Baptized in the Louisiana rain!

We woke up to rain, that continued all day. The temperature was in the seventies, so the rain wasn't too bad. This affected where numerous groups were sent to work. We ended up in the Upper Ninth Ward, close to the Musician's Village. Unlike the neighborhood a few of us worked in last year, most of the houses were still standing, but many are still vacant. The vacant houses often have spray paint on the front listing the number of dead people found in the home after Katrina. Still, 5 years later, these houses stand right across the street from where we are working.

As part of Rainbowcorps, we were joined today by Reid from North Carolina and Michael Adee, the Morelight Director. We met our work leaders, Henry and James, Americorps volunteers, at orientation this morning. We were also happy to see Alex, our leader from last year. Today we worked mainly on flooring: laying tar paper, preparing tiles for grouting, and scraping grout. The first day seems to always be a little more challenging, because you arrive at your house having no idea what is expected of you. By the end of the day, it was good to see what we had accomplished. We can't wait to see what progress we have made by the end of the week!

Everybody in Olive Tree Village seems to be very friendly (even the Baptists! :) ) Our roomates are lots of fun, important because it is dorm style living.

Red beans and rice for dinner tonight! YUM!

- Sumalabarbgie

We've arrived!

We were ecstatic last night to learn that our flight was leaving at 7 am- an extra hour of sleep! We arrived in New Orleans at about 1:00 and briefly visited the French Quarter before heading to our home for the week- Olive Tree Village. All of us, except Summer, have been here before, so Olive Tree was a familiar site. It was exciting to find the plaque we made at Olive Tree last year still hanging on the pole. We look forward to our orientation tomorrow morning as we don't know anything about our homeowner. We have been reminiscing about last year and comparing how this year might be different. We'll find out tomorrow!

Sumalabarbgie (Summer, Alanna, Barb and Angie)

RainbowCorp 2010 Heads to New Orleans!

Four women from Rochester represent RH2NO in this year's RainbowCorp week. RainbowCorp is a mission component of More Light Presbyterians (MLP), a network of people seeking the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The team comprised of 11 people from across the USA including MLP Executive Director Michael Adee, will be at work with Project Homecoming next week, November 15-19. We will be housed at Olive Tree Volunteer Village, along with 30 others from Illinois, South Carolina and our own Third Presbyterian in Rochester. The RainbowCorp team will be working at the home of Antoinette Smith. The deployment sheet says we'll be doing exterior siding. We don't know much about our homeowner yet, but we'll share the details with you as soon as we can. Our flight from Rochester departs on Sunday at the cruel hour of 6am. We're looking forward to lunch in the French Quarter before heading to Olive Tree and our "comfy" beds for the week. Stay tuned for more info!
Please hold in prayer your mission team: Alanna Dolen, Angie Gunkler, Barbara Sattora, and Summer Sattora.

October 29th

Hi friends back home- today found us working with our sweatshirts and fleece on until noon, hard to believe! It turned out to be a wonderful day to work,bright blue sky and a gentle breeze. The home is almost all painted, only the front needs to be finished. Work began on the soffets today,the frame work for the porch railings was started, thr air baffels are completed ans the air and heatingman was on the worksite today. Tonight we were ate dinner (wonderful stuffed pork roast) with a group conected with Project Homecoming. George C. from Third,their cook, issued the invitation. What a fun evening! Our work day ended withus saying goodbye to some of our friends from St. Louis as part of their group is returning home in the morning. Perhapswe will cross paths again. That is it from this tired but happy RHINO worker. KVN

October 28th

The weather moderated today -- a welcome change! We convened as usual at 7:45 at the home taking shape on Green Street. Work began on soffits, preparation for insulation, and the final areas of siding. We are all gaining new skills and finding new muscles. We ended our work day before noon. We were treated to an informative tour of the areas of the city inundated by the flooding. Every time we pass the Dome the awful memories of the human suffering return. Then we were hosted by members of the St. Charles church. They had come from Washington state to do a week of volunteering then made the decision to move to NOLA for a year. They now have been here for 5 years. For two years Mark worked for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Now both Mark and Tamara have positions at a school in their neighborhood. After a wonderful meal of creole rice dessert included creole kisses aka "pecan crack" -- very habit forming . . . Reflections ended our day.

October 27th

Another very hot and humid day! At least, we are supposed to get some weather relief for the rest of the week. We did more painting, more moving of sand, some caulking, and began putting some of the final touches on the framing. We also got to know some of the people from St.Louis better. This evening we had dinner at the church again. It was the 5th anniversary for RHINO, and they had special homemade cakes for dessert -- and live entertainment. It was a duo with one guy on piano and one on the clarinet, and they were really good! They played authentic New Orleans jazz. For dinner we had fried chicken (not that KCF variety), red beans and rice, salad, fruit, and did I mention wonderful desserts? Now we're back at the hotel, and had our devotions while the laundry was in, and we're all pretty sleepy. Oh, one more thing - Louise J. found out today that one of her parishoners passed away, so she will be doing a funeral on Monday, after arriving home very late on Sunday.

Tuesday, October 26th

Our first day of work! And the heat broke a record. It was 90! and also quite humid. We painted, nailed, and shoveled sand, and got a respectable amount of work done, considering the conditions. This evening, we had a delicious dinner prepared by members of St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church. After coming back to the hotel, we had a very nice devotion led by Tom Swartz - these sessions allow us to get to know each other better. However, we're all rather tired after working in the hot sun all day, so it is bedtime!