Safely Home

Well, we all arrived in Boston about 12:20am, said our goodbyes and headed to either the Nelson's or the Mogren's for a bit more of their northern hospitality. Folks dispersed the following day, returning to their regular lives. We discussed this final entry as a group and decided that each individual would make a "comment" if desired, so read those as they come up.

Some have asked who wrote these entries--this one is my solo effort, but all the others were composed as a group at the end of the day, then posted in the morning. (thanks to Zack and Ben!)

Thank you all for making this dream a reality. I am honored to have been with such a wonderful group!

Also--Kevin has been hard at work setting up our next trip--to India!! Check it out at www.changinghorizons.org

Nola blog8
Whew. Today was our last day of work. Breakfast at the church of some tasty, thick and chewy oatmeal, then the now normal drive across town to the HOPE Project. We began gutting another home, this one was older (late 1800’s) than others we’ve worked on, and in pretty rough shape. Then good news! Autumn went to an eye specialist who deemed her well on her way to recovery. The house was small, but the heat made up for it. We got it completely gutted and Fong began pressure washing it as we headed out for showers. Then we joined the whole crew at HOPE for a wonderful dinner. We said our goodbyes, and returned to our familiar space exhausted. Tomorrow, we’ll wrap things up and journey home. We know that this trip has been transformative, though the manifestations are difficult to predict at this time. We are thankful for our group and our time together.

Today we all arose early once more. Some of our crew opened our eyes to see the fresh Wednesday sun and others found opening our eyes somewhat difficult. Once we realized that our puffy and itchy eyes were caused by more than sleep deprivation, we drove to the hospital. Although we had some difficulty keeping the our convoy together, we all got to the hospital around 9:00. Five hours later, the diagnosis turned out be foreign body intrusion in eye. Uhhhh nothing serous. Once we got home we eat a hearty lunch of chips and sandwiches. Most of the gang played a short game of soccer and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon away. At 5:15 we all headed to Lily Gibson’s house. She and her family were victims of the storm. Sophie interviewed Lily and her Husband and son for a documentary she is making on Katrina and New Orleans. Dinner was served at a local Middle Eastern restaurant. It was deeeeeelicious. So much guava juice, and bill did a number on 12 grape leaves. Wow we all feel really full right now. Hopefully things will work better tomorrow.

NOLA Blog6
Today at 6:15 we headed out the door, made our way over New Orlean’s famous twin span bridges, then took the ferry across the mighty Mississippi. We arrived at Project HOPE for breakfast around 7:30 where we had pancakes, grits, lentil soup and peanut butter. Then it was off to a local house for another gutting, complete with tyvek suits, respirators and latex gloves. There were many possessions in the house which we had to remove before we could begin tearing out the walls. No one really knows how hot it was today (certainly in the 90’s). We took on our first refrigerator, complete with spilling, fermented, 10 month old fridge juice. The contents, besides the typical food items, included toxic flood water that created quite the foul brew. Removing the personal effects of the residents was emotionally challenging, though we were able to rescue some important items for them. Some of the neighbors came by to squirt us with water, and offer their FEMA trailer for the of the restroom. The homeowners bought us pizza, which was awesome! After decontaminating our gear we headed for home, but not before stopping to pick up some of the areas “snowballs”--most like our snow cones, but larger and with at different texture to the ice. We are all quite tired after a hard days work.

NOLA Blog6
Today at 6:15 we headed out the door, made our way over New Orlean’s famous twin span bridges, then took the ferry across the mighty Mississippi. We arrived at Project HOPE for breakfast around 7:30 where we had pancakes, grits, lentil soup and peanut butter. Then it was off to a local house for another gutting, complete with tyvek suits, respirators and latex gloves. There were many possessions in the house which we had to remove before we could begin tearing out the walls. No one really knows how hot it was today (certainly in the 90’s). We took on our first refrigerator, complete with spilling, fermented, 10 month old fridge juice. The contents, besides the typical food items, included toxic flood water that created quite the foul brew. Removing the personal effects of the residents was emotionally challenging, though we were able to rescue some important items for them. Some of the neighbors came by to squirt us with water, and offer their FEMA trailer for the of the restroom. The homeowners bought us pizza, which was awesome! After decontaminating our gear we headed for home, but not before stopping to pick up some of the areas “snowballs”--most like our snow cones, but larger and with at different texture to the ice. We are all quite tired after a hard days work.

NOLA Blog6
Today at 6:15 we headed out the door, made our way over New Orlean’s famous twin span bridges, then took the ferry across the mighty Mississippi. We arrived at Project HOPE for breakfast around 7:30 where we had pancakes, grits, lentil soup and peanut butter. Then it was off to a local house for another gutting, complete with tyvek suits, respirators and latex gloves. There were many possessions in the house which we had to remove before we could begin tearing out the walls. No one really knows how hot it was today (certainly in the 90’s). We took on our first refrigerator, complete with spilling, fermented, 10 month old fridge juice. The contents, besides the typical food items, included toxic flood water that created quite the foul brew. Removing the personal effects of the residents was emotionally challenging, though we were able to rescue some important items for them. Some of the neighbors came by to squirt us with water, and offer their FEMA trailer for the of the restroom. The homeowners bought us pizza, which was awesome! After decontaminating our gear we headed for home, but not before stopping to pick up some of the areas “snowballs”--most like our snow cones, but larger and with at different texture to the ice. We are all quite tired after a hard days work.

Today we got up really early. At 6:00. We ate a quick breakfast, and then headed to the vans for a road trip. After our usual morning routine of getting lost, we got on the right track at 7:15. We were driving to Emergency Communities, a soup kitchen and supply house for residents in Buris. While there, we set up a pool, cooked and served food to residents, cleaned up lawn space, unloaded a supply truck, did a lot of dishes, talked with people who were victims of the storm, and more. After lunch we discovered that the volunteers were not prepared for the amount of firepower that we packed, and they ran out of chores for us to do. We decided to bail around 2:00. We had a smooth ride home.
After we arrived back at our house, we all showered and played a spontaneous game of soccer. We decided to make dinner for ourselves, so we sent Bill to the grocery store to get macaroni and cheese ingredients, and salad. It was lovely. After dinner, we played a hardcore game of charades. Nancy hit the town for a full night of partying and laundry doing. Although some of us felt unfulfilled with the Emergency Communities experience, the fun filled afternoon more than made up for any disappointments.
The end.

Wicked early morning—out the door by 6am!! Drove to Violet where we met our friends at Project HOPE and had a breakfast of eggs and pancakes. We spent the better part of the day gutting a home of a family of 5 (gutting involves hammers, crowbars, shovels, and lots of muscle to remove moldy drywall). After Katrina, they had been trapped in an attic for 5 days. The water was 18’ deep in that neighborhood covering most homes and during that time they rescued people in their boat. We were all moved by their incredible stories. We were introduced to tyvek suits, which caused much perspiration—Zack wrung out his shirt after just about an hour! The van’s thermometer read 97 F. We had a lunch of eggs and pancakes (this is not a typo). Around 1pm, we ditched our protective gear and returned to the church for power showers and then off to the French Quarter to meet Alice Ann, a historic preservationist. She gave us a tour of the historic buildings of the area, and then dinner at Napoleon’s where we ate Jambalaya, brochette, and muffalates (a sub type sandwich). More tour, then dessert at Café DuMonde—beignets buried in powdered sugar and a Russian server that spoke about 4 words of English. A few stops in shops, then home around 9pm.

Today we got up at 7:25. We had breakfast at our house, and then headed over to the church and dispersed to various tasks. Some of us bashed out drywall, sanded (with homemade sandpaper blocks!), primed, painted, prepared a space for a mid city meeting which community members attended, drank iced coffee and pulled nails. Ben and Bill delivered supplies to a 9th ward distribution area in a monster truck.
We then ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (cut diagonally) for our lunch. We used an entire loaf of bread. After lunch we met our new roommates, a group of 30(!) from Rhode Island. nOur new friend Ronald the maintenance guy of the church, a lifelong resident of New Orleans, teased us and kept us laughing.
We then headed to dinner at Emergency Communities. (A tasty repeat of last night.) Walking back to the car, Sam tossed a grasshopper the size of a twinky on Zack’s head. On our way back, we drove through the lower 9th ward, one of the extremely impacted areas. All in all a wonderful day.