4/18/06 - Berean Bible Church

We're hosted by the Berean Bible Church in Algiers, across the river and west of the French Quarter.



We sleep on the floor or on cots in the church's Sunday school classes. Two of our men sleep in the hallway so they don't have to share the room with the 22 other guys that are in the men's sleeping quarters. In addition to our group, I think there are 3 other groups here. The 7 Calvary women, including Grace Shigematsu seen here, have a room of our own.



We shower in one of several showers, some are in trailers just outside the building. Susie Faubion, Kay Wadsworth and Grace Shigematsu work on painting one of the two shower trailers. There is a shower behind each of these doors.



This is the man named Stan. He coordinates our efforts and helps us get the supplies for what we do during the day. He talks with the most charming, very slight Irish brogues and is a sweet man.



Things Stan told us:

* about 1,000 people have come through Berean Bible Church (BBC) as volunteers.
* the neighbor we built the fence for had never been to BBC in the twenty years it has been here (her back fence meets up with the driveway of the church). She came to BBC last Sunday for the first time.
* the starting cost to gut a house down to the studs is $5,000. After that mold remediation has to be done before rebuilding can begin.

Good night.

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Future posts: Houses still uninhabited and in ruins; group picture in Jackson Square; the "after" pictures of the neighbor's fence and group members at work.