Like pretty much all the other bloggers, I am on the de-molding team. We’re working on scraping out the mold in Tony’s house, vacuuming the whole place, and then wiping everything down with pinesol. Apparently the water line in his neighborhood was ten feet up, so we’re working up in the rafters and everything. We get all suited up in Tyvek and respirators…so we pretty much look like space aliens. As a team we’ve been working really hard and we’re moving along well, I think.

Tony is easily the best part of our job. He’s this big Italian-mobster type…the quintessential guys guy. Every day he brings us lunch…so far we’ve had pizza, McDonald’s, and homemade spaghetti. He’s got a big truck and he’s loud…its just perfect. Today when he delivered our fresh spaghetti lunch, he had a boat hitched to his truck. I guess he’d just gotten some work done on it…but he started telling us about how he boated around his neighborhood, saving people. He rescued a guy with no arms, and a man with his 95 year-old father, and mothers and children and babies. And he was very modest about it, making sure to tell us that he wasn’t the only one; that everyone was helping everyone…because that’s what you do. He told us we couldn’t even imagine what it was like that day and that week, and that the things he’s seen are things no one should ever see. To me, that made this all so real. Being here we can see the damage and we are working on houses that are obviously nearly destroyed…but since its been over a year since Katrina hit, its hard to really imagine the disaster itself. And this man, Tony, has saved people and rebuilt his life and he’s struggling so hard, because in less than 24 hours a storm wiped out his life and his town. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must be like.

On a more positive note, it feels really good to be here, with all these amazing people, and actually be doing something about it. All the team leaders at Hands On and all the leaders of our own Knox group are so passionate about helping the people in New Orleans that it is contagious. Their desire to rebuild the lives of these complete strangers is inspiring. They’re so knowledgeable about the situation and so genuinely concerned and so very willing to lend their time and skills. I’m really proud to be a part of this group.

And P.S. I still have amazing pictures and they’re getting more amazing every day…and they still refuse to load up. And I’m really sad about that, because I really want to share them. If I don’t get them to work while I’m down here, I will definitely put them all on this site when we get home. I promise.