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Southern Comfort March 2009
Southern Comfort Mission Trip, the first four days
Day 4
December 7, 2007
Those are my clothes, yea.
No you're not supposed to write that.
Oh, we're live?
Sorry.
OK, so we just sorted out the recently cleaned work clothes. There is something remarkable when you realize how much you appreciate clean clothing. (And flush toilets... well, we can dream, right?)
For all you bloggers out there, this is Heather and Shaun reporting to you Friday night from FISH Camp here in New Orleans. 
We want to give you an update on our worksite. We are working on Kentucky Avenue. This is literally two blocks from the (now infamous) lower Ninth Ward. The house we are working on belongs to a family of five: husband, wife and three children. The oldest child has his own place and will not be returning to the house as a resident. Mom has visited the site twice since we've been here. Her daughter joined her today.
Mom and family had been displaced in Texas for about a year. They have been renting a house since they returned to New Orleans. She was ecstatic the other day to see a door on her house. She says the door makes it a home because it can be secured. Imagine her surprise when she came to see the house today and saw the siding on the whole front of the house and the (almost) finished framing. What was a plywood shell a few days ago is much more a home today.
Tomorrow, the whole group will join us to paint the exterior of the house. The homeowner mother will join since she does not work on Saturdays. Her husband, however, is unable to join. Because of the difficulties that the family has faced since the flood, the husband homeowner has to work basically everyday of the week and takes any overtime that his bosses offer.
 It gives us great joy to interact with the homeowner. She really appreciates the work that we're doing, and she is a pleasure to talk with.
In other news, it is fun to work with the other tripsters. Everybody has different skills, and " in fear of sounding hackneyed" everyone plays a part in the work we are doing.
Last night at worship, the leaders (who were from North Carolina and have since departed for home) discussed that it is a blessing to be able to serve others. With homeowners like ours on Kentucky Avenue, it is easy to see that we are blessed to be able serve others.
The pictures here are of some of our crew working (blue shirts) and one of the home owner and her daughter.
Peace,
Shaun, Heather, and the Southern Comfort crew.
Day 3
December 6, 2007
Off to Kentucky Street
Chris's Story
Scott, Shaun, Heather, Tina, Clay, Steve, and I traveled from FISH Camp to the house we are working on, located in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans. Steve, our site manager is really excited that we have a true carpenter on our team.
The house is in the framing process. After the trek to the house we needed to make a  "potty" run as there are no plumbing fixtures installed at the house as yet. We found a local market and the store staff allowed us to use their bathrooms. They noticed our royal blue Presbyterian Disaster Assistance t-shirts and invited us to come back any time.
When we got back to the house, we all were assigned a job to do. I worked with Tina wrapping the front of the house with Tyvek. After that, Clay and I cut roofing shingles to cap the ridge of the roof. We continued with that until the owner of the house arrived.
We stopped our work to have conversation with her. She was so pleased and grateful to see us all at work and gave us a tour of the house explaining what the house would look like inside when all the interior walls have been rebuilt. We learned that the homeowner has been spending a lot of time at the house involved with the rebuilding effort.
Later in the day, the homeowner delivered the door that her son had purchased upon their return to New Orleans. Scott hung the door for her and it brought tears to her eyes and she commented: "My door make it look like a home!"
 Paul Dungey
Auburn, NY 13021
The group stands on a levee overlooking Lake Ponchartrain as they take a lunch break about a block from the home they are working on.
Day 2
December 5, 2007
Good Evening from FISH Camp!
It was a beautiful day here in NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana): Sunny, Hi 70ºF, Lo 47ºF. We had a good night's rest after a long travel day on Tuesday.
After breakfast, we headed out to our job sites. It's a 45 minute to 1 hour drive from FISH Camp, located on the southwest side of NOLA, to the home my team has been assigned to. Its located Northeast of NOLA in the Little Woods section, a block south of Lake Pontchartrain. The rush hour traffic is still particularly heavy due to the fact that so many people have to commute into the city and their places of employment, because they aren't living in their homes, but commuting from far away.
The Presbytery of Southern Louisiana's Project Homecoming (http://www.pslrecovery.org/projhomecoming.html) is coordinating volunteer work efforts with the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Volunteer Villages. Project Homecoming's goal is to completely restore 100 home by their first anniversary next spring.
Project Homecoming  assigns a long-term volunteer/staff member to each home to coordinate the rebuild effort. The site manager works side-by-side with the PDA volunteers coaching them each step of the way. Today, my team's task was to apply drywall "mud" compound to newly hung sheetrock, preparing the walls for painting. Some of us have done this kind of work before, some not. We were blessed to have Victor, from Project Homecoming on the job site with us today. His regular "day job" and trade is being a Venetian wall finisher. Victor showed us how to use the tools properly the feather and "fog" the mud along the seams of the drywall.
Our other team is working at a home that needs a lot of interior re-framing. The home owner was able to spend part of the day with them and was so pleased and touched that a new exterior door was installed at the front entrance of the home. I understand that there were tears and tight-throats all around.
After the first day, everyone is getting a sense of how broad the scope of destruction was wrought upon this region by Hurricanes Katrina AND Rita, and the immense need for volunteers (make that skilled-labor volunteers). Whatever one's skills, abilities or talents are, there's a way to plug them into the mission and ministry effort, but there is definitely and need for volunteers who are knowledgeable about wiring a home, carpentry, HVAC, plumbing etc.
Tonight, Ken, our volunteer village manager had to be gone overnight to a staff meeting in Gautier, MS (at the PDA camp where some of us went in Feb. 2006). In his stead, are two YAV (PCUSA Young Adult Volunteers) who are tending to our needs: making sure that the heaters for our pods are operational and that have everything we need to be comfortable for the night. (http://www.pcusa.org/nvo/youngadultvolunteers/gulfcoast.htm)
It's getting quite late, so I'm of to bed.
Paul Dungey
Day 1
December 4, 2007
Hello Everyone,
At 5 Elizabeth St-Auburn, NY this morning, we awoke at 3:00 AM to "make tracks" to the airport to catch our 6:30 AM flight at the Syracuse airport. Those of you in the central NY state area know what I mean. There was a foot of fresh new snow on the ground and it was still coming. I started up the snow-blower and cleared the driveway and sidewalks after I checked the status of the weather and our airline flights on the internet.
Unfortunately, two of our team members live off on a side road, and called to tell me that the snowplows hadn't been through yet, so it would not be possible for them to get to the airport with the rest of the group.
We piled into our Subaru and plowed snow along some of the streets of Auburn and the Weedsport-Sennett Road. The New York State Thruway was in good shape and we made it to the airport and caught our flight with a just enough time to catch our breaths. We had a connecting flight in Cleveland (not snow there, not even a little). Our departure gate was the rendezvous point for meeting two of our team members from PA.
Once we collected our luggage and rental vehicles, we stopped for lunch before proceeding to the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Volunteer Village at FISH Camp, located on the grounds of the First Union Presbyterian Church of Lulling, LA. (http://fupcfish.com). At the restaurant, we connected with three of our team members who drove to Lulling, LA from southern Cayuga County.
Ken Schmidt, the volunteer village manager met us and assigned us to our sleeping pods, where we deposited our luggage. We gathered in the camp's dining tent, where Ken gave us an orientation to the camp and the work we'll be doing this week.
We'll divide into two work crews and go to two different homes in New Orleans. From the job assignment sheets, one house needs exterior siding and some roof work and rebuilding of interior walls. The second home needs the freshly hung drywall seams mudded with joint-compound and then sanded before the interior painting can commence.
On Saturday, we'll be joining a crew that is rebuilding a home in the lower 9th ward of New Orleans.
The other good news is that the two who missed today's flight, were able to rebook their flights, so they'll be joining us tomorrow!
So we're all pretty psyched-up about what awaits us in the coming days! It been a long day and we'll appreciate a full night's rest before getting to work tomorrow.
You can keep up with our daily progress at the following website: http://www.westminsterauburn.org
Paul Dungey
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