Last night!

Hello Everyone!

Greetings from our last night in NOLA!  Today offered the group many opportunities: time to wrap up our unfinished products, look back on our progress from last year, learn about the physics of levees,  cement our status as a team of 19 students who came together over the past 5 days, and to most importantly reflect on the work we've accomplished during our time here.

It was truly a great day!  The group at Elysian Fields got a surprise visit from Miss Mary, the homeowner who we are doing repairs for.  It was a wonderful opportunity and we were very blessed to meet her and here her story.  She is a very special lady who worked incredibly hard to get back into her house, and we can't wait for it to happen!  Hopefully by Christmas or soon after?  It gave each of us the chance to connect and hear first-hand the very personal and often emotional stories from a homeowner who experienced Katrina and its devastating aftermath.  Below is a picture of my group with Miss Mary!

We also wrapped up some loose-ends at the house.  The upstairs hardwood floor that the team had been installing for the past 5 days got almost to the point of completion!  Also, the caulking and painting on both the interior and exterior were finished and a ton of window-scraping was officially over!  All the jobs will hopefully be huge time-savers for Project Homecoming, so they can focus on other essential jobs to get Miss Mary back home faster.

The day ended with a great group dinner where each of us explained our highs and lows from the day and the week.  The group loved getting to know each other better and also learning a ton of new skills during the trip.  We also got a great mini-lesson from our physics professor Dyan, who took time and a demonstration to explain why and how the levees were built and ultimately failed.  It was so fascinating!

It was a truly incredible week, and one that I am blessed to have done twice now.  I'm sad I won't be back with the group next year but I know I will always cherish the memories and connections I made here. Well that's it for now, we'll get back to you once we're home!

Much love!
Brian L. :)