Greetings from New Orleans.

Let me first request that my fellow bloggers post some "after" pictures. Part of yesterday was spent putting the icing on the cake - we applied the first coat of white paint to the walls and ceilings of four of the rooms that we restored, not including the kitchen and the bathroom. The paint in the colors chosen by the family will be applied by the team that follows us. Because of that one coat of paint, we were able to see the shape of things to come in actuality, not only in our imaginations, though we had to fill in a few details with our mind's eye, such as the casings around the doors and windows, the floor in the kitchen, the paddle fans reinstalled on the ceilings, etc.

When I thought about this trip beforehand, I thought I would probably be pulling down moldy sheetrock. In fact I did pull down a little bit of old sheetrock, but it wasn't moldy. Most of that had been done already in the house we worked on.

I didn't think we would be able to help a family that we would actually get to know. It was a delight to be able to do so. This family had something that I daresay many of us do not have. They lived (live!) in a true community, where generations of families live in the same place and know their neighbors across a broad spectrum of life. Speaking for myself of course, and leaving aside the obvious financial considerations, if my home in Sherborn were destroyed, I would be emotionally able to consider relocating anywhere in the vicinity, or even not in the vicinity, without feeling as if I were being wrenched from my community. Where I park myself and my belongings is optional. My "community" is spread quite thin, with friends and family all over the world. I can hardly even call it a community without feeling as if I'm compromising the meaning of the word, after I saw the real thing before my eyes this week.

There are many people here in the same position as this owner of this home. Without some toehold of momentum, grant money is not available. Various formulas determine who will and who will not get financial assistance to rebuild their home. For example, read this article or Google "road home" new orleans protest. Insurance companies have been very slow to pay claims, often denying them for spurious reasons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/11/us/11louisiana.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=5f8aae429b7fbb9a&ex=1320901200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


I believe we were able to provide that toehold for Miss Orean and her family to be able to continue the process of rebuilding their home. It once housed three families in two apartments on the second floor and one on the first floor, though I don't know whether the first floor was occupied when hurricane Katrina hit. At this point, Miss Orean's apartment is almost completely renovated, and the front entrance has been reconstructed. The front door was painted, and the corner door, which is unused, has been replaced (thought not fitted) with a beautiful hardwood door that the UU church here has not been allowed to replace in their structure due to fire codes. Previously it was covered with a sheet of plywood. We learned last night that the group who will follow us into that building includes individuals with considerable building skills, as did our group. They will be able to connect the kitchen sink, put the casing on the doors and windows, and deal with additional structural damage in other parts of the building, in addition to painting the kitchen and three other rooms that we only primed.

Thanks to all the people back home, who we were able to count on so that we could come. I am truly grateful - a week of hard labor is like a vacation for me. I loved hanging sheetrock - it's like piecing four giant solid quilts with holes for doors, windows, outlets and light switches.

Well time to pack and catch my cab to the airport! See you all on Sunday!

SO the thing I've learned about deoderant on this particular thrip to New Orleans is, really, what's the point? It looses it's usefulness around 7:30 a.m. as we load the tools back into the vans, and if you don't have your dust mask covering your nose as your work partner reaches up to hold down the sheet rock you are drilling in, well.... whose fault is that?

Of course I've learned so much more, from so many of my new friends. From how to get a good angle on the drill and really put my weight into, to how to get spackle off my nose with the only spackle free part of my fore arm. The work of the house has been so much fun and inspiring. We have made such a difference in these four days. Yet each of us is conscious of how much work there is still to go to make Ms. Oreen's home habitable. And we will have to leave without seeing it in that freshly painted, new rugs on teh floor, ready for the furniture stage. The next group of volunteers will have that statisfaction, but we will leave knowing we did the grunt work to get it ready. Who knows what we can accomplish today. This is the kinda energetic work crew you only wish your contractor would bring to your renovation projects. Terry just left for his daily Home Depot run (the first of many) and that third pot of coffee is looking low already.

Something else we have learned, or been reminded of, is the importance of sitting with. For the last three days, 79 year old Miss Oreen, has sat with her grandson Deon, on the side stairs outside the house. Watching the occaisional cars go by slowly, some with former neighbor calling out to her from open windows. It has been 19 months since she has sat her, outside the house she moved into in 1959. And slthough she has moved from one relation to another with hotel rooms inbetween, her sense of being a home owner has never left her. " I always knew I'd get back in that house," she told us. "God sent you to me and i thank you both." SOme of our best memories are being made on those stairs, which we each pass (and often stop at) as we go down to the Genisis Baptist Church where we use the bathroom, set up our lunch and store our ladders each night. You will here more about this church, which has been so generous to us despite the fact that it's congregation has deminished by over 50%. (It's choir gone from 22 members to 5). We pull off our masks and take a cold water bottle to sit on those stairs with Miss Orren and her family. She greets us with a sparkled eyed smile that melts the fatigue.

Yesterday we heard more sirens that usual and there was actually a stop right outside the window where we work. AS we leaned out, trying to be discreet, we saw three young African American males, hands spread on the hood of their car while three police officers patted them down. They stood submissive, in what seemed like a familiar stillness, looking down or to the side for a long time...long enough for us to lose the end of their story as we went back to our drills and ladders. I asked Ms. Oreen about it later. She say they have "Jump Out" Tuesday and Thursday down here where police can stop a car for no reason and you gotts jump out and be searched. "It don't sound legal to me, but I'm g lad for it," she says. The crime in her neighborhood was worse before the hurricane and it's very bad now.

WEll, folks are heading down to start loading the van, and I'm still in my PJs haven't seen my daughter up here for breakfast. One more thing I have learned.....That your children really will eat Lucky Charms every morning for breakfast if you let them!!! (Sorry Timmy. Hello to my Honeys on Smith street)

Becky

Part of what is so important about being here in New Orleans is "bearing witness". Part of it is being here, but another critical part of processing what we've seen/felt/tasted/heard/felt in such a way that it connects the people who did not come, you, to the experience.

One of the most powerful messages I take from here is the sweet elderly woman (whom I've befriended as my grandmother) and her neighborhood. These are people of color who, for the most part, have not been treated by whites in very honoring ways. They distrust them because of this. From the beginning we had a goal of bonding with grandmother and her family/neighbors and rise above the racism of our times. I wanted to connect with them but how to do this when we had such little time? I spoke to her from my heart, "I want to let you know that we are not out of pity, but rather because of love! We are here because you are OUR people. We are all Americans and when we saw what happened to you at each stage of the horror that this whole experience has been our hearts were breaking because although we did not know you we felt a bond to you! At the time I had a sick child and could not come. We are now to do our part to help rebuild your home. More importantly than that is to let you know that your people, Americans, care about you no matter what the color of your skin."

Grandmother and her family have watched over us and shared their experience with us. We all opened up our hearts and minds to each other. You could see things shifting before your eyes. We all learned a lot.

It was very emotional hearing their experience, how they were treated, what they saw. Some of it still hurts my heart like knowing they saw people in wheelchairs and the bodies of babies floating by.

They said, "You are the nicest white people we ever met." When asked about how she felt about racism and if grandmother was bothered that there were white people in her house she said, "Honey, I don't care if you were green with polka dots. I'm just thankful you are here."

Mariaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
:)

So sorry we havent' blogged in a few days. The computer was down, and we've been darn busy.

Took a tour designed by the Hurricane Relief and Social Justice Project. Went through Upper and Lower 9th, other parts of the 7th ward, and up towards the 17th Street canal close to the west end of the city. Pretty eye opening. The hurricane and the levee breaches were equal opportunity destructors on some level. What is not so equal is that many homeowners have fewer resources to rebuild, and institutional help is slow in coming. It is shocking to see so many homes abandoned city wide after two years. Maybe social activist/tourists like us get an interesting visual snapshot of the city because as outsiders we are interested and willing to go everywhere in New Orleans to see what has happened after almost two years. Our government has been very slow to respond judging by the many, many homes standing empty, damaged, and destroyed all across the city. Is this what to expect if this happened in Boston?

The lower 9th, once you get off the main drag, and drive towards the area of the three levee breaches, is very desolate, like a graveyard. My guess is that about 5% of the homeowners, or less, have returned. Many houses, in what was probably a dense neighborhood, have been leveled, and the area has much grassland. The housing is mostly one story, cottage style homes. Brick homes have fared better than wooden structures. The upper 9th, being on somewhat higher ground, is a bit more developed. Where we are---in the 7th ward---the houses are standing, but the homeowner of our house said that about only 50% of the houses in her neighborhood are occupied. Our tour today took us from the extreme east end of Orleans Parish (lower 9th) to the very west end near the 17th Street canal into neighborhoods of 600k homes that had water lines about 8 feet high. Orleans Parish really isnt' that big, and the tour today revealed much, much city wide destruction. Areas near the Mississippi River (aka Up River)are on higher ground (inc. the French Quarter)and suffered wind and water damage but not necessarily levee flooding.

Our teamwork down here is extraordinary. Injuries have been minor, which is excellent for a group of 22, mostly average skilled workers. We have shimmed, screwed, hammered, plastered, shoveled plaster and pigeon poop, ripped up and built out, installed countertops, cut, measured, (not in that order) and fed each other. We have had to adjust expectations as Monday wore into Wednesday. We are leaving much fun and gratifying work to the next group who will follow us into this house, including painting and floor tiles. We have taken care of structural problems, sheetrocked 3 1/2 rooms, laid subfloors, and generously applied much plaster to our enthusiastic, if imprecise, sheetrocking efforts. We have arranged for a plumber to take care of a cracked waste pipe. (The two Rooter Men showed up wearing Yankees and Red Sox baseball hats.) We glance at the pigeons and hope they move out of the rafters soon before the house if fully secured against the elements. It is fun to watch the dynamics of the group emerge: how the men talk to each other vs. how the women operate, who works well together, and who are better separated to take advantage of their leadership skills. We have cultivated a generosity of spirit towards each other that we should remember to take back into our regular lives.

Some high points: the homeowner's daughter arranged for us to have an authentic crawfish boil, complete with SPICY sausages, potatoes, crawfish, shrimp and gumbo for lunch on Wed. Today we chased the ice cream truck (which our country girl teen called an ice cream machine) down the street with our minivan at the end of the work day. See pictures. Terrific food at Felix's. Had a rockin' time at Snug Harbor, and liked seeing one of our party members standing on her chair in this small jazz club. Thank you Becky.

The homeowner or her daughters (or grandson) have been at the house every day, which affords us easy excuses to take a break and chat. They are a lovely family with deep connections to the neighborhood and to each other. The house, which is quite large, is a gathering spot for the extended family, especially during the holidays. They have the respect of their minister (and keys to the Grace Baptist Church where we are eating lunch), who referred the homeowner to our organization. We did not expect to put a face to the house, and it has been a wonderful perk this week. The neighbors are either friendly and curious, or watchful. We stand out a bit.

When walking around NO in work clothes, it is relatively easy (not in the tourist areas but in neighborhoods) to get someone to talk about where they are at in the rebuilding process. Some strangers have said thank you to us for being here.

It will be very hard to leave Sat. a.m. Most of us feel this way. Five building days feel very short, and we quit the workday after 8 focused hours reluctantly.
Tomorrow is our last work day. We have adjusted expectations and will need to feel good about what we have accomplished: built a strong team of people who will bring this energy back to the church; learned new skills; made the house nearly habitable; made new friends of the homeowner and her family; and moved a bit closer to getting this obviously respected family back into their neighborhood and church; lent eyes, ears, heart, and foodie appetites to the people of NO; and witnessed the citywide damage and destruction which pictures do not do justice to.

Chris

NEW PICTURES!!!

hey guys! this is Rory, you probubly don't know me but im Becky Sheble-Hall's daughter and i (although very late) have been uploading some pictures from our trip on to a web sight since i can't seem to figure out how to put them on the blog. So here is the web sight

http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u116/UUAC_NOLA/

I will be updating them as fast as i can so you can just keep looking at the sight. Have fun!!! (p.s. their not in order.. sorry)

Work day yesterday

Greetings from New Orleans.
Yesterday we worked on the home of a woman who is a member of a Baptist Church some distance from where we are, the UU church in New Orleans. She lived there with some of her family. I met her daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Today we are going to meet her. The building was flooded, however she lived on the second floor which had wind and rain damage. Much of the damaged sheetrock had already been removed. I worked with several others to remove remaining nails and bits of sheetrock from one room. Others did structural repair on the first floor, others cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom, worked on the electricity, tore up a rug. I can't say more, because I was busy pulling nails. Today we will put plywood on the floors at least. I can predict we will be stunned by the amount of work that we can get done, same as yesterday. Some plumbing and electricity are working already.
OK today just the facts, and not a lot of them. Personally I was very impressed with the amount of work we were able to do. Coming down here with a contractor and an electrician has made all the difference. We are the first reconstruction project that has worked out of this church (the project up until now has been headed by the UU church in Baton Rouge) After a year and a half, the city will soon reach a point where most of the damaged houses have been gutted, so the task now is reconstruction, which requires specific knowledge.
Post questions! I'm not sure what people want to know, and between all of us we have lots of information to share.
See you on Sunday!
Cris

24 hours to NOLA

See you all there!

Pat