I really haven't been home all day until now (9:20 PM), so I am exhausted! The team who left yesterday used all of our cars to get to the airport, so we had to drive to the airport with enough drivers to drive all the cars back. We recruited the pastor and his wife to help us, so after church and a quick lunch at Subway, we were off! To get from Mandeville to New Orleans, you have to drive across a very long bridge called the Causeway. The Causeway is the longest bridge in the US (your trivia fact for the day!) and is approximately 30 miles long. It's so long that you can't see the opposite shore at all for a couple miles. We were told that there were 4 cars that we needed to drive back to the church, so Mrs. Lewis drove us to the airport in her minivan and dropped us off at the parking garage. We had to wander the garage to locate all the cars, but we were given faulty info, and there turned out to be only 3 cars. Luckily, I had waited for Mr. Lewis so that I could follow him home, so he hitched a ride with me. All of the CR cars aren't in the best of shape, but Eeyore, the car I was driving, is probably one of the worst. We just discovered that the driver's window doesn't go up, which is not fun when you're on the Causeway. Because of the window, I now have a sunburn on only my left arm. In addition to that, the center rearview mirror was attached to the window with duct tape and had fallen down, and the back windshield wiper hangs down like a tail-- hence the name Eeyore.
Kara had all-star softball tryouts today at 5:30, so we went to those, ate a quick dinner, and went out to a boat landing type place where people go crabbing and fishing. We arrived just as the sun was setting, and it was gorgeous against the marshlands. Emily took some pictures, and Caleb fished for a bit while the rest of us just relaxed.
Tomorrow I am going to the office with Mr. Lewis for some meetings, and then I am going to hang some sheetrock in the new Crisis Response building! CR is building the warehouse so that they will have their own space for offices, storage, and hosting teams instead of having to share with the church. I will try to take some pictures if I can remember to take my camera!

EFCA Crisis Response

I've told a lot of people that I'm doing hurricane relief this summer to simplify what I'll be doing, but I am actually hosting the teams that come here to do demolition and construction. EFCA Crisis Response offers free labor to homeowners whose homes have been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The homeowners are responsible for buying the materials for their new home, or paying back Crisis Response (CR) after we buy the materials. Teams come from all over America to provide this free labor. The team we had this past week only had 40 people, but there can be over a hundred people in a team. From what I understand, I will be responsible for welcoming the teams, telling them what they'll be doing, giving them instructions, cooking their meals, and setting up/tearing down their living quarters. I will be working under a woman named Katie Hooks, and with another girl my age named Allison Horst. I am meeting with Katie and Allison next Wednesday to define our jobs and responsibilities.
Today I arrived at the church at 10:00 AM to help the team who was leaving. The church sanctuary is used as the men's sleeping area as well as the dining room. We had to vacuum the entire sanctuary and set up all the chairs so that they would be ready for church tomorrow. Afterwards, we tidied up the youth room, where the women sleep, and picked up scattered trash and abandoned clothing. We were done a little after 12:00PM, so I drove back home and just chilled with the kids all afternoon! Actually, Kara and Caleb worked hard to make us dinner-- pizza quesadillas, fruit salad, and coffee ice cream blended with thin mint cookies. It was delicious!

I have arrived!

I am finally here in New Orleans, Louisiana to work with EFCA Katrina Relief! Those beautiful signs above were made by the Lewis kids. The Lewis family is my host family this summer and has 3 kids: Emily who is 12, Kara who is 8, and Caleb who is 7. I am actually in Mandeville, Louisiana, a town not too far from New Orleans. I got here yesterday at 4:45 PM, and was promptly picked up by Denise Lewis, my "mom" for the summer. I flew from Charlotte to Chicago to New Orleans, not exactly a direct route, but the flights were fine and my layover wasn't too long. After I was picked up, we went to Kara's softball game and Caleb's baseball game. After the games I pretty much just fell into bed after unpacking.

This morning I got to sleep in until 8, and then slowly woke up with coffee and banana bread. My official duties for Crisis Response don't really start for another week, but Mrs. Lewis called the office to see if there was anything I could do today to just help out and get the feel for things. I ended up driving to Trinity Church with a beautifully drawn map by Mrs. Lewis, where the Katrina Relief offices are, and helping a woman named Dorinda Bogran with copy and filing work. She gave me a tour of the church and the offices and rooms that Crisis Response uses throughout the week when teams are present.

At about 2:30 I drove back to the Lewis' house and met them at their neighborhood pool for a refreshing swim. It was about 90 degrees here today, so the water felt wonderful! The team who is currently staying at Trinity wanted to thank the Lewises and another family for cooking for them throughout the week, so they made us a wonderful gourmet meal of steak, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, strawberry-peach pie, and a delicious rice crispie-chocolate-peanut butter-log dessert. The Lewises went on to a homeschool graduation and reception, but I decided to head home since I didn't know anybody graduating. Crisis Response has multiple vehicles for taking out teams, but the little white pick-up had a flat tire, so I ended up driving a huge red suburban home. I've just been relaxing and catching up on email since then.

That's pretty much all that's happened so far... I will try to update as much as I can!