New Crew for February

If anyone had told us we would be making a quick trip back to Brandon for the first week of February, we would have said they were dreaming. However, we found ourselves doing exactly that when we learned that brother Jake was rallying. We drove three days there, on clear roads, where it had previously stormed, stayed 4 days, and drove three days back on clear roads, just before it started storming again! We had a wonderful visit with Jake and Rita, and the support right at that time was greatly needed.

As January ended in Louisiana, we had some changes to our crew. Bernie and Agnes stayed one week while we were gone to Brandon, and then headed off to Florida to do some vacationing with relatives. They will return to help again in March.

Art and Hilda went down to southern Texas to vacation at Snow to Sun. We believe they enjoyed their first encounter as Senior RV volunteers.

Newcomers were Bruce and Martha Isaak from Medstead, Sask. The only time we get to see them is when we come down south! They have been to New Iberia previously so were looking forward to coming back. Two other new couples arrived, one from Killarney, Mb. and the other from northern U.S.A. The Project Directors and crew foreman remained the same. They make a great team. We can hardly believe the amount of renovation work that has been accomplished in February: Four houses with complete window replacement, caulking and painting the frames, two houses of repairing and painting soffit and fascia, as well as the back siding on one, fixing and repainting doors, installation of laminate flooring and one house of vinyl flooring, as well as insulating three homes. All of these homes had the residents living in them, and the furniture and window coverings had to be moved out in order for the work to proceed. In addition for 90 per cent of the windows, the window air conditioner had to be removed and then re-installed when the new window was in. This was a huge amount of work in itself.

Each small improvement we could accomplish gave us a great deal of satisfaction. It was unbelievable what a difference it made to see a new coat of paint on the soffit and fascia. Where it had previously looked old and decrepit, it was now bright and clean and gave the whole house a “face lift”!

In addition, we encountered another interesting task which we were asked to do. One of the Directors of the Hopkins Street Renewal Project has a heart for feeding the hungry. For the past ten years, she, along with a number of other volunteers, prepares enough food every day to feed 350 underprivileged people breakfast and lunch at the St. Joseph Diner, a sort of food bank/hall. They needed a concrete hallway painted, so our ladies were sent over to do the painting in the morning. In the afternoon, our project was to paint the lines on their parking lot, including handicap areas. That was certainly something none of us had ever done before. The City of New Iberia provided the paint.

We are very much appreciating every day of lovely warm sunshine and 75 degree temperatures, and thinking of y’all back home enjoying the Saskatchewan winter.

Hi from New Iberia

I seem to be having a writer’s block when it comes to my articles for the P.A. Shopper. So I decided I would just make mention of what’s up these days on the blog instead.

We’ve been down with the flu for a few days. Right now we are in a motel waiting for our RV roof to be repaired. Should be ready tomorrow. We were lucky enough to find a reliable outfit to do it. Apparently the air conditioning unit had been leaking probably since it was built, and the leakage caused the trusses to rot. Had to be done sooner or later…

The amount of repairs we have accomplished here in New Iberia in two months is unbelievable. Sometimes a house a day! If we were here for 10 years, there would still be work to be done!

I am attaching a picture of one job that we never expected to be doing! Painting the lines on the parking lot at the food bank!!

We certainly weren’t complaining about 80 degree weather today!!

Can’t believe we are only two days away from heading back to Canada. Jake is waiting for us to help him celebrate his 79th birthday!

Blessings to all who read this.

Newspaper article: Last week of January at New Iberia

LAST WEEK OF JANUARY AT NEW IBERIA, LA

We had not spoken personally with brother Jake since we learned he was in hospital in Brandon for pain control, and then had been placed in palliative care in Assiniboine Hospital. We had only gotten phone reports from Rita that he was stabilized, then he had some more problems, then he was stabilized again. Accordingly, when a voice message showed on our Magic Jack telephone on the computer on Tuesday, January 25th, from their home phone number, we immediately assumed the worst.

Upon returning the call, surprisingly, John was able to speak with Jake, who was home from hospital for the day. It was such a shock and pleasure to carry on a converation with him sounding as strong and positive as ever, with no hint of illness or pain. John immediately made the decision that we were going to take a week off, and leave at the end of the week to go back to Brandon and visit with him while the visiting was good. They were both delighted!

The work week consisted of finishing up soffit and fascia at Rosella's house. We also painted the back porch floor. Hilda, one of our ladies who does not come to the job site due to allergies, does sewing in her R, and she made Rosella the most beautiful handbag. Presenting it to her gave Hilda the opportunity to see what we had been doing there for the past month. Rosella was delighted with the handbag, as it was in her favorite color, red.

Agnes and I had been addressed Rosella as "Miss Rosella", believing this was a term of endearment and respect in the south. One day, Rosella said, "Oh, please don't do that! It makes me feel so old". After that, we simply called her "Rosella" and she was happy. So much for our trying to be "Southern"...

We usually do a home dedication when a job is completed, but in this instance, Southern Mutual Help Association who provided the material was not anxious to do a home dedication until later on. It is questionable if any of us will even be here when the home dedication is actually done, so we were glad to have had our own little "presentation", such as it was, while we were all still here.

The men started on renovations to Gwen's home when they were done in Rosella's in Jeanerette. Gwen's home is in New Iberia so we will no longer have to drive the 20 miles to work every day.

When we left for Brandon on Friday morning, two new couples came in. Bernie and Agnes postponed their trip to Florida so they could stay and work the extra week that we would be gone. We were able to close up our RV and just drive away, to return to work on Monday, February 7th.