New Orleans Mission Trip

Wow, what an amazing trip! Pictured above is most of the group following Sunday service at All Souls church in the Lower 9th Ward with thier vicar Linnell Wright. A small group was at St. Mark's, Harvey who opened their parish hall and kitchen to us for dinners.

25 young people and 14 adults went to New Orleans to help re-build after Hurricane Katrina. It's been almost four years now but huge sections of this city are still devastated and un-repaired. There are lots of reasons for it - bureaucracy, incompetence, confusion being only a few of the major causes. All Souls is a church plant by the Diocese of Louisiana that is fired up to be a center for calm, direction and rebuilding in this former blue collar working neighborhood. The church is being established in an old Walgreen's store and was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury during a visit. The challenges facing them are enormous. It was great that we could help in some small ways painting a room in one house, doing lots of drywalling, helping to organize the church itself and get some technology issues resolved (yes, that's what I did!).

We also got the chance to do a little tourist stuff. A trip to the French Quarter including a visit to Cafe du Monde for beignets. Beignets are the ultimate form of fried dough absolutely buried in powdered sugar. They were wonderful! Took a long stroll down Bourbon Street and thought how wonderful it would be for me and my lady wife to spend some time there. Maybe someday.

Some photos coming soon! And some more thoughts about the trip as I process them.

Peace

I am an idiot

Well I am.
Helping the kid plan a post semester trip to visit some of the relatives.
Had it all planned.
Bought the tickets.
First leg is Buffalo to New Orleans, then New Orleans to Burbank and Burbank to Pittsburgh. Very neat and amazingly affordable.

Completely overlooking the fact that one set of relatives no longer live in New Orleans but in Shreveport.

WHICH IS FIVE HOURS AWAY, ONE WAY.

Needless to say we have a small problem.
Which I will figure out.
Right after I stop pounding my head into the floor.

And some of you people leave your children in my care.

Yeesh.

Peace

(Cartoon courtesy of ASBO Jesus)

And the latest update is...

Had a little adventure today trying to leave Binghamton.

The car I drove doesn't have a functional "dinger" (warning chime I believe is the correct terminology but everyone I know says "dinger") for leaving the lights on. When I got to Binghamton yesterday I'd had them on for visibility but it was a bright shiny day and I never noticed. So they got left on.

For 20 hours.

Can you say "dead battery"? Oh, so very dead.

Bad words, bad words, bad words.

So my very good friend Debi Clarke from the Diocese of New Jersey agreed to give the battery a jump. Actually Debi said I could use her car for the jump because she knows nothing about cars and in many ways would be perfectly happy if cars didn't exist. That was fine because routine stuff like jumping batteries was something I learned early from my dad.

First problem - Debi has never actually popped open her own hood and isn't sure how to do it. Now this may sound like I'm picking on Debi but the truth is I looked at the owner's manual, looked where it was supposed to be and I didn't see it either! A black plastic handle up against a black plastic wall just kinda disappears. Eventually we figured it out together.

Second problem - The battery in her VW (Jetta I think) is actually HIDDEN! It's in a weird place (behind the engine compartment just below the passenger side windshield) and it's actually covered with a sliding panel! There is a symbol for the battery impressed into the panel but again - black on black. We figured it out.

Third problem - Note I said it's on the PASSENGER side of the engine bay. The only available slot next to my car was on MY passenger side. Yep, jumper cables came up about 18 inches short.

At this point I began to laugh. I sent my lady wife a text telling her my departure was being delayed and why. I could hear her laughter right across the state.

So now my good friend Kep Short, also of the Diocese of New Jersey, pulls his car up. The hood pops open, the battery isn't hidden and IS on the traditional side and all is good. As my battery charged a little Kep took a second look at his own engine bay and discovered the last tech to work on it left one of those rechargeable flashlights sitting just behind the air filter. Had probably been riding around that way for a couple weeks maybe?

All this as Binghamton drizzled on our heads.

Car started. Deb and Kep headed east. I headed west. The rest of the trip was wonderfully boring.


On another front I've hooked back up with the football pool I did last year. I won't bore you with too many details but the first week went OK. I got 11 out of 16 games right. I picked the Colts, Chargers, Lions (against a rookie QB!), Titans, and Bengals. The Colts, Chargers and Titans are probably anomalies (not positive about the Titans) and the Bengals and Lions are probably going to be just awful this season.

After week one I'm listed in 20th place although places 18,19 and 20 were all identical. But 20th is still much better than where I spent most of last season. This coming week looks like a complete field of landmines. Maybe I'll get lucky.

Good to be home.

Peace

Morning in Binghamton

On the road for the Province II youth network meeting. I really enjoy meeting with these folks. Being a diocesan youth minister is a very small "club". There are fewer than 100 of us so a chance for us to get together and share. Plus looking at doing some great things on a provincial basis. The plan (I'll have more details soon) is to do a provincial youth mission trip down to Gulf Coast to continue the process of rebuilding post-Katrina. I'm very excited about the possibility.

One of the traditions of these meetings is dinner out. We laugh and eat and just have a fine old time. These are really special people. It's worth the time invested.

The drive from home is about 4 hours and yesterday was a great day to drive. I popped a book on CD into the player (Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" - which I'm REALLY enjoying). I'll finish it up on the ride home. Which will be in the rain. Sigh.

Well back to the office tomorrow. So much to do.

entre acte

Well Senior High is over and it went well. There were tons of little nitsy problems to start the week which threw me out of my routine. Because of that my all conference workshop wasn't as polished as I prefer them to be. The reaction seemed very good so it was good enough.

No major blowups, just a couple of medium sized ones that seemed to work themselves out well enough. So mark it down as a good week.

Now two days off and then on to EYE (Episcopal Youth Event There will be regular updates on the website on what is going on so join us via Internet). Things have been going smoothly till today. Went to download boarding passes for our group and discovered not all of us have seats at the moment. In fact we're FIVE seats short. I hate this bullshit from the airlines. They've oversold the flight as business insurance for themselves. Is there ANY industry out there has made sticking it to their customers as much a part of the basic business model as the airlines have? Every move they make is aimed squarely at the convenience of their customers.

How soon can we restart regular rail passenger service? I actually checked the railroads for this trip. It would have taken almost two days to get from Buffalo to San Antonio because of an enormous layover in Chicago I think.

On the plus side I'm really not in the panic mode that was a common part of my life a decade ago. We show up at the airport, we check in, we see what can be done when we get there. That's all I can do at the moment. The other adults travelling with me have already been notified of the glitch.

What a pain.

I'm looking forward to seeing many friends and having a good time between tomorrow and Sunday. Forecast for SA is low to mid 90s. Looks like it'll be humid though.

Pray for us travellers.

Peace