Well, the trip is over and we’re all back home now, but I’d like to revisit this past week that I didn’t get a chance to blog about.Wednesday, as some other people posted, was an absolutely amazing day where Timberland brought together 400 volunteers to do various projects in two blocks of Central City in one day. Now, most of them weren’t tasks that can be finished in day, as very little in New Orleans is, but it was an amazing group of people creating more opportunities for the beauty of that special city to shine through. My group was working on soil remediation, which involved digging up the sod in a plot of land about 3/4 the size of a soccer field near a school to plant mustard greens and sunflowers that will extract some of the poisonous amounts of lead in the soil. The lead is proven to lower children’s IQs so doing this planting will help make it a safer and more scenic place for these kids. The awesome Hands On crew had started digging on Monday…continued in the rain on Tuesday…and we finally finished digging on Wednesday. However, it was a lot of fun and we sang as we jumped on our shovels to dig up the stubborn sod. I also got to show off the wheelbarrelling skills I developed from years of riding and taking care of horses - Kudi, our fabulous Team Leader, even nominated me for a “Stud Award,” which are announced at each community meeting. It was a great day.

On Thursday I participated in another gut. A camera crew from TNT came and filmed us tearing down ceilings and digging up rubble and chatting about the dangers of fire ants on our water break with very dirty faces. Before, during and after the basketball game that night, TNT aired clips of us working in conjunction with some great publicity footage featuring Charles Barkley, who came down to to New Orleans on Wednesday to help out. The Hands On PR lady was extremely psyched for the coverage because goodness knows they need the publicity, but most importantly, this city needs national coverage to let people know that no, fifteen months later they are still not okay and need help to rebuild their community.

Then Friday was our last day in New Orleans, which was very bittersweet. I was excited to get to go back to our little plot of land we’d dug up on Wednesday to till the soil, plant the seeds, and cover it all over with mulch. We were done with that by early afternoon - very satisfied with our work - and then some of us went to help paint the adjacent playground fence or to clear away debris in the vacant lot next to the house a team was gutting across the street. I was amazed at all of the things that ended up tangled in the weeds next to that house that did not belong there: bicycle tires, boots, T-shirts, a car battery, and plenty of wildlife (a rat, a giant spider, a snake, a lizard, and some snails).

It was really hard to leave the city after living and working there for nearly two weeks. I’d never stayed so long anywhere without intending to stay for a while so it started to feel normal. It still frustrated me to no end to drive around there because I always got lost, but I started to get more of a sense of place and direction. I learned from returning visitors and the Hands On crew about some good places to go (like the Creole Creamery - some of the richest ice cream in the most varied flavors) and discovered some of my own. Like most people in my group, I really want to go back. The city really does stick to you, as one T-shirt claimed. In that way, it’s also a bit strange to be back home. I still haven’t processed all of this, but I’m working on it. All I know is that this was an irreplaceably important experience and I am grateful for it and all of its future ramifications on my life.

I encourage anyone who can to call Hands On and go down to NOLA, if only for a few days, to see what it’s all about and why it’s so worth working for. And even if you don’t want to participate in a service project, you can help bolster the economy by being a tourist and following the new campaign of buying “souveniers, not beers.”

The first house we gutted with its huge debris pile that, by the fourth day extended all along the side of the house as well. It looks fine from the outside but due to the mold and ceiling damage, it’s uninhabitable, like so many houses down there.

The field we de-sodded and planted. I’m so proud of it.