I am now in St. Bernard (it's not Violet, actually) and today we met with our sponsors and drove around the 9th ward, Musician's Village, and the area where Angelina Joli and Brad Pitt built houses. We also saw the community center we will be working on and converting into a NCCC home for Hope Has a Face.
Facts I learned in videos we watched last night during Camp Hope's orientation:
-47 squared miles of St. Bernard had betwen 2 and 28 ft of water because of the levees breaking
-From June '06 to January '07 - over 2000 houses were gutted
-Camp Hope was originally called Camp Permire and it was FEMA contracted
-In August of 2007 Camp Hope moved to the middle school, where it is now and was renovated by past NCCC members
-the school had over 6 ft. of water in it
Yesterday after we packed and said our goodbyes to Camp Victor, we drove all the way to St. Bernard, unpacked, worked on our portfolio and debriefing project, and then went into the city and walked around...ate some beignets at Cafe Du Monde again! The same people that were playing in front of the Cafe I was there over spring break were there again. I talked to one of them and they said they come to that location basically everyday.... It was also Julia's 20th birthday, so we went to a Mexican type restaurant for dinner and I had portobello mushroom quesadillas. Amazing!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
I can't get enough of these Southern Blues....
BEFORE
AFTER
WOW, a lot has happened in the past few days...let's see if I can re-cap it all. To start out, Friday my team finished the 100th home of our Hope Has a Face Project! Oliver, the son of the 80 year old lady who lives there treated four members of our team sub lunches Friday..the other half of our team was working on another house with Sun 7 since there was not as much to be done on our house toward the end and their construction manager treated them to burger lunches. I had some time to talk to Oliver a bit during the day about the history of his house and family and the number of times they've had to re-build it. Katrina being the most damage to the house so far. I can't tell you the number of times people come up to us on a regular basis and thank us for what we are doing down here. And the fact that we finished a house in 2 weeks! Our sponsors and site supervisors have said to us a bunch of times how our work is better than professionals they've worked with and paid in the past! For example, we didn't have to popcorn the ceiling because it was done so well! So Friday all four Americorps teams were asked to show up at our house at the end of the day. All of our sponsors and Oliver showed up to give us a talk about how we did such an amazing job and that we would be moving to Camp Hope (New Orleans) Monday to start the next project NOVA 100! Yaay! So, for the next 10 days before my second round transition begins in Jackson, MS, we will be turning a community center in the lower 9th Ward into housing for future NCCC members working with Hope Has a Face. Part of the reason we are also moving to New Orleans now is because there just isn't enough work left in Pascagoula for all four teams. I am super excited because we will be able to scope out the area 2 weeks before we return for our second spike.
The day we finished the 100th home with Ben. Roll Reversal! I was TL for a day while Ben had to fix the cargo van.
The Cupid Shuffle...of course
Friday night we had a girls night and went out for Italian
A lot of us are a little sad because we will be leaving our Ameri-dog that we have become so close to the past couple months...Duke. I have not told you about Duke yet, have I? Duke is an "outdoor" dog that belongs to the owners of the first house that I worked on with Sun 7. He is a friendly, flee and tick infested dog, but we are his best friends. There are days when he is waiting at the doorstep for our arrival. He even sits by our van and chases us everyday when we leave. It is quite cute, really..now although I never pet the dog because...he can be kind of nasty..Andrea was nice enough to give Duke a bath last week. Quite amusing really...but he was so cooperative about it!
Our friend Mr. Turtle..Andy found him in the back yard earlier this week! He's hiding!
Yesterday I went to a nearby children's museum to do ISP with some NCCC kids. The museum was really fun and it was a nice change up to get to play with kids for a change. Some NCCC members, you could tell though, had never worked with kids before, so it was funny to watch them interact with them. At the same time, a blue-grass festival was taking place outside the museum. After the museum closed, we helped set up for the show that happened later that night. A Grammy winning Cajun band BeauSoleil . See her for more information: http://www.rosebudus.com/beausoleil/
They were awesome! I really have gotten to see a lot of live music since being in the South and I am loving it! Julia found out that this was her dad's favorite band and got a free signed CD as well as a t-shirt from the guy that talked the ladies working with the museum into us staying to see the concert for free!
Tomorrow is Julia's 20th birthday and I'm not sure what we'll be doing, but it is mostly a traveling day to Camp Hope and we only have to work a half day on Tuesday. So, maybe we'll get to go into the city....and as soon as Kat is finished with tax season, I will probably be visiting and staying with them a lot over the next couple months.
My full slab of ribs I ate last weekend at the Shed
AFTER
WOW, a lot has happened in the past few days...let's see if I can re-cap it all. To start out, Friday my team finished the 100th home of our Hope Has a Face Project! Oliver, the son of the 80 year old lady who lives there treated four members of our team sub lunches Friday..the other half of our team was working on another house with Sun 7 since there was not as much to be done on our house toward the end and their construction manager treated them to burger lunches. I had some time to talk to Oliver a bit during the day about the history of his house and family and the number of times they've had to re-build it. Katrina being the most damage to the house so far. I can't tell you the number of times people come up to us on a regular basis and thank us for what we are doing down here. And the fact that we finished a house in 2 weeks! Our sponsors and site supervisors have said to us a bunch of times how our work is better than professionals they've worked with and paid in the past! For example, we didn't have to popcorn the ceiling because it was done so well! So Friday all four Americorps teams were asked to show up at our house at the end of the day. All of our sponsors and Oliver showed up to give us a talk about how we did such an amazing job and that we would be moving to Camp Hope (New Orleans) Monday to start the next project NOVA 100! Yaay! So, for the next 10 days before my second round transition begins in Jackson, MS, we will be turning a community center in the lower 9th Ward into housing for future NCCC members working with Hope Has a Face. Part of the reason we are also moving to New Orleans now is because there just isn't enough work left in Pascagoula for all four teams. I am super excited because we will be able to scope out the area 2 weeks before we return for our second spike.
The day we finished the 100th home with Ben. Roll Reversal! I was TL for a day while Ben had to fix the cargo van.
The Cupid Shuffle...of courseFriday night we had a girls night and went out for Italian
A lot of us are a little sad because we will be leaving our Ameri-dog that we have become so close to the past couple months...Duke. I have not told you about Duke yet, have I? Duke is an "outdoor" dog that belongs to the owners of the first house that I worked on with Sun 7. He is a friendly, flee and tick infested dog, but we are his best friends. There are days when he is waiting at the doorstep for our arrival. He even sits by our van and chases us everyday when we leave. It is quite cute, really..now although I never pet the dog because...he can be kind of nasty..Andrea was nice enough to give Duke a bath last week. Quite amusing really...but he was so cooperative about it!
Our friend Mr. Turtle..Andy found him in the back yard earlier this week! He's hiding!Yesterday I went to a nearby children's museum to do ISP with some NCCC kids. The museum was really fun and it was a nice change up to get to play with kids for a change. Some NCCC members, you could tell though, had never worked with kids before, so it was funny to watch them interact with them. At the same time, a blue-grass festival was taking place outside the museum. After the museum closed, we helped set up for the show that happened later that night. A Grammy winning Cajun band BeauSoleil . See her for more information: http://www.rosebudus.com
They were awesome! I really have gotten to see a lot of live music since being in the South and I am loving it! Julia found out that this was her dad's favorite band and got a free signed CD as well as a t-shirt from the guy that talked the ladies working with the museum into us staying to see the concert for free!
Tomorrow is Julia's 20th birthday and I'm not sure what we'll be doing, but it is mostly a traveling day to Camp Hope and we only have to work a half day on Tuesday. So, maybe we'll get to go into the city....and as soon as Kat is finished with tax season, I will probably be visiting and staying with them a lot over the next couple months.
My full slab of ribs I ate last weekend at the Shed
Monday, April 7, 2008
SECOND ROUND/SPIKE PROJECT ASSIGNED!
We will be staying at Camp Hope in Violet, LA working with Habitat for Humanity! It's only about a half an hour from New Orleans. The volunteer housing we are staying at holds 900 people. Welcome back college..kind of....and I believe another Water team will be working with us as well! Exciting! We might be going to New Orleans to start a new project sometime this week, but like always..you never know what you are doing in a day of Americorps until the day of! I'm excited, not all of my team are because they are worried about waiting in lines for food, showers..etc...but for me it's no big deal! I'm sure there's worse! I'm excited to build houses from the ground up and to stay in LA! :)
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Rhythm and Blues with Lil Buck Sinegal.....to scabies infection and bleach headaches
(I wrote this blog awhile ago, but haven't been able to post it because the Internet has been down)
More facts learned from a Biloxi document our team watched yesterday for service learning:
The storm was the 3rd strongest and reached 30 ft.
1302 deaths were counted by the end of Oct. in ‘05
Between 70 and 130 billion dollars estimated damage
Effective disaster area was the size of Great Britain
75% of marine industry is non-existent
Possible next projects we had to choose from in the Gulf are as listed in order:
All projects involve some type of construction and some we may lead college students or volunteers
1. Hands On New Orleans in New Orleans
2. Jefferson Country HFH in Beaumont, TX
3. Camp Coast Care in Long Beach, MS
4. Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Orleans in Violet, LA
5. Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Orleans in Violet, LA
6. Project Rehab in Biloxi, MS
The New Orleans and Texas ones were of our top choice because we will most likely be able to lead volunteers. The New Orleans project is described as doing different projects other than construction. With the Texas project, we would be arriving at the start of the Jefferson county’s Collegiate Challenge.
Other than project and service learning news, us and Sun 7 have been working our butts off at our latest house. We have been mudding, sanding, and painting this week. Ed and Johnny also installed the cabinets. I feel like we have been a bit rushed in this last house…I mean it is definitely the biggest house we have done so far, and with 22 of us, we have been able to do a lot within a short period of time. We had a lot of rain in the beginning of the week, which became problematic because we were waiting for the mudding to dry on the wall before we could sand it. I think it is because Ed is leaving soon. He had originally planned on being here for a couple weeks, but instead he has been here for 2 months and is on his way back to Atlanta tomorrow. So, we are about to head out and buy him a tool belt to decorate and give him as a thank you.
Us, Sun 7 and Ed on his last day
Our gift to Ed
I insulated this whole wall!Last Saturday we went back to the Shed and it was a blast! I ate a full slab of ribs, well almost..I had about 3 left. A really good blues band played and we had a big dance party. Paul “Lil Buck” Sinegal.
Paul "Lil Buck" Sinegal
Best ribs EVER
Me, Jess and Juila (aka Jelly, Bubah, Sweaks, Ducky..too many nick names this girl has! ha)
Me, Julia and JerryTuesday we went for a real Craw fish Boil for the first time with all of us teams that are working for 100 homes. Keither, Johnny, and Ed were there and paid for everything! We tore the heads off the shrimp and craw fish and and ate the meat in their tails! SOO YUMMY! Ben and I shared a whole bowl of Craw fish, but he pretty much ate the entire second round!
Second round of craw fish!April first was Julia's one year sobriety! CONGRATS BABE!! We had a surprise cheesecake waiting for her after the craw fish boil to celebrate!
Julia has scabies and Ari has some type of bed bugs, and they both sleep right next to me, Julia is on the top bunk, and Ari is to my right…so I also got checked out at the doctor’s, but I do NOT have scabies..however I got the prescription cream just in case. So today we had to drag all 300 mattresses out of the rooms, bleach them, clean the entire camp, and put everything back. It was not a fun day, although we did get ISP hours for it. But most of the Ameri kids were out doing other ISP, so only six of us plus the rest of the permanent staff were available to clean. I ended up getting a migraine as well as a headache from the bleach fumes! Camp Victor needed cleaning though.
Last night we had a girls night out and went to see The Other Boleyn Sister..it kept me entertained for two hours. It was definitely needed after yesterdays drawn-out day of cleaning and doing laundry.
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