Weekly Report for New Iberia

Another week has passed and a lot of work has been done. Walls in Rita's house need a lot of repair work. At one place a "patch" was removed from the wall and revealed a burned-out space where the furnace used to be. The crew decided that would be a good place for a pantry closet. Dick and Kathy took on the project, but not before Kathy tried to clean out the soot and mess that was inside. The wood was badly charred and Kathy stepped through the floor - fortunately she was not injured. Dick had the pantry lying down as he was putting in cleats to hold the shelves. Carol came on the scene and remarked that it looked more like a coffin than a closet. She changed her mind once it stood upright. After it will be placed in its' rightful spot nobody will be able to see the charred hole it is sitting in. Today the crew plans to spray the cavity with a solution to try and lessen the charred odor. It will be hard to eliminate. After all the fire happened ten years ago, but we are hoping after spraying and painting some of the odors will be masked!

The rest of the crew continued patching walls. Mudding has begun in the kitchen and the hall. The ceiling in the kitchen has a big charred hole in it and will need some fancy repair work to become level with the rest of the ceiling. Ms. Rita requested that the men look at her floor in the bathroom informing them that her washer has overflowed for ten years. The floor will be on the agenda soon, but I think everybody dreads to tackle that. Ms. Rita has placed sheets of plywood over the burned out places, but when you walk on it you are reminded of a swing bridge. The floor is only inches or perhaps a foot off the ground.

Thursday was another very rainy day. People here tell us that October is usually a dry month, but definitely not this October. The cane farmers continue to harvest, but the ruts the wheels make are full of water. The soil is not sticky and they seem to be able to harvest in spite of the wet conditions. The cane factory is going full force.

Thursday after work our crew went to tour a local bakery. The bakery has been in operation since 1885 and their specialty is french bread. The only other item they bake is gingerbread. Very few upgrades have happened over the years and everything looked quite antiquated. The loaves are formed by hand, as they were formed over a century ago. The equipment, safe and office furniture was mostly original.

Saturday afternoon four men from the New Orleans MDS site came for a short visit.  Bert and Doreen Warms and Bernie and Agnes Martens stopped in here with tool and office trailers in tow. They were enroute from the Columbus warehouse to their work site in Cheek, Texas. They arrived here just in time for a supper we had prepared and they stayed for night. Most of us had worked together before and so we had a great time of food, fun and fellowship! We are so fortunate to have access to the community center for group meals (as a rule the RV'ers do their own cooking ) and also two mobile homes that we can use for accommodations. We were able to persuade the two couples to stay another night and so today after breakfast and devotions they continued to head west, to set up another project. Our talk around the table again centered around how blessed we are in the work we do and how thankful we are for the many new friendships that have been created! 

Blessings till next week!

Submitted by Verna Martens