I was not sure what to expect heading into this trip. All I knew about NOLA was that it is the headquarters of blues and jazz music, they love their sport teams, and they love to eat BBQ and shrimp. But after spending a week here volunteering, touring and experiencing the culture I see that there is so much more to NOLA than the three things I mentioned.
Helping to reconstruct a home for a family has truly been unbelievable. The house that I worked on was in the Upper Ninth Ward of the city. The family lost their home from Katrina and haven't been able to live there since then. The house belongs to a woman named Elizabeth and her two teenage daughters. While this was one of the nicer neighbors in the area, it was still hard to see that. Destruction and poverty constantly reminded me of where I was. While taking a break from working on the house, I watched this young girl, her son, an older woman (perhaps her mother) and her boyfriend I assumed all from afar. Here was a girl no older than 17 with a 3-year-old toddler running around and a her stomach fully expanded for another child on the way in a couple of months. They were all hanging out on a street corner in the middle of the day which probably meant that they were drop-outs because it wasn't later than 1 p.m. Seeing that family broke my heart. I began to feel so bad not only for the child but for the poor girl that is going to be a mother of two. I just felt as if she'll be stuck in the same bad neighborhood for the rest of her life raising her two kids, and perhaps even more trying to make ends meat. I hope that I am completely wrong about her, but I just have an itch that I am not.
From the teenage pregnancies to the new skills that I learned while rebuilding a house it all was so incredible. I learned everything from caucking a bathtub, to trim around the living room. I also learned how to drill in studs to hang blinds. I bettered my touch-up painting skills and I learned how to stain wood floors. Lastly, I learned how to mud a house thats right I officially can dry-wall any house for the rest of my life. With the dry walling also comes the skill of sanding which I also mastered. Texturing wasn't my strong suit, but I learned how to texture walls to make them smoother.
With learning new skills came confidence for myself. Sometimes I feel like I am worthless when it came to fixing and learning new home improvement skills. But now, I feel like I could do so much. I liked how hands-on I was this week and I really took a moment to learn. I sat back observed, took criticism, praise and advice. I didn't let my ego and pride overtake my education for the week. I truly feel as if I am growing as a human and as a woman. Sometimes I let me pride overtake an opportunity to learn new things.
Friday involved seeing a house dedication which made it all worth while. We dedicated a house to Darlene Huber whom lives in St. Bernard another neighborhood community. This community was hit the hardest of any other one during Katrina. Houses were either completely submerged or 3-6 feet covered in water. Darlene's house was around six feet underwater prior to the rebuilt. Could you imagine your home being under six feet of water? I saw pictures of her home right after Katrina and it is shocking. We sang Amazing Grace, and said a few prayers. She received gifts from different churches and one just happened to be from Corvallis. Apparently a group from Corvallis and other parts of Oregon came a few weeks prior to myself.
Coming down to NOLA to volunteer was an absolutely amazing experience. Today was such an emotional day. I have truly seen how wonderfully gracious people can be despite how much money they have. A family that received their home back last April came by the Project Homecoming Office to drop of a Christmas gift of $1,000 to helping another family have enough funds to finish their home. A $1,000 from a family which doesn't have too much extra money laying around. That is a lot of money for them to donate and they did it because they care and because they were so touched with how their home turned out. That is why volunteering is so important because you get to experience and see magic happen everyday.
This week has been absolutely fabulous. I have learned so much about myself, about my future and about others. I have eaten some amazingly delicious food including boiled crawfish, rare at this time of the year, red beans and rice and of course some gumbo and BBQ!
I will post some photos this week when I am back in Salt Lake.
The house next to Elizabeth's has been vacant since September 13, 2006. Mold was like an organism and rapidly expanding all over the house. The house's exterior made of vinyl was completely falling off and being replaced with mold. All of the windows were broken and the door was boarded up. While all the homes must of looked like this after Katrina it is still so sad to see how many houses still look this way. I asked Mark if he ever thought that New Orleans would be completely rebuilt and he said no.
