We're Moving Right Along!

Whew! We are in the swing of things now! We've spent three solid days working on our projects and I know we're making progress.

Here's what's happened in the last few days:

On Tuesday, Phil and Krup's group did a lot more mudding, sanding, and joint compounding. Krup, Laura, and Jerry installed sheetrock into the bathrooms. We are so fortunate to have a great foreman instruct us. Bridget and I installed some metal pieces in corners using a power drill (definitely another first for me). Midday we breaked for lunch at a park and met up with Tom and Sally's group. On Tuesday night, Camp Victor shows a documentary made by WLOX that traces the progression of the storm, shows before and after, and the area in its initial stages of devestation. It is hard for a lot of us to imagine water that reached the ceiling!

Wednesday began with slightly cooler weather than we were used to! Phil and Krup's groups began finishing touches on the mudding and joint compounding. We were taught how to "float" the joints and mud the corners. It's not an easy process, but we found it works well with teamwork. We stopped work around 10:30 to go visit Sally and Tom's group. They are well on their way in their house.

We then drove to Woolmarket, about 1/2 hour away, to go to a Senior Center in Harrison County. Livingston CARES has made a ten year commitment to the people of Harrison County to help them rebuild their homes and communities. We were joined by Nick Mazza, Livingston County Administrator, and Cynthia Oswald, President of the Livingston County Chamber of Commerce. Cynthia was very instrumental in creating our relationship with Harrison County shortly after the storm occured. We ate a wonderful lunch of smoked chicken, seafood gumbo, lima beans, and okra salad. Then, we went to the Woolmarket Fields to dedicate a flagpole. We brought a flag of both Livingston County and New York State. It was a great way to celebrate our long-term commitment to this area. We then returned to work- and had a great rest of the day!

We're finally here!

Whew. That's all that we can say after a very long day of traveling. For most of us, our day started by arriving at the Rochester airport at 4:00 A.M. After a de-icing of the plane, we were able to make it to Atlanta on-time. Our 3 volunteers from the New York City area joined us at the Atlanta airport. We had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta before making our connecting flight to New Orleans.

Arriving in New Orleans was surreal. I couldn't believe after all of our planning, packing, and long day of travel, we were here. After getting our rental cars, we drove to Jackson Square in the French Quarter in New Orleans. On our way, we passed the Superdome, where many displaced homeowners spent anxious days after Hurricane Katrina hit.

Once in Jackson Square, our huge group of 25 split off into smaller groups, and wandered about the city. I went to Bourbon Street, saw amazing street performers (jazz, zydeco, tap) and took in the amazingly vibrant environment. Bourbon Street is the area that is famous for Mardi Grad celebrations. We ate real jambalya (sausage, chicken, creole seasonings, and shrimp). MMMM!

We then headed over to Riverwalk, which is on the Mississippi River. It began to rain a little, but that didn't deter us from going to Cafe du Monde to get some wonderful pastry/donuts! After getting to our cars, we began our long trek in pouring rain to Ocean Springs (1 1/2 hours) Mississippi where we will be staying. I think everyone is very excited to be here (finally!) and to be getting a good night's rest.

Tomorrow we will sight-see around the area. I'm happy that we made it safely and that we will beginning what promises to be a wonderful week!

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

All my bags are packed... I'm ready to go

In less than 8 hours, the Livingston CARES January trip will be leaving the Rochester, NY airport. We'll be in New Orleans around 1:30 P.M. We plan to do some sightseeing in New Orleans before heading to Camp Victor in Mississippi.

Here's hoping this is a great trip!

T-17 Days!

The January trip departs in T minus 17 days for Mississippi! We're busy getting ready (and packing!)

I'm pretty excited to be working with such a great group of people! I look forward to getting to know everyone :)

Stay tuned for updates as we embark on our January 2009 trip. We will be blogging daily, so you can feel like you're right there with us.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season,
Elise