We’re at an internet cafe right now. Since we’re not living at Hands On, it’s hard for us to get connected to the internet and so it’s hard to commit to blogging. But I’ll give this a go, bullet-point style:

-I’m on Gut #1 team and it’s been such a great experience! Our crew really clicks and our team leaders are awesome, energetic, motivating, uplifting, wonderful, etc etc people.

-The house we’ve been gutting is ENORMOUS. The flood water got to be about a foot and a half high, which isn’t bad compared to a lot of places. But the roof leaked, so a lot of the upstairs was damaged as well. And you have to keep in mind that this house hasn’t been touched since Katrina hit–mold has completely overtaken it. We’ve ripped it down to the bare bones–studs and outside panels and wood flooring.

-The first thing that hit me hard about this: the house we’re working on looked beautiful from the outside. I spent a lot of time driving through devastated-looking neighborhoods and I never would have guessed that a house this good looking  was so damaged. Knowing that gave me much more perspective about how much of this city was affected and how much of it is rotting and molding and begging for help…over a year later.

-The second thing: I found myself forming an emotional bond with the people who lived in this house–most of whom I had never met. It was hard physically to rip walls down, but it was downright gut-wrenching emotionally to see some of the following things lying around the house:

coloring books, condoms, Clue Jr. picture novels, college applications, hardly recognizable bananas, family portraits, Hercules Happy Meal toys I remember having when I was a kid, a hand-carved walking stick, “Hello, my name is…” tags, lots and lots of plastic forks…

I could go on and on.

-The people in the city here are so genuine, nice, and appreciative. I love it.

-There was an older guy at the Hands On meeting (most Hands On volunteers are young people–college age or a bit older) who was talking about how selfish Katrina made him feel. So he sold everything he owned and moved down here to help. Wow.

-After a 7 hour workday, I sleep like a log at night.

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. Hunger is starting to take precedence over blogging, I’m sorry to say.

PS: Just to let you know, we’re all taking pictures but haven’t found an internet connection that will let us upload them yet. Many of us are planning to do a more thorough post when we get home.