Pictures

As promised, here are some of the pictures of the houses at the end of 2007! I dont have all of the houses on here because I havent gotten around to uploading the pictures from my camera...but here are the ones I have.



Top: Miss Dorothy's House
Middle: Miss Jerry's House
Bottom: Miss Laura's House

Final Week

I'm very sorry about the lack of updates this week. I've been soaking up time with people before we all disperse for Christmas. It has made for some late nights!

This group has been small but mighty. We have accomplished a lot this week. One of the major projects was organizing the big shed at camp. The paint is all up on shelves, the scaffolding has a rack, the nuts and bolts are in little bucket shelves and there is a pile of cabinets in the middle. It looks so much better and life is so much easier in the morning. It's just too bad we didnt do this when we first arrived!

As far as the houses go there was a massive push on to get both Blassingames and Browns' roofs and porches and stairs put on this week. There is a little bit to go for each but the work is essentially done and it will be finished tomorrow. Dorothy's house also moved forward this week. The electricians were around wirig the house, Shelley and Steve placed duct work so the drywallers can go ahead, and Ivan and Jim are in the midst of building stairs for her porches. Her brother is going to do the siding over Christmas and the house is now ready for him to go ahead with that.

We also had two crews of gofers. Curt and Howie were the shopping gofers and made countless trips to Lowes and Home Depot for Alvie. Shelley and Linda were the site gofers. We renamed that crew MDS-UPS. "Always on call". They loaded and unloaded and loaded and unloaded and loaded and unloaded the F150 more times than anyone cares to remember.

We also managed to finish Laura Dedeaux's house this week and had the dedication for that today! It was a nice small affair that was held right at the house. The Mississippi Power guys showed up around 4 and were working on hooking up the electricity when the dedication started at 4.30pm. When they finished the crowd gave them a roaring round of aplause and went to turn on lights throughout the house. It was pretty exciting.

Tomorrow will be finishing up those staircases at all three houses and cleaning up the sites. Everything will be coming back to camp to be locked up for the break and all of the sites will be left clean.

In other news, a rodent of some sort has taken up residence in the girls trailer where Shelley is staying alone. Traps have been set but we are still working on catching it. It got the bait off of two of the traps last night so we set them more sensitivly tonight so hopefully there will be some snapping! Also, the Canadians brought home a new sort of treat from the Shell station a couple of nights ago. A small cat followed them home and has taken up residence at the MDS camp. We named her (?) Lassie since the whole way home she was mewing and scouting for danger. She was skiddish, but has become very affectionate toward most of the volunteers.

As tomorrow is my last day for both the blog and at Pass Christian I doubt I will post anything tomorrow. Thank you to all of the volunteers who have come to Pass Christian to help out. Each week was fun and exciting in its own way and there was never a dull moment! I will post pictures of each house as we left it sometime after I get home. Merry Christmas.

Weekend Fun

We had a busy weekend! On Friday it was Christmas in the Pass. They shut down Davis Street and set up little vendors and decorated and had some performances by various bands. Shaggy's sponsored a boat parade. There were 8 boats decked out in lights that paraded along the coast. Apparently that is twice as much as last year so it is a sign of rebuilding. The gazebo in the park has a large Christmas tree in it now. Unfortunately it blows the breaker every 3 minutes.

Saturday the long termers had their monthly outting. We had to drop off a truck and the big white trailer at the New Orleans MDS Unit so we made a day of it. After dropping by the new building and the convent where they are currently staying we left the truck and took off for the French Quarter. We went to the Imax show and saw Hurricane on the Bayou. It was very interesting and there were some heart wrenching images. We also toured through the Aquarium. It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

From there the group split into two's and three's and wandered up and down the streets. Quite a few ended up at Cafe du Monde to have coffee and bisquetts. Alvie, Joyce, Howie, and Curt hopped on the trolly and rode it all the way to the end and back! They said it was quite fun. We decided that we would start driving home to find dinner and ended up at a Mexican restaurant in Bay St. Louis. It was good food and they had two men with guitars singing for the tables. We had them sing for us and since it was Rebecca's birthday the next day they sang Happy Birthday especially for her.

Sunday we went to the Baptist church again. There was a baby dedication, communion, and Alvie and Hank made a presentation of the money that we raised / had donated for their food program (which is resuming Jan. 9). Lunch was at Shaggy's. After the orientation meeting we had cake, flowers, and hot wings for Rebecca's birthday.

The new group is from Ohio again and, though it is a small group, they should be great volunteers! Thanks to last week's group...i've never laughed so hard because of one liners in my life!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

This week seems to be flying by! This morning was the weekly tour around Pass. As usual the shrimp boat was the highlight for most people. We also had our guest speaker in tonight. This week it was Jerry Brown, who we are building a house for on St. Paul Ave. Her story was a little different from the others that we've heard because she was working at a nursing home with 180 residents and had to stay with the residents (who were moved to nursing homes further inland). It was pretty crazy!

As far as the work goes...the deck on the Blassingam house have been started. The roof on the Brown house will be getting shingles tomorrow. Miss Laura's house has most of the floor in as well as a lot of the baseboards. The finish painting has begun there as well. We are still aiming to dedicate that house on Friday but it's going to require some intense work to be ready in time. Dorothy's home still needs the plumber and work has halted there for the time being. The priests house recieved the first coat of white paint today. The painters will return there tomorrow for a final day, but they are leaving one gable end for a group that is coming down that really wants to do some of the painting on this house.

The painters had lunch at the beach today as a special treat. The men became jealous so we are planning a group lunch for tomorrow so that everyone has some fun.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

We have been having some internet connection issues the past few days so I apologize for the lack of updating, but we seem to be running well now.

This weekend our wonderful cooks from Winnipeg went home. They finished their term of duty with a great clean up meal. Their quiet, serving presence is greatly missed by the long termers. However, on Saturday our new cooks arrived and have kept the main building in such an uproar that we have to shush THEM at 10.00! Peon and Cindy are sisters out of pennsylvania and attend the same church as one of the groups that was down a few weeks ago. Yes Jane, they are a hoot!

This week group is from Ohio again. They are a lot quieter than last week's group, but no less fun or hard working. This group really likes the late night ice cream snack!

As for the houses...Miss Laura's house is now slightly ahead of schedule. The ceramic floor was supposed to take all of today and some of tomorrow to set, instead it is set and some of the lamenate floor is done already. So now the finish painter and the cleaners can go in late tomorrow and thursday to get their work done in time for the dedication on Friday.

The Brown residence on St. Pauls Ave. is coming together. The men were able to sheet the sides and begin the porch. Miss Jerry stopped by to see the house. She started up the ladder but decided that she'd maybe wait until there were stairs available before she went inside the house.

The Blassingame house (henderson ave) is also waiting for a porch, which has been planned out now by Hank.

The painting crew took on some extra work for this week. They returned to Miss Rosie's house and painted the interior columns. They also repainted her trim that was scuffed when the furniture was moved in. All that is left there is to wrap the aluminum around the exterior columns. Hopefully we can tear Rudy away from St. Pauls for a day to finish that up this week. The rest of the crew went to paint the soffet and facsia on a house that is being built for the priest of the Mother of Mercy Catholic Church (the cute white one with the steeple on E. Railroad St.). Though it does not look like much was finished today the women were moving very quickly. We expect 1.5 to 2 days to finish that job. In the morning they also managed to get the trim painted for Dorothy's house.

Storm Aid has reopened their unit in Pass and they are setting the foundation for MDS' next project (across from the Catholic church). Storm Aid is the Amish version/sister organization of MDS. We are very glad to have them doing that for us while we finish up Miss Laura's house.

Pictures

Corey has created a webpage with everyone's pictures from last week and has sent the link so I am passing it on to all of you. Enjoy!

http://www.ruffer.net

Thanks again to all of the Ohio volunteers who came last week. We had a lot of fun with each of you...especially the card games!

Dedication

This week was an extra special week for MDS as we finished and dedicated two houses on Thursday, November 30. It was a very exciting and emotional event.

David Sn. and David Jr. recieved a wall hanging, comforter, bible, occupancy permit, and the keys to their new house on Morton St. Edgar and Louise Ladner recieved the same for their new house on Flietas Ave. The mayor of Pass Christian, the president of the Rotary Club (who paid for these two houses), the case worker that assigned the houses to us, and the local Catholic priest were in attendance. This week's volunteers and the families filled the room. The program began with an invocation, the pledge of alliegence and the Canadian national anthem (since MDS is a binational organization and so many Canadians have helped with the houses). The five Canadian volunteers sang their anthem...until the last line when everyone was able to join in since it's simply a repetition of the line before. It worked out well. After the ceremony there were cookies and drinks available, then everyone was invited to tour the houses.

Seeing the finished houses with the families standing in them with the keys was increadible. It made every frustration, missed nail, and early morning worth it! Here are some pictures!

David Dedeaux - Morton Street

The Ladners - Flietas Avenue