We have arrived safely April 23

We all arrived in New Orleans safely and on time. We met the 7 people from LaGrande in the Denver airport as we all had to change planes. They were surprised to see us as we hadn't let them know we would be flying on the same plane to New Orleans. What is more strange all 11 of us were in the same 3 rows together which was nice to visit with each other. Each group rented a vehicle and drove to Houma, LA arriving about 7:30 pm. The managers were gone but Charles who had been a manager at Luling, LA last fall was our reception committee. So I had a short but nice visit with him as he left to go back to Orange Grove village where he stays.

Sun morning we went to the First Presbyterian Church of Bayou Blue in western Houma. They were very welcoming of us and even had us come up to put the pin on the map for to indicate where we were from. Service as at 8:30 and had quite a spread for the fellowship time. They are a smaller church than HPC but really appreciate volunteers.

Sun afternoon we all took a swamp tour. This included the 11 of us plus 11 people from Scottsdale, AZ who had also arrived Sat evening. It was wonderful and the man operating it is rather an entertainer. We saw numerous forms of wildlife but the best was the alligators. He has worked with some and they come up to the boat to get fed chicken pieces. They averaged from 4 feet to 12 feet and he has named them, can call to them and they recognize the sound of his boat and voice. It was amazing to go thru these waterways and swamp and get back to base. There were numerous small boats with people fishing. The tour director was Ron "Black" Guidry, but no relation to Christian. He even sang us a couple Cajun songs and a couple hymns. It wasn't hot as a nice breeze on the water. It was just a great relaxing day before we start the work week.


The groups are assigned out to work sites by a local organization TRAC but our group was assigned to the Methodist camp (UMCOR) for work details. The Houma village does not assign the groups to work sites which is different from Mississippi.

2 more groups came Sun evening and we have a pretty full place, 58 people total. Today Andrea and I started the cooking, cleaned out the refrigerators, inventoried the kitchen and helped fill out the food order for the week. I'm tired tonite as I haven't slept well yet. Maybe tonite.

God's love to you.
Phyllis