Day 5!

Today was our last day of work! And what a day it was! We spent the day volunteering with the Recovery School District! The feat for me was actually pulling that all together! I have been emailing with Troy back and forth since last October and I am thrilled that it actually happened. The Recovery School District is for all the schools in New Orleans and surrounding Parishes that are underacheiving schools (atleast that is my interpretation of it all). Out of more than 100 schools in New Orleans, 66 of them are in the Recovery District. We were working at a Crocker School. It is a normal public school in New Orleans, as opposed to one of the many charter schools. And let me say that Troy is absolutely amazing. Troy grew up in New Orleans and his passion for the care and well being of the children of Orleans Parish is quite obvious. He is the volunteer coordinator and unknowingly, we worked with him during NOLA 07 through Youthworks (yes Kim, the work you did at that school was through Troy and he remembers).

So we arrived at 9am, not having been given a start time, I felt that was a safe assumption that he would be there by then. The school we worked on was over 100 years old and in fact, it had been CLOSED before Katrina hit. During Katrina, so many schools were damamged that they have had to open schools that were previously closed in the non flooded area of New Orleans. The neighborhood surrounding the school is a whole mix of demographics, being the way the city is set up. While the majority of the surrounding neighborhood is affluent white people, the children that actually atten the school are 99.9% poor black children. This building is old and has not been taken care of at all. Most of the classrooms have been painted and it is just the last details that are being done….well that and the cafeteria ceiling. So that is where we started working. There were about 40 volunteers on site today from all the US, but we were, as usual, the only Canadians.

Troy has a real heart for what he does and it is very evident inhow picky he is. The shcool is unreal, it dates back to the days of cloak rooms and cubby holes. There is NO gymnasium and NO playground. In fact, Troy’s parents are bringing down a group of people from Calgary in a couple of weeks (Troy’s parents vacated to Calgary after Katrina). While the main task was painting the ceiling (might I add that Troy has gone over budget with the paint and he is funding the rest out of his own pocket), we were scraping paint off the floors and we realized that the custodians had been waxing the concrete…am I the only person who thinks that doesn’t make sense? So we basically ended up scraping the wax off the floor in the first floor hallway. That was quite a job, but many were happy to join in on our self inflicted task. Our work day ended around 3pm, when the Sun Servants and Katrina Corps groups (kinda like Van Serve and Youthworks) were done their day. I happily would have kept going for another couple of hours.

Troy is doing amazing things with the district, but he makes a good point. No wonder they have problems int he schools there. These kids have been displaced from the storm and evacuated as far away as Seattle, they have gone to all these fabulous schools where the buildings and classrooms and nice and the teachers care. Then they come back to New Orleans and they are in a school that doesn’t even have a playground and the school is just getting repainted NOW, 4 years later. If you have a week this summer and nothing to do, hop on a plane and head to New Orleans and paint a classroom for some kids who need to realize that some people do care. Troy was blown away that we were there from Canada and happy to spend a day painting classrooms in a crappy old school kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

After working at Crocker/New Orleans Free School (it has had 5 different names in the last 100 years, we drove along Magazine St and headed for the Dirty Coast store, my favorite t-shirt shop in New Orelans, and we of course had to stop next door at the cupcake store, though not nearly as good as our cupcake store back home.

Then it was back to the hotel. The ladies went for a swim in the pool, but I was a little tired, so i napped. Then we headed down to the Quarter and had dinner on Bourbon St at “LA Bayou”. Fried Alligator as an appy to share and then a small cup of soup. Then it was off to wander for a bit before heading back home.

Thak-you to everyone who has kept us in their pryers and thoughts this week. We have done Canada proud and now it is time to celebrate the 4th of July in this City that I love!

Good night from New Orleans, we will be heading home on Sunday after celebrating the 4th in New Orleans!

Day 4!

I can’t believe we just finished Day 4! And just so you are aware, we are down to the 4 of us now. Danna and Jim have opted out of any of the volunteering here in New Orleans. But while it is just the 4 of us, what we lack in numbers, we make up for in the ability to get the job done…yay team!

So, today was our last day with Lowernine. I highly recommend that if you are in New Orleans and want to volunteer, give them a call or send them an email. They are a great organization and they attract good people. So today was all about Sanding, sanding and more sanding! Then after another picnic lunch over in the Brad Pitt/make it right neighborhood, Lynne and I dropped Jacquie and Tammy off and then we raced back to change and then headed down to the Garden District to help prepare and serve dinner at the Dragon Cafe at St George’s Episcopal. While I realize the area seems rather affluent, these people come from all walks of life and they are treated to table with flowers on them, Seconds of the meal and usually even a plate to take home. There is something about the Dragon Cafe that is just magical and a wee bit captivating. Dinner was Hawaiian chicken, rice, potatoes, salad and garlic bread AND a cupcake for dessert.  There were about 30 guests tonight, they say it was a slow night because of the heat and then near the beginning. But there were some very nice people who were very grateful for our being there to help out.

They always have a Police Officer present, and as luck would have it, he is also a women’s college basketball Referee!

His name is Darius and I enjoyed chatting with him. Lynne had left early to pick up the girls and they headed back to the hotel for a swim, what thy did after that, I have no idea. I will have to do some investigating. I however, left the Dragon Cafe and then headed for a walk along ST charles and all those amamzing homes. Then I hopped on a streetcar drive. It took awhile to connect with the Tulane bus I needed to get to Rock n Bowl, But I did eventually get there. It is a brand new location and it is huge. The bandstand and dance floor are 3x’s the size of the old location and everything is brand new. Loved it and loved the music…a little zydeco music with washboards and accordions, etc. This is a place where the locals hang out and they come dressed to dance the night away in cowboy hats and boots. Then I continued my adventure and took the bus back to the quarter and then flagged down a cab (not as easy tonight as the Essence Music Festival people are arriving by the truckloads. There were a bunch of tour buses parked outside the Ritz-Carlton tonight. Hmmm, wonder who’s?

I have mastered the art of flagging a cab in New Orleans and i have seen so much more of the city this trip.

While we are sad to be done with lowernine, we are looking forward to volunteering with the recovery school district for the day tomorrow. We will miss Eric, Matt and the many wonderful people we have met along the way. We wish Miss Janetter all the best with her house and her family and we hope she can get that temp permit very soon.

Today has been a fabulous day. I got some great photos (including a weird looking bug, a gecko/lizard looking thing and I took lots of footage for my documentary.

But for now, it is time to get some rest…as is evident by the snoring coming from my room mate! Good night from New Orleans and sleep well!

Work Day 3!

Happy Canada Day! and yes, in our own little way we celebrated down here! Some of us wore Canadian Flag T-shirts, etc… and at the work site, they made us a Maple Leaf out of Mudd…how cute is that? And, may I add, they were very proud of their little creation! Today was hot. Not as hot as Monday, but more humid than Monday. Somebody told us it’s because there were no storms yesterday, so there was nothing to break the humidity. Whatever the reason…it was humid.
We are still giggling over Miss Loretta from the mission. She was quite a lady with some powerful words. But on to today.

We have taken to having little adventures and we have now travelled over most of the bridges in New Orleans…most of them on purpose! We are learining which streets we need to hold our hot coffees far away from us on in the morning. And if you’re in Gentilly, don’t go to the MacDonald’s on Gentilly Blvd, near the Baptist Seminary. The coffee is terrible, but it is convenient and we have begun adding more sugar and more cream each day.
We have mudded the whole house now, well, atleast, all the walls and ceilings that are up. The bathroom is still waiting for drywall, but everything is purchased and supplied by the owner as it can be afforded. In the meantime, we have done as much as we can!
We are now in the sanding stage. Eric, our site supervisor, has kept a watchful eye on us so that we do everything as effectively as possible, right down to scraping off as much of the excess mudd as possible so we don’t have to go back and sand everything down. And as the work is done 95% by volunteers, he hasn’t been as successful with this as he hoped. But don’t get me wrong. As usual, this team has done outstanding work! Go Team Canada! However, we did spend this afternoon sanding!
So, this is a small modest house down in the Lower Ninth Ward. It has been raised up on cinder blocks in order for them to qualify for certain insurance coverage. You enter the house from the side and walk through a short hall to the living room area. To the left there are 2 small bedrooms, the bathroom (there is only one for the whole house) and a large closet. To the right is the kitchen and I am trying to envision how much room will be left once the appliances and cupboards are in and I am hoping they have a small kitchen table for the 5 of them. Then there is a third bedroom across the hall (2 bedrooms do not even have a closet) and the master bedroom is across the back of the house.
I got to do the very first mudding of the screw holes in the bathroom ceiling and that is my accomplishment for the day. Jacquie spent the better part of her day up on stilts and that was quite a sight. Tammy is becoming a master mudder and Lynne did the second coat on my bathroom ceiling.
I always wonder what these homes look like once they are done…what color carpet did they choose, what color paint, etc.
When we worked with St Bernard Project last year, each home owner had a book, with the names of all the volunteers who worked on their home, I wish Lowernine was able to do that, but they have such a tiny budget that they barely have enough money for the things they really need. Today we were sanding down the mudd with just a piece of sandpaper, no block or anything to hold, just the paper. So today after work we went to Home Depot and picked up sandpaper blocks, masks and a box of garbage bags, our little treat for the house we are building. It amazes me how $25 dollars worth of supplies makes such a huge difference. Twenty-five dollars.
Makes me think about the New Orleans Mission and how they operate their kitchen on a budget of $0 dollars, they rely 100% on donations. I would estimate that there is close to 50 people volunteering with lowernine.org this week and I would have to say that atleast 85% of them are college students or atleast under the age of 30 and they don’t just come down for a week, they stay for atlest a couple of weeks up until a couple of months. A lot of them are staying with lowernine.org in dormitory style housing. Today, instead of eating in the air conditioned van we ate at lowernine and then we took off for drive out to St Bernard and past the old Camp Hope site, stopping for ice cream before heading back to the site.
I headed up to UNO with the Athletic Director and had a tour of the UNO Campus, which was partially damaged. He pointed out where the FEMA trailers were for staff and students and showed me the baseball field that blew away and the lawn where 3000 people were evacuated to and stayed for 3 days. I saw where the some of the National Guard camped out, on the Basketball Practice court, etc…
Afterwards Mike drove me back to the work site and it was back to sanding! We worked until 5pm and then took a new way home, we are very adventureous ladies! We stopped for groceries and were quite a site in our grubby, mudd covered, sweat soaked clothes. Ok, that even makes me go “ewww, gross”. Then it was home for showers and out the door for dinner.

We drove out to St Bernard to Charlie’s to celebrate Canada Day. At first it seemed like it was a bad idea. You see, I think one of our many goals for the week is to try every traditional New Orleans Dish in 8 days. We were horrified to discover that they were out of pickles…what? No deep fried pickles. Then we ordered Alligator Sausage and she came back with the horrible news that they were out of Gator Sausage. We played the “tourist from Canada card” and mentioned we had driven all this way (all 20 mins) and now no Sausage? Not to mention, they had lost their Liquor License and we couldn’t even order a beer for a toast for Canada Day. So our fabulous waitress made the kitchen cooks dig through the freezer to find some Alligator. They found it and we had to wait for them to defrost it…it was WELL worth the wait. Add to that~Crawfish Corn soup, Catfish and shrimp and we knocked 4 more dishes off our list (along with the grilled oysters and crab, jambalaya, gumbo and bread pudding). We found a hilarious paper called the New Orleans Levee it’s a spoof of the latest news. Todays target was all about Brad Pitt running for Mayor of New Orleans (a bit odd considering most people hate the houses he is designing and building in the lowernine. It appears they are a waste of money (people could make 2 or 3 houses for what these houses cost) and they are an eyesore to the neighborhood. The paper’s webiste is www.nolevee.com That’s as ironic as Noah’s Ark flooding.
After that we headed back to the hotel and stopped at the drive through (if you were part of last years team, YOU know what I mean) and Lynne was wheeling and dealing a bargain while we waited in the drive through line.
We made it safely back home and as usual, it is Wednesday and we are tired. Good night’s sleep is required.
Please continue to hold us in your prayers and send positive thoughts our way. Thank-you again for all your support on behalf of the whole team.
Good night and we look forward to having more to tell you tomorrow.

Workday 2!

Greetings! Well, to start off with, today was much cooler. Must have been all the rain storms yeterday! Don’t get me wrong, it was still in the 80’s but it was a little easier to mudd ceilings without feeling like we were going to slide off a ladder in our own pool of sweat! Yes, it is that hot and humid! So we were back at the same house with most of the same group. More mudding, more climbing ladders, more gatorade, more water and more balancing on scaffolding. But I must say, we are working hard and it has been a steep learining curve for many of us! But overall we are doing a pretty fantastic job.
Today on our lunch hour we went for another adventure and we stumbled upon the “Make it Right Foundation”, Brad Bitt’s block of modernized-environmentally conscious shotgun houses. They are so cool, but they totally stick out cause they have these crazy designs, I’ve heard that the houses are very expensive and people think they defeat the purpose of getting people moved home. I must admit, out of 4 blocks of houses, there may only be about 10 houses built and a couple of empty lots with signs indicating ground breakings shortly. I will try and post some pics of them tomorrow. We sat and ate lunch int he neighborhood before doing our usual ice cream run. Then it was back to the house to mudd some more. We are all dealing with the heat better today!

Today we needed to leave our sight a little bit early in order to run back to the hotel and change before serving at the Mission. What a fantastice experience it was.
There was another (and much bigger group) volunteering alongside of us, A Youth Group from Pennsylvania. They were a rather fun and fantastic bunch, reminded me of the group we took to Youthworks.
The lady who runs the Kitchen, schedules volunteers and wears at least 2 other hats, is Miss Loretta. She was this large, loud Cuban~Italian (now there’s a mix not to mess with) woman who was hilarious, terrifying and inspiring to say the least. I was absolutely amazed by this woman. She has a sharp tongu and she is kind of sarcastick, but she also revealed a very compassionate personality and the work she does at the Mission is probably her big passion. The men and women who eat at the mission are to be treated with the upmost respect and compassion. The table had to be set EXACTLY so, we all had our stations to man during dinner and I think that anyone who works with Youth could learn a thing or two from her.

After the dinner was done we cleaned up and then Pastor Terry gave us a tour of the Mission and all it’s programs, etc..
Next year’s Team will definitely have a Serve Night at the New Orleans Mission.
Then after such a fabulous evening, when we were done at 8:30 we headed back down to the (French) Quarter. We went to Cafe Du Monde for Iced Cafe Au Laits and Beignets…that was our dinner tonight ( I know, we can already hear the lectures). But I promise you, we are all eating pretty well.
I stayed in the Quarter on my own and the others headed back to the hotel, via a trip to a local Fire Station so Lynn could get a T-shirt. I hear they had a fabulous time, such a good time that they lost track of time and weren’t able to get to Winn-Dixie or Walgreens before closing. Oh well, we can get more Gatorade tomorrow.
I wandered through all the touristy shops and looked for some fun touristy stuff. I ended up buying a container of Jambalaya Spice and one other little thing for someone back home. I had a fabulous time browsing around and then I took a cab back to the hotel.
All in all, it was another fantastic day full of new experiences, new people and new memories.

But for now I must say good night, I need to get a good nights sleep before tomorrow, as tomorrow I am headed out to the University of New Orleans for a tour and chat with the Athletic Director. I am very excited aobut it.

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Work Day 1

Hi Everyone and greetings from Gentilly! (that’s where our hotel is located, about 10 minutes north east of the French Quarter.
Today was fantastic! We started with Lowernine.org today. Their main office is a little house down in the Lower ninth ward. It appears they grow their own vegetables, etc. to help keep down the cost of feeding volunteers. The lowernine staff is fantastic, they even have a Canadian on staff, from Montreal! We were a little late arriving, still finding our way around New Orleans, we got just a little confused trying to find the office! Once everyone was there and accounted for and waivers were signed, etc… they divided us up into work projects and sent us on our way!
We were working alongside a young lady, here from Portland, Oregon all by herself. Serena is a Montessori teacher and is here in New Orleans for 2 weeks. Also at our site is a very young man from New York ( I think) Kevin is a Golf Caddy and it appears he comes down to New Orleans to volunteer whenever he gets bored.

Our site leader (atleast for today for sure), is Eric. Eric is from Boston and has been here in New Orleans for a year. Eric spent the better the better part of the morning teaching us how to tape seams in drywall and mudd nail holes. I have a better appreciation for the guys who were wire brushig the attic last year. I was up on ladders mudding nail holes and several others were up on scaffolding muddng and taping the ceilings. I had sweat dripping in my eyes.
If you like Bikram’s Yoga…have I got the ultimate vacation for you!
My how time flies when you are mudding walls and having fun! We had an hour long lunch break and after quickly eating in the air conditioned car, we took off to drive around our neighborhood. We are working in the upper part of the lower ninth ward, have I totally confused you yet?
For those of you who have followed the trips over the past couple of years, we have previously worked out in St Bernard Parish, but this year the whole trip is based in New Orleans in Orleans Parish.
While St Bernard Parish has 28,000 homes and is predominantly white middle class families where both parents work out of necessity, the Lower Ninth is a predominantly black neighborhood. People have argued since Katrina who was devaststed more and left more helpless and after what I have seen since we arrived, I think the Lower Nine wins. In SBP the homes are undoubtedly all damaged mostly from the flood waters and wind. In the Lower 9, it goes beyone water damage, houses have been knocke right off their foundations and there are so many blocks where almost no one has come home, where every other lot is empty with only the front steps remaining. It’s really quite sad. We drove past so many homes that are still sitting there untouched, markings still on the front of the house and it makes me wonder where the owners are and what has happened to them.
Today Lynne and I snuck off into the house next door, curiousity got the better of us. The house has mostly been gutted, except for the back of the house, There was still a mattress and furniture in the back of the house and hanging from the ceiling was an upside down child sized basketball hoop.
I talked to Eric a little bit about the Lowernine organization, curious to know how they pick their rebuild candidates, what the criteria is, etc. Lowernine currently has 100+ families on their waiting list. Most of these families have been burned by contractors, meaning that they have paid the contractors to do the work and long before they are done, the contractors have skipped town with the money. Our particular home owner, Miss Janette, has been rebuilding her house for 2 years. Two years. after her contractor skipped town, it became evident that he had not even done things properly. He messed up the foundation of the house and it had to be redone, the windows haven’t been hung properly, the siding wasn’t done right and there have been several other issues. And now it appears that the plumber has skipped town with his money as he hasn’t been heard from in 3 months. As if this family hasn’t been through enough already. Miss Janette is trying to get a permit to live in her house before it is finished as she has nowhere to go when her lease on her rented apartment comes up at the end of July. She has run out of resources. Sadly, this story is the same story as most of the people on the waiting list.

And then we found out that Lowernine receives $40,000 in operating money for the year and they have to rely heavily on private donors. And as every other organization I have worked with down here, our work site is in need of adequate supplies. We have 2 ladders, one which we probably shouldn’t really be using. Tomorrow on our break we are going out to purchase a broom for our worksite.

Tonight after chatting with the homeowner for suggestions on where to go for some good New Orleans food, we went to Mothers, downtown near the Convention Centre. We waited 20+ minutes just to get in the doors, then it was another 15 minute wait inside to order cafeteria style. Inside the walls were covered with 8×10 autgraphed pictures of stars. The diner had been around since 1938 and I’m almost certain they haven’t really renovated since then either. But the food was worth it. We feasted on Jambalaya, Shrimp Gumbo, bread pudding and sweet potato pie. Then it was back to hotel after, tired from a long day (we were up at 6:45am).

Willie came by tonight to bring me dvds of his pictures from rescuing people. We will take a look at those tomorrow.

And for those of you who know that i have been chosen as a Huggable Hero by Buildabear Workshop…I officially began filming my footage today.
Good night everyone, I am now going to attempt to post some pictures!

We are here!

Greetings from New Orleans, AKA the Big Easy. We are having a great time so far. I have had some techinical issues which will be resolved tomorrow. And then I will go into great detail. But for the time being, here is a re-cap!

We began with a tour of New Orleans from Pastor (now actually Bishop) Willie Walker from Noah’s Ark Baptist church here in New Orleans. The tour included dinner at Deanie’s where the waiter rmembered me from last year and we had a fantstic dinner of Soft Shell Crab, spicy potatoes and grilled oysters…lovin the seafood in New Orleans. We drove past the 17th st Canal and we had a private tour of Noah’s Ark Church, rebuilt last year by Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Then after we headed to the French Quarter to hang out with Willie and see some of the sights of this amazing City.

Sunday began with church at Noah’s Ark and Lynne and Danna were baptized. They looked fabulous in their white robes and African head wraps. Church was fantastic and the theme of Willie’s sermon was pretty much “God is Sufficient”. There was a few familiar faces and we were as always, warmly welcomed.
After we headed off to lunch at Sonic on our way to the Airboat Tour.
This year’s tour was pretty fabulous, we got to see an Alligator’s Nest up close and even some Alligator Eggs…they are not oval shaped, they are very long eggs. Lots of gators out in the bayou today and ohhh was it warm and toasty! But we had fun!
After the tour we headed indoors and made our way to Winn-Dixie for some groceries and then headed back to the hotel. But we did get a little de-toured on the drive…I miss Belinda, our GPS unit, from last year. We ended up on the 27 mile bridge…not where we wanted to be. But we found a turn around and headed back…only to drive through a couple of thunder and lightening storms with some crazy rain…for those of you who came to New Orleans in 2007-you know what I’m talking about.

So thank-you to everyone who helped make this trip possible and to Bishop walker for a vry fun and exciting first 24 hours in New Orleans.

Tomorrow I will go into more details, but tonight I am borrowing a computer and I am trying to cover everything, all be it briefly!
Peace, from N’awlins!

Denver Airport

Greetings from Denver, Colorado. We are sitting in the airport with a 4 hour lay over…1 hour down, 3 more to go! So far so good. This year I did not have any mishaps with Security, nor did anyone get searched. All in all it was a good start to the week.
The Denver Airport is not a good food airport…I liked last year better when we got off the plane in Denver and headed STRAIGHT for the Rib Joint… Oh well, new experiences. I will check in again when we arrive in New Orleans, right now I need to figure out how to work my video camera so I can start getting footage for my Huggable Hero Documentary!