I'm writing tonight's blog from a corner of the mess hall hidden behind a vending maching -the only electrical outlet in this very large room besides the ones in the kitchen which is off limits to the campers (and trust me, you DON'T wanna mess with the cook here!). Our dorm room is much too dark to plug into and all of the other computer addicts are hoarding the other one outlet in the tv room. Brooke just described me as looking like a bad kid stuck in the corner. I'm facing a wall that's half brick with pipes, cords and studs and the other half which has been freshly drywalled. The group is currently in the team room watching Act III of When the Levee Broke.
Camp Hope is beginning to see some improvements though. This school had 9 feet of water and so it had to be gutted. Today all of the pails catching the water in the bathroom sinks have been removed because the sinks have been repaired. The toilets have been working all day and it's the first day that I've not had to use the plunger -for those of you who know me, you will understand that this is the PERFECT therapy for my OCD!
Survival!
Another night where I couldn't quite turn my mind off. I got to sleep after12:30 but mostly just rested and thought about that overwhelming day until the alarm sounded at 5:30 am.
By 6:00 we were lined up to prepare our lunch. The usual on the menu. One white plastic bag filled with a bag of unsalted peanuts in the shells, an orange, apple, banana and a pretty basic white bread sandwich with a little meat and cheese. But I'll tell you, when you are on the job site working hard, that sandwich tastes mighty good at 11:30! Breakfast consisted of some very runny grits prepared by the "Canadians" as we are now referred to. I passed on those. Had a bite of a sausage, a half a bagel, coffee and one single, disgusting swig of very sour milk (although the expiration date claimed to be good til March 5th).
Off we went on the bus. And let me just pause to say a HUGE thank you to Casey, our bus driver from Chatham, ON. Casey has been with us since midnight on day one and comes and picks us up at 7 am, drives us to the site, picks us back up at 3:00 drives us back to the school and then often comes back to get us at night for our outings! That's a long day. Plus, Casey has stuck around to help on the build site, taken the bus to the store to replenish our bottled water and gone way beyond the call of duty. Tomorrow Casey will join us at the Justin Timberlake concert. Casey, in the words of the students, YOU ROCK!
As the Habitat team was explaining the rules of the game for the third day in a row, Whitney and I decided to wander down the street to the Musician's Village. There is a very cool couple of houses that the locals have turned into a mini museum of musical artifacts but they still live in them too. Musicians who have visited since the hurricane leave treasures for them to display. The man who showed us around, David Fountain was so excited to let us in and tell us about the place -even though it was 7:30 am. He was actually giddy with excitement and talking a mile a minute with such a thick New Orleans accent that we really couldn't understand a thing he was saying. But we were so enthralled with his cute little giggle that we began video taping our visit on our cameras. We were only able to spend about 10 minutes with him because our bus was heading over to the build site. We really enjoyed that little morning side trip. Wandering away from the build times has been very rewarding for all of us because it's the way you get to meet the local people and hear all of their stories.
When we arrived to the site, we were assigned to the shrimp coloured house (they call it the red house, but it's actually shrimp coloured )-after all this IS New Oreans!
I worked with a Team of ladies that consisted of myself, Brooke, Danielle from Res and Beth from Vermont. When we were given our assignment I really thought there is NO WAY I will be able to do this without screwing it up. You see, I truly believed I was going to spend the week with a paint brush in my hand since it's really my only skill and some would argue that I'm not very skilled at that either.
I must say, I was very proud that I broadened my construction repetoire. Okay, my dear husband Jim, sit down when you read this.....
We were in charge of measuring, cutting and installing the fascja and soffit under the front porch (thanks to supervisor Pete for telling me how to spell that correctly for this blog). Yup, that's right! Just the four of us. I feel my voice is just a little deeper after this and I'm grunting now and then like Tim the Tool Man Taylor. We really had to problem solve for this one and work together. Our supervisors had a lot more faith in us than we did. But, once he showed me how to run the skill saw, I was up and running. We were all VERY proud of our accomplishments and were rewarded with being assigned to the side porch as well. Stop laughing men! Yes, we have photos.
As soon as 3:00 came, it began to rain hard for the first time. We headed back to Camp Hope, showered and rested before dining on mystery meat spaghetti (which closely resembled the chili served on day one and two). Thank goodness for the salad bar -hard to mess that up!
Probably my favourite part of today was Team Time. This is where we all hang out in our dorm room (by the way there are 3 guys to our 32 women!), and discuss a topic. Today we discussed this question....."If you were to go back home and try to convince someone why they should come to New Orleans to help out, what would you say to him or her?".
The answers were amazing, inspiring, and completely impressive. I was filled with goosebumps and pride in this group of young adults. Some answers included:
- The idea that we are making a difference and that every little contribution is helping these people even though it seems to be such a daunting and unreachable goal to fix this place up.
- Sometimes in life we may have goals that we want to accomplish but then something comes along and inhibits our ability to reach those goals -even if it's temporary, so we might have to rethink our original plan.
- Talking to the locals and hearing their stories makes us appreciate how much we have and how much we take for granted.
Sometimes we need to be reminded that everything we have and take for granted can be taken from us in a flash.- We live in a world of pride that rewards strength and as a result, we are all a little afraid to show weakness and dependence. The people of New Orleans need our help and they are asking us to help and this takes a lot of courage.
I couldn't agree more.
Beth
No comments:
Post a Comment