Third week in New Iberia 2011

THIRD WEEK IN NEW IBERIA

While Americans were celebrating Martin Luther King Day on Monday, we were back at work. We are at liberty to work if it is acceptable to our homeowners, and they had no objection. Although a lot of businesses were closed, Chaney’s Lumberyard just down the block, where we buy our supplies, was open. Not only was it open, we were advised that the windows we ordered were in! Installing windows is what John did for a living for years. The windows were picked up at 9:30 a.m. John and Norm took the first old window out, and then John installed the new one. Then, as fast as Norm could remove the old mouldings and the windows, John installed the new windows, caulked and trimmed. It helped that all the windows had been properly measured and ordered, and that they were all the same size single-hung old style wood windows. Our Project Director and the rest of the crew could not believe that 13 windows were R & R (removed and replaced) by 3:30 p.m.! There was still lots of painting for the ladies to do. My job for the day was painting doors.

The Southern Mutual Group who has the say about what work is done at this house, decreed that Miss Rosella’s old kitchen would just get a face lift. The 5 cabinet doors were removed and Patty and I painted them outside on Tuesday. The many years of grime on the cabinet doors and drawer fronts had to be scrubbed off and then dried before they could be painted. The men were installing the flooring in the dining room. The rest of the ladies scraped the kitchen ceiling.

Wednesday I put a coat of black paint on the bottom cabinets. The top cabinets are white with black door handles, and the bottoms are black with white drawer fronts. It is quite pretty. The drawers themselves were blue and they got painted black along the side that shows when the drawer is open. They also got self-adhesive shelf paper inside the drawer bottoms.

By the end of Thursday, the kitchen and master bedroom got the final coat of paint, as well as the hallway. Porch doors were installed. The son-in-law fixed up the living room and installed the 72 inch TV. We were a bunch of busy bees. Another work week finished.

It has been very interesting to observe the community of trailer park dwellers. Many of them are living in RVs year round. The men come and go from their jobs, and the children run for the school bus. There are some holidayers, but they are in the minority. One couple from Illinois observed us walking to and from the building where we have our devotions in the morning and asked Patty what we were doing. She told them about our MDS projects. Patty learned that they come south to spend the winter in this RV park. To do what??? There really is nothing to do in New Iberia, LA.

We had attended the Gospel Concert one of the first weeks we were here and The Inspirations had sung the wonderful song, Beulah Land. Before doing so, the leader advised that the composer of that song, Squire Parsons, was a personal friend of theirs and was suffering from some health problems. Never in my wildest dreams did I envision being requested to personally pray for Squire Parsons! Apparently he is on the mend and did not even have to interrupt his concert tour.

One of our volunteer couples is from Fort Francis, Ontario. They were telling our group about the winter festival there, known as Ice Box Days. We all laughed when they referred to the 5 k. run as the “Freeze Your Gizzard Blizzard Run”!