've come. I think she'll be very pleased. The other teams have also accomplished a lot of work. I have to say, these old guys and galls can work!!! It was hard for me as one of the youngest to keep up with them. The oldest guy was Peter Faber at 76 years. When you see him, he looks like 68-69 and he's one of the hardest workers. I hope to be in as good a shape as he is now when I'm 76.

Today we said farewell to 4 couples. It's a bit sad to part ways after being together for 3 weeks, 24-7 but on the other hand it's also nice to be going home again. Annie and I miss our kids, grand-kids and friends by now. Three week assignments are just about the right number of days to be gone. We are thankfull to God that no one got into an accident or seriously hurt themselves. I think it's a miracle because the work sites are often clutterred even though we try to keep them organized. Also, the traffic here in New Orleans is crazy. It's like the 401 in Toronto. So, tomorrow, Saturday, we'll be heading back home again. We hope to stay over near Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday night and on Sunday night we're planning to overnight near Fort Wayne, Indiana. We hope to arrive back in Acton on Monday afternoon DV. Please pray for a safe trip for us.

Well, we've got most of our big suitcase packed and we'll relax for the rest of the afternoon. Till we meet again, either in the flesh, blog, email, Skype, etc.

It's getting a little colder....

This morning we woke to brilliant sunshine but colder temperatures. A cold front went through last night with some rain and high winds. This morning it was only 50 deg F and and it never went higher than 64 deg F. I have been working in shorts and t-shirt so far but this morning I put my jeans on and wore a light jacket until about noon. By then the temperature was warm enough to work in a t-shirt. We're getting close to having the house covered with siding. Today we had to do a lot of repairs before we could put any siding on. About 30ft of fascia board was missing and we to worry new boards under the drip rails along roof line. These drip lines are like spring steel and it was very difficult to get the 1X6 boards underneath. Finally we got it done and after putting to last sheets of siding at the top of the outside walls, we went inside to fix the holes the plumber had cut. This house is like a cottage. It is build on concrete blocks. Drains and pipes run everywhere, including under the house. When the plumber replaced all plumbing, he had to cut 4X4ft and larger holes in the floor to get the new drains in. We spend the whole afternoon fitting the cut-out sections (3) back and replacing the new subfloor to cover them. All in all it was a good day with a lot of hard but satisfying work.

Annie worked in housekeeping again today and will do this job until we go home. We have a few more days here and then we go home again. On the one hand it will be nice to get some rest but on the other hand, we are going to miss the people we chummed around with.

Tom and Grace took us out to "Cafe Du Monde". This is place that serves beignets which are a New Orleans delicacy. They are like a doughnut covered in icing sugar. They were nice, but not really all that special in my humble opinion. Apparently when you visit New Orleans, you have to try these.

So far, God has been good and has spared us from any accidents which is amazing in that on construction sites it is so easy to twist ankle or get an injury. There are 21 of us here with 16 people working on construction sites. On the right is our offical group photo. Standing from the left: Tom Silvis (on site manager), Bill Lafleur, Don Koopman (in back) Dan Wubben, Ed Buisman (construction manager) Sjoukje Buisman (CM assistant), Jogn Schuitema, Judy Warners, Doug Warners, John Tjaarsa, Peter Faber, Harry Kerkhof, Lawrence De Raaf, Harris Rotman and Donna Rotman. Sitting from left: Grace Silvis (on site manager), Gerda Wubben, Carol Schuitema, Audrey Tjaarda, Annie Kerkhof and Boukje De Raaf. What a nice bunch of people eh?

Well, I hope that everyone is doing well back home. Good night and till the next blog.

Yesterday we went into New Orleans again on our day off. We went downtown New Orleans with another couple, John and Audrey Tjaarda. They're from Chino, California. Annie has worked with Audry and I've worked with John so far. We first went to see the WWII National Museum. This was very interesting and well done. We started out with having a coffee first (of course you have to have coffee in the morning before doing anything).

We got tickets for the museum as well as a multi-media movie about WWII. This movie has been made just for this museum and took longer than the Americans were in the war, i.e. it took 5 years to make. It is directed by Tom Hanks and was very well done. It showed a mixture of actual film footage, computer generated scenes, flashing lights, sounds and real props that appeared and disappeared. In one scene about the Battle of the Bulge, it actually snowed (simulated of corse) in the theatre. The seats rumbled when artillery strikes hit or tanks drove by. All in all quite impressive. The museum itself has a good collection of material about the war in Europe and the Pacific. A lot of information on D-Day is being displayed. It is amazing how much of a struggle it was to overturn the evil empire of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. We could have spend most of the day learning about all the exhibits, but since we wanted to do some other things as well, we quit at around 2 o'clock.

After visiting the museum, we went on a 2 hour excursion on the Nachez, which is a replica of a Mississppi sternwheeler steam boat. This ship can entertain up to a 1000 people and is, up to this point, the fasted sternwheeler on the Mississppi. We had beautiful weather again, sunny and around 74 deg F. We took the tour around the harbour sites and Naval station along the Mississippi. The guide had a running commentary on the sites along the river and the ships that we encountered. We had a great time. We also met Tom and Grace on the boat. We had planned to get on a different river boat, the Creole Queen. However, just when we came to the dock after visiting the museum, we saw our boat go around a bend in the river. In other words, we missed it. It was supposed to leave at 3pm according to a brochure we obtained (which later appeared to be out of date). However, when we got to the dock at 2:20, it was already gone (it left a little after 2). We just made it to the next boat, the Sanchez, which was supposed to leave at 2:30 and we were just about the last to board. Anyway, it all worked out and it was about 5 o'clock when finished the excursion and stepped into our Honda agian and motored back home to get ready to go out for supper.

On Sunday we slept in until 7:20am and then got some breakfast and got ready for church. We went to the First Baptist church again and had the opportunity to worship our God in a very meaningful way.

In the afternoon, Annie and I took a leisurely drive along the Mississippi. We had hoped to see some nice countryside. However, what we saw most was lots of refineries, factories and industrial sites interspersed with sugar cane fields. We had hoped to visit a plantation house but the only one we saw had a big festival going on. There were lots of people and lots of stands like a flea market. We didn't really feel like joining another large crowd of people. It was nice though to just get away with the two of us.

Annie will be working in the kitchen for the rest of our stay here which she doesn't mind at all. That's it again for now. Till next time.

Friday the 13th..but we don't worry :-)

I'm back again. Last night I didn't have too much to report and I just wanted to veg. We started the morning again with an excellent breakfast (see left). Yesterday I did more siding and we got a good amount of wall covered. Today, we're much slower again because we had to fix a number of areas. For instance, the front fascia backer board was all rotted away and we had to cut the rotten section out and replace it with new wood. Because there was a large tree just in front of the house with branches hanging over the roof line, I had to do a lot of tree trimming before I could reach the fascia properly. These are just some examples of what we're up against when we continue to rebuilt this old house. John Tjaarda, one of our crew, spend a lot of time putting up soffits and fascia cladding. This is also a "fiddly" job. We still have to rebuild a large section of fascia at one side of the house. We all think that they made a big mistake in trying to rebuilt this old house. It would have been cheaper and a lot quicker to have torn it down and rebuilt from the ground up. But that's all water under the bridge now and we just do the very best we can to make sure that we end up with a house that is safe and looks good. One of the problems is that not only are we fixing water and storm damage from Katrina, but also neglect and lack of proper maintenance. The house is basically totally rebuilt with new electrical wiring, new plumbing, new A/C and heating, new bathroom, new kitchen, new hot water tank, new flooring, new and better insulation and list goes on. The lady that owns this house is an 85 year old single lady. She's presently living with family somewhere in Texas. It's too bad that we haven't been able to meet her. The other houses we work on have their owners or family members drop in regularly and they have some nice times of fellowship with them. On the other hand, the neighbour across the street is a good friend and she comes over from time to time and takes pictures that she sends to the owner. She's a very nice lady as well. All in all, we find that the people around are very nice and easy to talk to (as long as you can understand their southern accent).

Annie was assigned to cooking and cleaning duties yesterday and she thoroughly enjoyed doing that. It's a lot easier on her and the kitchen staff consists of some great ladies. In the afternoon when the kitchen staff had a couple of hours free time, they walked to the Mississippi river, which is only about 10 minutes walking from here. The ladies are standing on the levee on the north shore of the river. The Mississippi is about one mile across here and flows quite fast. Even here, you can notice the influence of the tides. During flood tide, you see a cross-current going upstream which is interesting. On the picture, you can see that area at the foot of the levee on the riverside is flooded. This is the after affect of the storm surge of hurricane Ida, the only visible sign here that we had a hurricane in the area. Large sea going ship go right up the port of New Orleans and barges are going up and downstream all the time loaded with raw materials.

Today however, Annie had to go back to do some real work again which consisted of sanding drywall (this one of the least liked work apparently). Luckily, it's now done and she only had to do it for one day. As you can see in the picture, the sanding crew got a little greyer than they already were before. They should get to the painting stage by Monday. However, I think that on Monday, she's working in the kitchen again though.

Today we completed our second week of work and are looking forward to some relaxing time on the weekend. We have plans to see and do a few thing on Saturday, but I'll write about that after we've done them. The best thing of these working trips is the fellowship with each other. We have really bonded as a group and appreciate each other's gifts and contributions. Our construction supervisors are Ed and Sonia Buisman. Ed has a lot of construction experience and can always be relied on to figure out any of the problems we can't. Sonia, or Sjoukje as she prefers to be called, is his wife and able assistant. In this picture, you see the ladies doing handcrafts. Last Wednesday, they had a special ladies night when the ladies did their crafts and the men got to do the dishes.

Well, I'm writing this blog before our supper and it's just about time to go down so I'm putting a period to this blog. BTW, I think tonight's supper includes brocolli salad, taco salad, banana bread and mystery desert. Good night (or good day depending where you are) to all of you.

Remembrance Day/Veterans Day

Yesterday, I just didn't have the oomph to write my blog. Also, because there was an AA meeting here, all the DRS people were crowded into the lounge.

Yesterday my crew finished tweaking the inside of the house to get it ready for drywalling. We were all very happy that this phase of the job was over because it was very finicky and at the end of day, you saw little or no progress after working your butt off. We also had to remove part of the front steps and when we did, hundreds of cockroaches rushed out and skittered off all over. Also, a large nest of ants was inside these steps. It's a good thing we didn't have any women in our crew :-) Annie did more mudding yesterday and today she had to sand. Sanding is a very dirty job but she's going to work in the kitchen for the rest of the week and possibly next week. I think she'll enjoy that more. It's not so physically exacting for her. Today my crew put on a lot of siding. We have about 40% of the house done now and it's starting to look so much better already. The electrician came today and we hope that by Friday, he's finished. Also, the heating and AC crew was in today. They removed all the old ducts and heating unit. They should also be done by the end of the week.

Today, the kitchen staff toured the three sites we are working on and handed out icecream sandwiches to all. Needless to say, in the hot weather that was appreciated very much. The weather is beautiful here today, 75 deg F and sunny with a bit of a cool breeze to prevent you from overheating too much. As I predicted, hurricane Ida was a real flash in the pan for us here in New Orleans. We never got any rain and the winds were moderate. The only thing noticable was that the temperature was just below 70 deg F and we had overcast skies.

After working all day, we usually quit around 4 o'clock. When we get back to base, we take a nice hot shower and relax before supper. Grace usually arranges "happy hour" in the "Cafe Lamour" (sic). This involves setting up an area in the dining hall with tables and chairs and serving grape juice and hors d'ouvres. This is of course well appreciated by all.  Yesterday Annie and I had to do the devotions. This is done a rotational basis. It is a real time of fellowship where we can share our concerns and blessings. We conclude with announcements and then we sing a number of songs together. After that, everyone is free to relax and do whatever they want. A lot of the guys watch sports, primarily football. Some play games and others do their email correspondence or read. By 10 o'clock, nearly all go to bed and try to get in a good amount of sleep to be ready for the next day.

We remembered our fallen soldiers and veterans today, it being Remembrance day in Canada and Veterans Day here in the US. Tom read the poem "In Flanders Fields..." and we had various stories of what this day meant for Canadian and Americans alike. Please click on this link to view the video Soldier's Song

Tonight, the kitchen staff had a night off and we had supper in the local Baptist church. It cost us $5.00 per person and was worth every penny. They put on an excellent meal and we talked to a number of people from their congregation. Everyone here is very friendly and makes us feel really welcome. This is about it for today, I hope this blog allows you to get an idea of what and how we're doing. Goodnight to all. We are always thankful for your prayers and keep you all in our prayers well.

Ida....Much ado about nothing.

I didn't feel like writing a blog yesterday, so here were are again today which is Monday. Yesterday being Sunday, we of course went to church after sleeping in till 7:30 or so. This time we visited the First Baptist Church, which is only a 7 minute walk from where we're staying. This is a large church capable of seating around 700-800 people or so. It wasn't very full either but more people attended here than in the Methodist church, at least 350 or so. We had a great service with lots of praise hymns. The church has quite a good music program as well. The preacher was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed the sermon. We, as DRS reps, were officially recognized by him upon which we received a warm applause from the congregation.

In the afternoon, Annie went into New Orleans with a bunch of people to a Black Southern Gospel Fest. She enjoyed it, but everyone complained about the high sound levels. Our people were the only white people in the audience and were warmly received.

Today, all the news is about hurricane Ida. The news anchors are spinning this story from every possible angle and if you wouldn't know better, you'd think that the end of the world is near. It now appears to land near Pensacola as a tropical depression, which is to the east of us. Here in New Orleans, we'll get up to 60km/h winds and maybe up to 2 inches of rain tonight. Not exactly something that would worry me a whole lot. By the time we get up tomorrow, it'll be mostly over and we expect a mix of sun and cloud. Today we had a few sprinkles and it was overcast with a temperature of 69 deg F.

Our crew continued prepping the house to hang drywall. We had to do more blocking, shaving and shimming. We worked hard, but with little visible signs of progress because it is slow and exacting work. We were hoping that the electrician would come today to install the wiring. However, as is typical here in the south, he never showed up. We hope to continue applying vinyl siding tomorrow, depending on the weather conditions. Annie did more mudding and has graduated to doing inside corners. They are almost done with their second coat and hope to finish the final coat before week's end.

Also, today the last couple of our work crew arrived and was warmly welcomed. They are not yet retired and could only spend 2 weeks here.

BTW, the pictures in this blog are "clickable". When you click on them, you can view a much larger copy with a lot more detail.

Annie and I really appreciate your continued prayers and any feedback you give us, either via email or blog feedback. Thank you so much!

Well we hope that tonight we can sleep soundly when the storm hits. We wish you all God's blessing and a good day/night.

A rest day...or is it?

Today we had the luxury of sleeping in. It being the weekend and we're not working. This morning we had breakfast with a goodly number of our crew at the local IHOP. For those of you who haven't ever visited IHOP, it stands for International House Of Pancakes. We had a great breakfast selection of the usual egg dishes and a large variety of crepes and pancakes. After that, a bunch of us went downtown New Orleans to do the tourist thingy.  The first item on our itinerary was a visit to one of the old cemetaries here. Because the ground water level is only a couple of feet below the surface, the graves are in above ground tombs or sepulchres. They are in a variety of styles and sizes. Modest ones, just a bit larger than a coffin as well as palatial grand edifices. It was interesting to see that the cemetary we visited had graves all the back to 1823. There are mostly French names on the tombs. You can certainly notice the French and Spanish influence in this city.

Wedrove to New Orleans with the six of us but once we had parked, split up into three couples and each went our own way. After the cemetary we visited the French Quarter. This is the old section of town and is famous for it's jazz, bars and carnival. It's quite "touristy" with high prices and lots of stuff you can spend your money on. The French Quarter has a lot of character. There are street artists everywhere including cartoon artists, painters, mimes, jazz musicians, street sellers and much more. We walked along Bourbon Street, made famous by its Jazz music and the movies. The interesting architechture here includes the balconies on the buildings complete with cast iron railings. There are also lots of horsedrawn carriages you can hire to tour the area. We visited the French Market which is kind of like a flea market where you can buy all kinds of items such as T-shirts, jewelry, food, etc. We had a good time just browsing around and enjoying the summer like weather.

We then walked along the Riverside Walk along the Mississippi river. We saw a couple of Mississippi river boats. You can go on them for a tour on the river and the harbour. The one that was moored played a few tunes on a caliope. This is a steam powered organ that can play real loud, just like a bunch of steam whistles.

There is no visible damge in the downtown area of New Orleans. When the French originally built New Orleans, they selected one of highest parts along the Mississippi mouth. During Katrina, only a few inches of water ever covered the French Quarter. After strolling along along for a few hours, we got a bit tired and drove back to our temporary home in Kenner. All-in-all it was an good and interesting day. We concluded the day with supper in a large buffet style restaurant and stuffed ourselves with lots of good food (just kidding, we took just enough to be pleasantly full).

We did some laundry and then retired to the lounge to play games and have a good time with the rest of the crew.

Our first week is done!

Here it is, the end of our first work week. I must say that I look forward to some R&R. The week has gone by surprisingly quick though. Even when the day starts at 6 o'clock, the days are so full that the time is just flying by. I did more framing today and we can now see the end in sight for that part of the job. It is a real challenge to make everything straight using a mixture of old rough cut 2X4's and new 2X4's. They are not the same size and we need to slice off a part of the old 2X4's and in other places shim them to get an even and straight foundation for the wallboard.

The plumber finished his work today and we'll be ready for the electrician on Monday. We cleaned the inside as best we could so he has access to the walls for placing the outlets and switches and fusebox. We have worked inside while the weather outside was just beautiful. Today again it was sunny and 73 deg F. Now that we're ready to continue to put siding on, the weather promises to be cooler and wet. Oh well.. you can't always get what you want.

Annie is still mudding and getting better at it all the time. It's something that will come in handy when I'm ready to renovate the basement at home. The owner of the house she's working in came to see how eveything is progressing. He's disabled and in a wheelchair. When we reconstructed his home, we took his handicap into consideration and he will be able to get around much better after everything is finished. He was moved to tears when he saw how much had been done. Needless to say, the DRS people were quite moved as well. One couple from California, John and Audrey Tsjaarda, presented him with a quilt that their church had provided. He was really thankful for that as well.

It maybe interesting to tell the folks back home how our day kind of goes. I'll describe the start of our day here today and the end of the day at another time. We get up at around 6 o'clock and get dressed and do our thing. We then go to the dining room around 6:30 to make our lunches. There are always a lot of food items to choose from, including sandwich makings, yogurt, fruit, snacks, drinks, etc. We pack our lunches into our coolers with an ice pack and since I'm the "waterboy" of my team, I fill a large water container with water and ice to take along. I usually have a cup of coffee and read the paper after making lunch. At 7 o'clock we have breakfast. One of the couples (this rotates on a daily basis) opens with prayer and then we eat. There is usually fruit, porridge, grits, toast, cereal, eggs, coffee and a whole bunch more. One thing we're not doing, is starving. There is an abundance of food at all times. After we're finished, the designated couple leads in devotions and finishes with a prayer of thanksgiving. Tom then tells everyone what the weather is in their home towns and reads a funny or interesting story. Any housekeeping items are discussed by either Tom or Grace. Our construction manager then gives us information and tips about the work sites for the day and usually also has a funny remark. We then stand up, hold hands and sing "This is the day". It has a special sencond verse related to the work we do as reps of DRS. Our construction supervisor is Ed Buisman ably assisted by his wife Sjoukje (Sonia). Sjoukje is a sister of Agnes Wyga.

Tom and Grace are doing a marvelous job here in Kenner. They bring a sense of fun and excitement to this venture that is uplifting and appreciated by all and they just make everything run smoothly. The best thing is that we can really feel the Spirit at work in this group. It's like a small group in that we can share our concerns and joys without judgement.

Annie and I are thankful for the people back home that are praying for us and surely appreciate that very much. So endeth the story for today. God bless and have a good night (or day) to all.

Oh the pain....

Today, we did more of the same work that we've done so far. I'm still helping put in ceiling rafters and prepping for putting the wallboard up. I did a lot of overhead hammering and my shoulder and arm muscles are a little tight right now. I wish we took my daughter Caroline with us. She's a massage therapist and could really help not just myself but also a lot of the other people here.

We had to remove a lot of old stuff before we could get our new rafters in. All in all a good day though. We work really well together and have quite a bit of fun too, which is a blessing. At break times we get into some real good discussions sometimes. The weather is staying very nice. Today is was 76 deg F and sunny. Yeah, I know you're all jealous I suppose but I feel is at least some compensation for the work we're doing. Annie did a lot of "mudding" again and she probably will be doing that for some time to come yet. Annie has become good friends with Carol Schuitema. She's also mudding, primarily in the various closets and joked that by the end of the day she could finally come out of the closet.

We had a couple of guests tonight for dinner. Cynthia, who is the sister of the owner of the house that Annie works in and Margaret who is a long time member of the church here. Margaret is 83 years old and is the only surviving person of the original founding members. She's a lovely spry lady and told us a bit about the church here and still teaches adult sunday school every Sunday. Cynthia also told us about her family and how hurricane Katrina affected them all. She had to move to Texas for 2 years to wait for her house to be reconstructed. She's glad that she's  been back here again for the last 2 years. Her brother, the home owner is handicapped and she's dropping by the house almost every day to check on the progress for him. She's a warm outgoing black lady and so appreciative of the work that we're doing here. She had a number of family problems and Grace prayed over her on our behalf, which she really appreciated. All in all, we had a lovely time.

This it it for today again and I hope to add to this blog tomorrow.

Work..Work...Work...

It's our third work day today. I didn't get around to write my blog yesterday. The dining hall we used is rented out to AA on Tuesday evenings. So we had to have our dinner a little earlier and then we all moved to the lounge. Since I usually use the lounge to set up my laptop, I didn't feel like getting set up. Anyway, we all had some great and busy days. So far, nobody has been injured on the job and we are thankful to God for that. The camaraderie and fellowship is just great, we all get along. It is interesting to see the church at work in this way. I can't think but that if we could work together with this unity of Spirit in our home churches how powerful the church would be. It is really interesting too to hear the life stories of our fellow Christians here.

Yesterday and today, my team mates and I were putting new rafters in the house we working on. This was quite a job since the old rafters were sagging badly. This is because of the age of the house and also because the heating unit is located in the attic and rests on top of the rafters. We had to use a hydraulic jack to lift each old rafter until it was straight and the nailed a new 2X8 to the old one. We also had to remove a lot of crossbraces before we could get the new rafters in.

An interesting historical note here. This house and many similar houses here in Louisiana are called "shotgun" houses. They are quite narrow and long About 16ft wide and 50ft long almost like a trailer home. The original layout was a long hallway along the long side of the house and then the various rooms ran off the hallway. You could see the back of the house from the front entrance and fire a shotgun without hitting anything. I believe the reason for this style of house dates back to the time that Louisiana was still a French territory. The property taxes were directly proportional to the frontage of the lot. Thus the lots were laid out as narrow deep lots to make them affordable. This also was the case in Holland in the middle ages. Therefore when you are in Amsterdam for instance in the old section, you notice that the houses are also very narrow and long.

Annie was again put to work "mudding" drywall in her house. She's getting quite an expert doing this. Today she did corners which are a step up in difficulty. I don't think we have worked this hard for a good long time and are a little tired today. However, it is very satisfying to see the work progress.

Well...that's about it for today. I'm going to relax and then hit the bed at around 9:30.

Our first day on the job!!

Today we woke up early but not quite early enough. The plug that our alarm clock was plugged into was intermittent, causing the alarm clock to go off at times. It went off 25 minutes too late. So....we had to really hurry to get ready. From about 6:30 - 7 o'clock, we are making our lunches and then at 7 o'clock we all have breakfast. We packed whatever we thought we needed into our lunch coolers, including lots of water because the temperature was going to be around 22 deg C (71 deg F). No clouds to give us any relief either. Annie was scheduled to do "mudding" which is part of the drywalling process where all cracks, joints and screws are covered with drywall plaster, ready for painting. It was something she had never attempted in her life. She had a good teacher in Boukje De Raaf. I was assigned to a team (3 of us) to start applying vinyl siding. Again, even though I have done nearly anything related to home renovations, I had never done siding. We had a great time and after a bit of a slow start due to the house not being square and level, we got really going after a couple of hours.

We're in a black neighbourhood and met some of the people here. They are really happy that some of their fellow neighbours are being helped this way. It is amazing how may houses are still empty and are just falling apart. There is also a lot of new construction going on where whole neighbourhoods have been torn down and a whole new subdivision is being build.

We are all very tired after working hard all day. It was a joy to take a nice hot shower after we came "home". The kitchen staff did a marvelous job feeding us supper. We had a chinese cabbage salad to start off. Then we had the main course of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, carrots and peas. We then had apple crumble with icecream for desert, yum-yum. We finished our dinner with devotions and singing some songs. Tom had a funny story to tell and then we shared our day's experiences with everyone. This is the way our days are going to be more or less during the week.

I think Annie and I will hit the bed quite early to get some well deserved rest. We hope and pray that everyone at home is doing well too. Here ends today's story, good night and God bless.

First Sunday in Kenner

Last night we woke up around 2 am to the sounds of an emergency vehicle and fire truck. They stopped right outside our window and made a lot of noise, talking over their radio and idling. Well... we hope this not a regular occurrence. Luckily they moved on after about 15 min and we were able to get back to sleep. We woke early again at 6 because of the time shift. We are now 2 hours out of sync from last week in Ontario, one hour in daylight savings time and one hour in time zone difference. Anyway, it gave us some time to walk around here. We are about a mile from the Mississippi river where we walked to. It was very nice. The weather is absolutely beautiful. No clouds and the temperature around 22 deg C. We attended church right here where we're staying, the First United Methodist church of Kenner. Unfortunately, this church is suffering from loosing a lot of its members after hurricane Katrina. They very much appreciate the work we're doing here. Also, it helps them survive since CRWRC is paying for the use of their facilities. Our whole group of 19 people made up a goodly part of the attendees. It's good to get together with different Christians though and we felt a real connection with the people here. We celebrated the Lord's Supper with them as well.

We know we're in the south not only because of the warm temperatures but also because of the palm trees and grapefruit and orange trees.

This is another day to get to know each each other and to sort out our jobs for tomorrow. We all visited the sites where we'll be working tomorrow. There are 3 work sites. I will be helping putting up vinyl siding and Annie is on another site doing drywall finishing (taping and mudding). It appears that we have a great group of people here. We having people from Canada (Ontario), Michigan, Massachusetts and California. It is also amazing how we can find connections. One couple for instance are Lawrence and Boukje De Raaf. Their son is a minister, Kevin De Raaf in Burlington Faith CRC. Lawrence and Boukje used to be members of the Ottawa church where Annie's brother Jack used to be a minister. So they know Jack very well. Also, Jack has been a mentor to Kevin De Raaf. This is just an example of how we connect with each other.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. We'll get up at around 6 o'clock to get ready. We should be on the job site by about 9 we hope. The traffic here in New Orleans is horrific, very busy and terrible drivers. Oh well at least we don't have to drive ourselves.

We've arrived....

Last night, just when we left Chili's restaurant where we had a nice supper, the skies opened up. We were in Decatur, AL and we already heard that there was an extensive storm system going through there. Well...it sure did. Although there were luckily no thunderstorms with accompanying tornadoes in our area, the amount of rain was truly "biblical". We must have had a couple of inches or so overnight. When we got up the next morning, the bulk of the storm had passed through and only a few lingering showers hung around. We heard that last night a truck spun out on the bridge over the Tennessee River and closed I65 near Decatur. Lucky for us we were going south in stead of north and were not affected. However, when driving on I20/I59 shortly after Birmingham we just crawled along for the next few miles. A serious truck accident closed the interstate and caused us about a half hour delay. No sooner did we cross into Mississippi and the sun came out. The temperature started to get to a balmy 19 deg C (70deg F). Other than the accident on I20/I59, we had an uneventful trip today. Just after 4 o'clock we arrived at our destination in Kenner. Tom and Grace were sunning themselves in the parking lot and welcomed us to the DRS site. We're staying at the Methodist church here. They have an auxiliary building that is set up with dorm style rooms for the volunteers. We have a lounge where we can relax after work and a dining room-kitchen where we'll take our meals. It's all very well organized by the looks of it.

We thank God that we arrived safely and we're looking forward to getting our hands dirty next week on the job site.

We're also remembering John Murray who officially launched his book today. John, Annie and I, as well as Tom and Grace, wish you God's blessing on your new venture and we hope and pray that many people may be inspired by your book.

Well, I've just about covered everything that happened today and will join the new arrivals downstairs and get to know them.

We're getting warmer...

Today it's Friday and we woke up after a good night's sleep to a fine day. It was partly overcast with a temperature of 18 deg C (65 deg F). We had our usual "luxury" breakfast at the hotel and filled our coffee mugs ready to roll. The hotel is located about 20 miles NE of downtown Cincinnati. We were all prepared for a slow trek along I71 through downtown Cincinnati to meet up with I75. If we would have been back home and tried to get through Toronto via downtown on a weekday during rush hour, we would have taken at least an hour. Much to our surprise, with a few slowdowns, we sailed through Cincinnati at or near near highway speeds. I think Someone must be watching over us!


The day turned out to be very pleasant with about 50/50 overcast and sun. The wind was pretty bad though. Strong SE winds buffeted our trusty Honda and, combined with the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee, caused our mileage to drop quite a bit. We were using an extra 0.6l every 100kms. Yesterday we averaged 8.3l/100km, today it was down to 8.9l/100km. We really enjoyed the scenery in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Fall colours are still very nice and combined with low mountains made for a wonderful trip today. Gas prices are a little cheaper here in south. In Michigan and Ohio we were paying $2.70/gal, here the prices are from $2.45 to $2.55/gal.


When we crossed into Alabama, We noticed this mock up of a Saturn 5 rocket in a rest stop along I65. It brought back fond memories for me when I was a young sergeant in the Air Force. I was stationed twice in Huntsville, AL which is not very far from where we're staying tonight (Decatur). I was stationed on a US Army post called Redstone Arsenal where I went to school to study and train as a maintenance technician for the Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile system at the US Army Missile Command School. Redstone Arsenal was also the place where NASA developed and test fired the Saturn 5 rocket. Werner Von Braun was stationed there with his team of design engineers. As you may or may not remember, the Saturn 5 rocket was the delivery system for the moon orbiter and lander. I can still vividly remember my time at Redstone Arsenal when they test fired the booster rockets. The test fire stand was about 20 miles from the building we were in but the windows rattled in their frames when they fired those boosters. Anyway, so much for memory lane.

We arrived at our hotel (another La Quinta) in Decatur just before 4pm. We have a lovely room and we'll relax again tonight. Decatur is a nice typical southern small town located on a fair sized lake. The hotel is again quite nice and comfortable. We have small, separate sitting area with a sofa and large computer desk. The usual wireless access allows me to write this blog for you. BTW, when you explore our blog, have a look at some of the links I have included on the left side, you may enjoy the YouTube videos. At the bottom of the blog is a widget that tells you the weather. Just enter the name of the city where we are and you can find out what the weather is like there.


Well, I think that's about it for today. Tomorrow we hope to get to our final destination, Kenner Louisiana and join our fellow workers as well as Tom and Grace.

We're on our way....

We got up at the crack of dawn this morning, it was still pitch black. However, it was 6:45am and the alarm went off so yeah, it was really time to get up.We had the car packed the night before except our overnight bag and travel mugs. After making a last home brewed coffee to wake us up a bit more, we stowed our last bag and left our home at around 7:20am. The weather was overcast but dry with a temperature of about 6 deg C.

While I drove the family buggy, Annie did our daily devotions and asked God for a safe trip. We travelled the usual route of 401W and 402W to Sarnia where we crossed the border into the US. We had the usual surly US custom's officer trying to trip us up, but in the end she wished us a good trip and off we went. Although I had counted on an hour delay at the border, we were across in 10 minutes (hoorah!!). We encountered some fog after passing London, ON which didn't leave us until we got past Toledo, OH. After that, the sky started to clear and the temperature started to get a little higher.

There was quite a bit of road construction on the various Interstate highways, proof that the US infrastructure push is in full swing. Not so great for the travellers though. Also, in spite of the ongoing recession, there are still a humongous number of trucks on the interstates. It's a good thing we are not rushed and don't get impatient when these highway monsters pass each other a 1mph and we're just patiently hanging behind the passing truck.

It's good to be on the road again, it reminds us of last year when we did a long road trip through Canada and the US. We're right back in the groove, enjoying the trip. Annie is doing well, in spite of her little physical problem. At the end of today's trip, she was ready to stop though. We're staying in Mason, OH for the night. Mason is kind of a suburb of Cincinnati. We arrived here just before 3pm and had our hotel reservation made earlier this week. We have a nice room with king size bed in the La Quinta hotel here which we will enjoy. The temperature reached 20 deg C (70deg F) when we got here with lots of sun. The roses are still in bloom here and the fall colours are just past their peak, but still very nice.

Well, that's about it for today. Nothing earth shattering or excitement (which is good). We'll have a nice meal and relax for the evening. Tomorrow we hope to reach Macun, AL.

Tom and Grace should have arrived in Kenner today and we hope they had an uneventful trip as well. Thank you all for your prayers and interest so far.

Getting ready for Kenner, LA

Now that we are into October of 2009, we are getting ready to travel to Kenner, LA. Kenner is just to the west of New Orleans and is still suffering from hurricane Katrina. We are going to be part of a group of volunteers to help re-build some of the hardest hit homes from the poorest people. We are part of DRS (Disaster Response Services) which in turn is affiliated with the CRWRC (Christian Reformed Relief Committee).

We're looking forward to join our good friends Tom & Grace who are the site managers for the period that we'll be there (first 3 weeks of November). At this point, Annie is experiencing some physical problems that may jeopardize the trip. We hope and pray that she will be ok by the time we have to leave.

I'm hoping to add to my blog daily when we're there. I hope I've got some energy left after all the physical work exercise we're about to get each day.