First New Orlean's Blog - sorry its so late...

Well, we made it here safetly and are staying at Felicity United Methodist Church (the perish house). It is right in New Orleans and a wonderful location.

We arrived on Friday and drove to our current location and got into our rooms (8 bunks per bedroom).

Saturday we had an orientation with the organization that we are working with (UMCOR a United Methodist organization) and then went to our first work site. This was a site where a woman lived with her 5 kids in an middle upper middle class neighborhood. She had gotten someone to gut the house but then realized that she would need to have the ceiling taken out as well due to the amount of mold there. So we took off the ceiling and delt with fiberglass and nails all day then Saturday evening we went to the French Quarter and Burbon Street to "support the local economy" (I didn't end up spending any money but enjoyed listening to this awesome jazz band - I have video if anyone cares to see)

Sunday was church at RAYN United Methodist where the pastor preached about tearing down walls that keep us segregated especially in the aftermath of Katrina. I was astonished that this disaster still plays that large of a role in the every day life of a New Orleanian (I'm learning some awesome slang). Then we walked around on Magazine St. (an area similar to Uptown in Minneapolis) and then accompanied a tour given by a member of RAYN church. The tour was supposed to look at some of the hardest hit areas in N.O. In reality it was a tour of what Katrina did to New Orleans according to Doug (the member). We saw a lot of disaster, but didnt' really look at the 9th ward (upper or lower). It was disapointing but interesting to note that even right next to one of the levee breaches there were many homes that had been damaged but were back to looking normal (including landscaping) I have to tell you this was a very rich area and I found it rather interesting.

Monday (yesterday) we worked on a home of a woman who was really friendly as well but we didn't really get to meet her in person. We talked to her on the phone and it was really great to hear how excited she was about everything. Her house was similar to the house that we worked on on Saturday. Most of the house was gutted but there were still fixtures in the kitchen and in both bathrooms. One of the bathrooms had a shower that had been put in a very long time ago (it was cemented into place and had lots of chicken wire and plaster around it and was extreemly difficult to remove). I also removed a sofet from the kitchen similar to the one I helped dad remove back home in our own kitchen. Monday evening we went to Tulane University where we listened to a panel of 6 people answer questions regarding Katrina and the aftermath. One of the panelists was a professor of Geology at Tulane and since the hurricane he has been focused on the levee breaches and has agreed to take us on a tour of the levee breaks on Friday morning which I am looking forward to!

Today was for me the most emotionally challenging day thus far. We entered a home that had not been touched since the hurricane. There were still some cups and things with water inside them and the house we were in was a house of a pack rat. This was an older woman and her husband and they lived in the upstaris and used the downstairs for storage. There were a lot of things she was storing and it was very daunting when we first looked at the task at hand. There were many things that I saw tonight that made me want to cry. There was a thing of salt in the kitchen, little kids books, and a mother's day card (then my mom called and I was on the verge of crying - if she didn't know that before now - she does now!) This woman was having such a hard time dealing with the disaster and it was hard. She didn't want to throw away very many things and she really couldn't keep them due to the damage they had and the mold that was all over them. It was really hard and very difficult for me to explain it in words. I did take a lot of pictures and I'll have a lot more to say when I get home but for now I'm going to sign off and hand the computer to another person so they can either blog or check email. Have a wonderful day and if you get a chance think of us while we're down here. There are 30 of us and we could use your thoughts and prayers!