Hello all,

I’ve been looking forward to this trip since the middle of fall term and we’re finally here. Yay! The drive was quite long but my fellow van-mates were fun and we got along well.  It’s very interesting being down in New Orleans since I’ve never been here before.  You can tell the city, even more than a year after the hurricane, is still not up and running as you might think it would be. Along with many others, the sign in front of the Walgreens next door to the Salvation Army where we’re staying says “Welcome Back.” I saw graffiti that read, “Come Hell or high water”…. I still haven’t seen more than Central City and the French Quarter by night, though, so I will have to wait a bit more to comment on the city.

As you know, we’re working with the international relief organization, Hands On, however we’re staying at a Salvation Army. The facility is extremely large and nice. Our dorms are clean with rows of bunk beds (we likened it to either camp or an orphanage – Madeline maybe?) and we get two good hot meals a day and a sack lunch provided for us.  The security guard threatens us to smile or else go smile out in the cold every time she sees us. We’ve gone to a community meeting at Hands On and it is, indeed, quite a community. I’m so impressed with how many people are here and so excited to be helping, plus they are all so moved as much by the little moments of a nickel from a five year old who got to check out a book for the first time from the newly opened library as by the overwhelmingly positive New Orleans community response to their efforts.

Yesterday was more of an orientation so it was great to actually get out “in the field” and become a part of the aforementioned community. A group of 15 of us went out to a house in the central part of the city with two team leaders from AmeriCorp who are currently working through Hands On. It was a big old house that, from the outside, appeared fine. But when we went inside, we found since it had been closed after there had been a foot and a half of water the mold had had taken over. The neighbors said, “Oh thank God you’re here,” as much for the family and the neighborhood as for the fact that many rats and feral animals had been coming out of the class for the past year. A crew had already gone through the whole house to decide what was salvageable, but even so we had to move out all the furniture on the first floor and take up the carpet before we could start taking down the walls. It really made you think about how much stuff we all keep around in our houses that isn’t really important. Both the adult children of the owners of the house came over to meet and thank us, which was really special, especially because they told us about how they had grown up in that house, played hide and seek in it, etc. The owners are actually currently living in a trailer in the backyard, which is what a large amount of the displaced families are doing. In addition to the fact that we were helping these people, it was very satisfying to use a crowbar to completely dismantle the walls down to the frame. We’ll be working on this house for at least the next couple of days because there’s still more walls and ceiling to take down and then de-mold. Let me just say that I was so appreciative of food today.