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.