Reflection on Disaster

Today was my last full day of work. Monday I will be working a half day with Nikki in the warehouse and then as a team we will be cleaning the house, and getting ready for the drive back to Denver. We will be leaving on Tuesday about 8 am. I have really enjoyed my time here in New Orleans and working for Rebuilding Together. I am sad to leave the area but am also glade to be going home for winter break. I am ready to see my friends and family.

This week my team and I watched Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke as part of our service learning. I recommend that if you haven’t watched it yet you should. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 4 years ago I watched footage on the news and read about what was going on in the newspaper but it was different watching it now. Before I watched the movie I felt I had a good understanding of the events surrounding the storm but I found out that I really didn’t know very much. Something that was strange watching the movie now that I have been here for a month is realizing that I have driven through and seen the places that are shown in the movie. I have driven over the overpasses that people were stranded on for days. I have driven by the superdome everyday on the way to work. One photo in the movie that stood out to me was a dead body floating close to the Circle Food Store. Not only was it sad to see that someone had died but we pass by the Circle Food Store when we get on the 10 west bound from our house. Looking at that photo and others it has given me a new perspective because I know what the area looks like now with no water. It is weird to think that when the water was at its highest it reached the second story of some of the houses we have been working on. Seeing the damage after the storm on the news is one thing but seeing it with your own eyes is another.

It has been four years since the levees broke and I was expecting to see the city more rebuilt than it is. In the neighborhoods where we are working, many houses still sit in the same condition that the storm left them in. One common occurrence is when a fixed up house sits right next to a house that has not been touched and is falling apart. The street we live on is the same way. Right across the street from us is a house that nothing has been done to it and it still has the spray painted X on the front from when the house was searched. It makes one wonder why the houses haven’t been rebuilt. Did the homeowners not want to come back, did they not have the money, why?

Something else that I noticed right away are all the schools that sit empty. The school about 5 minutes from our house still has a sign for registration for 2005 on the side, making me think that they tried to reopen but not enough students came back to make it worth it. This is not the only closed school I have seen either. Just from driving around the city to get to work I have seen five closed schools. Last Saturday three people on my team including myself helped the Crocker Elementary school pack up the classrooms and move boxes because the building was condemned. The school found out on Thursday night that they had 48 hours to be out of the building. From talking to the teachers we were helping move it sounded like this wasn’t their first time moving in the middle of the school year to a building that wasn’t going to be permanent. The school was moving into another building until winter break and then they were moving into their permanent home for the next couple of years until their new school is done in 2011 or 2012. I am not sure why the building they were in was condemned or if the damage was related to Katrina. What I don’t understand is why it is taking so long for a new school to be built. Shouldn’t education be at the top of the city’s list for rebuilding? All I can say is that I have a deeper understanding of what Katrina did to the area and that the city has a long way to go before it can be considered recovered. I have added some photos of the school and of my team and I doing PT to the photo album so you all can take a look.

Only About a Week Left in the Big Easy

Where has the time gone? My team and I leave to drive back to Denver in a little over a week. It doesn't seem possible that we have been here for almost a month. It seems strange to think that I will be home in two weeks. I have been asked what I am looking forward to when I go home. Besides the obvious of seeing my lovely family and friends I can't wait to be in a bedroom with only one person and not having to worry about hitting my head on the ceiling in the morning when I sit up in bed. I look forward to sleeping in, taking hot showers when ever I want, having ample kitchen space, but most of all I dream of eating what ever I want when ever I want. You don't know what you will miss the most until you have to go with out it for a month.

I am enjoying our project immensely. Rebuilding Together is a amazing organization to work for. A lot of the people we are working with are fellow AmeriCorp members but are working under State and National. A couple of them were either TLs or CMs last year, so they understand more were we are coming from. They also have interesting stories about their experiences in the NCCC. The painting I was doing on the outside of a house on Hollygrove is finally done. This past week I moved onto another house and got the chance to work with some new RT people, Sarah (the House captain) and Joel. Both of whom are fun to work with. Instead of painting I was able to put my training of power tools to use even though I had to relearn how to use some of them like the chop saw. Wednesday was the first day I was at the new house and I measured and installed base board with Ellen using a finish nailer. I also learned how to install hard wood floor. I thoroughly enjoyed smashing the nailer so that the nail would penetrate the wood and floor. It is a great way to release your frustration. On Friday I was showed how to cut quarter round and base board using a chop saw. Because I was doing my own cutting I was now involved in the whole process of installing base board in the house. I measured, cut, installed, and then caulked the cracks between the wood and the wall. I have found that power tools can make you feel powerful and I want to learn how to use more of them. Who knows what I will be doing next week, but I know what I would like to do.

As far as enjoying myself outside of work, I really liked my Thanksgiving this year. Three teams, Earth 4, Water 4, and Water 1, got together to eat a fantastic feast on a tight budget. As the Food POCs for our team Pat and I decided to cook stuffing since we were also cooking a Turkey, make cranberry sauce from a can, and a sweet potato casserole. There were several logistical problems with this idea. First, the only person who had ever cooked a turkey went home for thanksgiving. Our second big problem was the lack of cooking space and oven capacity of our kitchen. Somehow Ellen and I were the ones who ended up cooking most of the food our team brought to the dinner. Amanda cooked the sweet potatoes but we cooked the turkey and made the stuffing. After having a slight problem defrosting the bird and reading up on the best ways to cook it we ended up producing a great tasting turkey. The rest of the food was really delicious and I was surprised by the amount of food we had. The spread at the table looked like a Thanksgiving meal you might have with your family. There was mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin and apple pie, roles, salad, stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes and maybe more that I can't think of, but it was all really good.

We had Friday off so a group of us went to the outdoor French Market in you guessed it the French Quarter. We spent the afternoon walking around looking at vendors and buying good food. That night I went with about five other people on my team and we saw the movie A Christmas Carol in 3D. The movie was good and the first movie I have seen in 3D but I think parts would be to dark and creepy for young kids even though it is PG. On Saturday I went to the "down town" part of the French Quarter with Ellen, who had not come with us the day before. We walked around in a historic district that had some beautiful homes along with walking through the french market. Last night a few people want to see the movie New Moon, but I didn't have any desire to see it so Pat and I went to see Brothers. It turned out to be a much better movie than I was expecting. It portrayed what I think is a realistic view of PTSD and the effects of war on a family. Tonight I am chilling at the house literly because we jsut got two space heaters about an hour ago. There are only three of use here which makes it very quite. I am taking sometime to myself which is greatly needed. Tomorrow I would like to do some more exploring around the city and laundry which is starting to pile up. As a side note I have added a lot of new photos to the Project One photo album and hope you enjoy!

The Green and Purple House

So I have arrived in the "Big Easy" at last! My team and I arrived on Monday around 4:30 or so. The last day of driving was ruff because we were all ready to get out of the car after driving for the last three days. When we pulled up to our house I had to chuckle to myself about the color and thought only in New Orleans could someone get away with painting a house lime green with purple doors and windows. Yes these are the colors of the house we are staying in. The house is on the property of the Rebuilding Together warehouse and salvage store, which means we have a very short drive to work if we are working here. There are three bedrooms but one is smaller and just our TL sleeps in it. The other two have five people each. The room I am staying in i has two bunk beds and one cot. The other has two bunk beds and one bed. When we first arrived we sound out that the house was one bed short so I volunteered to sleep on the couch for the first two days until we got the bed situation shorted out. The couch wasn't bad at all and was surprisingly conferable. The only hard thing was not having any real place to keep my clothes and such. The situation has been sorted out and I am now sleeping in a really bed. The beds in the room I am in now were moved around to make room for a cot. One of the guys on my team, Pat, graciously gave up his bed so that I might have a chance to sleep in a bed. Because there is very little space left over after the beds are in the rooms each person gets there own drawer under the bunk beds and a shelf to put there personal effects in.

The house has two bathrooms with tubs and showers which is a major plus with so many people living under one roof. In the kitchen there is a microwave, coffee maker, fridge, and stove. Not all of the burners work that great but the oven does and on Wednesday Ellen made corn bread to go with Chile, mum good! The one thing I wish we had is a toaster. I have only had toast twice since i have been here and that was in both hotels on the way to New Orleans. I miss not being able to eat it in the morning. Shopping and cooking for eleven people has been very interesting and is defiantly a learning curve that we will have to work on as a team. For example we went shopping for food on Monday night and bought food that is to last us through the week until we go shopping again next Monday, but we are out of milk and almost out of cereal. Cooking is very different than what I am used to. It was my turn to cook last night and because my cooking mate was sick Ellen and Mel helped me. I made veges, rice, chicken, and tofu. It was good and people said they liked, but I thought the rice was a bit over cooked. It will also take a while for me to get the timing of cooking down. I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer in the morning so we had to thaw it out enough so Ellen could cut it in order to fry it up. But over time I will get better and will come home and be able to cook decent food on a tight budget.

As I said in an earlier post Rebuilding Together (RT) renovates homes for the elderly, disabled and low income families. Right now our team is split in two different groups with each group working on a different house. I am working with four other of my team mates on a house for a older woman and her granddaughter, who is in a wheel chair. RT is outfitting her house to be wheel chair accessible. The five of us have been painting the outside of the house for the last three days. the color of the house is a sea green with white trim and dark green accents around the windows and doors. We have been using extremely tall ladders and scaffolding to get the top of the house. At the training we had on Tuesday, I learned how to use extension ladders and put up scaffolding. After the first time of going up on the scaffolding I was more comfortable and it was even fun to be up off the ground. I like painting but am very messy and get it all over me. Today I came home with paint all over my legs, hands and arms.

Tonight the whole team went out for Kristy's birthday to a great seafood place. I had crawfish and cheese cake, both of which were wonderful!

Second Day of Driving, All Day Through TX

I am sitting in my hotel room in Tyler, TX that I am sharing with three other girls on my team. We have been driving for the last two days. We left Denver yesterday around 8:30 or so and drove until about 7pm. We stopped in Amarillo, TX and ate a great local Mexican restaurant. Today we drove through more of TX. The landscape didn't change all that much through out the day. Tomorrow we are set to arrive in New Orleans, LA around 3pm, so another day of driving. The weather here is the polar opposite of Denver. It is warm and sticky here and will most likely be that way in LA too. It has been interesting driving in a van with 11 other people, but at least we have a 15 passenger van to use.

On Monday of this past week my team and I got ready to have our project briefing with Alann our team leader. That night I went to the AmeriCorps talent show. It was a blast! There are many different talents here: dancing, singing, stand-up comedy, and more. Tuesday my team had our project briefing and had tool check out. We checked out some dishes, hard, hats, and glasses. I have already said what I did on Wednesday. Friday were our inductions into AmeriCorps NCCC. We had to wear our dress uniforms for the second time that week. The ceremony took place in the large auditorium on campus. There were speeches by a past member from Class 1 and 2, the national acting director, the Denver director, a CM and a TL preformed a poem, which was very moving. One of the staffers had created a slide show of our first month on campus. The photos were very funny and made us all laugh. We took a Corps photo in our Dress BDU's that I hope we will get a copy of it. In the afternoon, I had to rush to finish packing, which was much harder than I thought it would be. I will have to take a photo of the two bags I brought with me so you can see how I stuffed them full.

Leaving in Two Days, Where Has the Time Gone?

Yesterday we had the day off and I went with Mel, Amanda, Ellen, and Steve to an animal shelter to do ISP. We worked for about four hours. We cleaned cages, feed the dogs and took them for a walk. It was fun and I enjoyed being around the dogs because I miss Tanner more than I thought I would. I just don’t miss having to walk him every day.

Well I leave for New Orleans in two days on Saturday. We had our first of several room inspections this afternoon. The TL’s were looking for signs of packing along with general cleanliness. Needless to say Mel and I didn’t quite pass because we didn’t show any signs of packing but in our defense we didn’t know that was one of the things they would be looking for. We have to be all packed by tomorrow night because we will be loading the cargo van then. I found out that we can take a small bag in addition to our red bag. It should be interesting trying to pack tonight. Tomorrow we have a class picture and the induction ceremony which should be interesting. I have to wear my dress uniform which consists of black battle dress pants (BDU), a white polo shirt and steel toed boots. I am not really sure what is going to happen at the ceremony but we will be saying the AmeriCorps pledge as a corps.

It will take us three days to get to New Orleans because we can only drive for eight hours a day. We can also stop at various famous places along the way if we want to, one of them being the Cadillac Ranch. We will be driving through Texas and some of New Mexico. Both states I have never been to and am excited to drive through them. Working with rebuilding together we will be doing a lot of finish work including putting up cabinets, flooring, indoor and outdoor painting, siding, among other things. I am looking forward to adding construction skills to my knowledge. I am now off to start packing, it should be interesting!

New Orleans Here I Come!!

The wait is over, I have been assigned to my permanent team and know where I am going for the first spike. We were all assigned to teams yesterday afternoon. The team leaders turned it into a scavenger hunt that took about 40 min to finish. Everyone in Water Unit started out in one room and were each given a slip of paper that had the first clue. My first clue was “LSAT, GRE, SAT, JOB” which pointed me to the resource room on the second floor of Walsh Hall. When I arrived there was a team Leader sitting on a chair with a mask over their face so you could not see who they where and Alann, the Water Unit Leader, handed me another slip of paper that lead to a new spot. Total I received five clues that lead me to what I thought to be my team and TL. When I got there we all thought it was a bit strange because there were fourteen people standing around when we knew that no more than twelve would be on one team. When the TL took off the mask and blanket we saw that it was Ashley. I was not too surprised because we had all guessed that she was the TL because Ian was there along with the cameras from Dateline. For those of you who don’t know Dateline is doing a one hour segment on AmeriCorps NCCC, specifically focusing on one TL Ashley and one CM Ian along with the rest of their team for the first project. Dateline followed Ashley and Ian from their homes to here. They have also been filming all of Water Unit during CTI so I too could be famous. The segment will be airing sometime this winter as far as I know. So when I saw that Ashley was under the blanket I had mixed emotions because I like Ashley but I really was not sure I wanted to be followed around by cameras for the next month. But in the end it turned out to be a non issue because Ashley started to laugh and pulled out an envelope with another clue in it.

That clue lead me to the lookout hill on campus where Daniel another team leader was sitting on the ground. By this time we were very skeptical about what was going on and weren’t sure if this was going to our final team. It also didn’t help that while we were asking Daniel if this was our final team he had a smirk on his face. In the end, it turned out to be our final team which I was happy about because I was tired of the anticipation leading up to it all. There are eleven people not including Daniel on my team, three guys and eight girls. My roommate and I are on the same team, which was a surprise. I am happy with the different people on my team and think we are going to have a fun first spike round. Speaking of the first round project, I am going to New Orleans. We will be working with Rebuilding Together New Orleans. Rebuilding Together restores and revitalizes houses affected by Hurricane Katrina and preserving the historic neighborhoods in the area. While we are there for the next month my team will be living in our own three bedroom, two bathroom house. Daniel will have his own room and the other eleven of us will be sharing two rooms. Hopefully the rooms are decent size, but either way it will be an adventure. I am excited about the fact that we get to cook our own meals! I can make veges that aren’t over cooked. I am also excited about the prospect of getting fresh seafood and going to some local restaurants in the area. If anyone knows of a place I should visit while I am down there just let me know.

In other news, we had a fire drill at 5:35 am on Tuesday. When we first got here we were told that the alarm was loud, annoying and they were not kidding! The screeching sound of a fire alarm is not on my top ten list of ways I want to be woken up. By the time we were allowed to go back in it was five of six and on a normal morning my alarm would be going off in another half hour at 6:30. So I lost almost an hour of sleep which I was not happy about. Tuesday for training the Water Unit did Adult CPR and First Aid training, so now I am certified by the Red Cross to save people. Wednesday night a group of us went and had Thai food at a local restaurant, which was a nice break from the cafeteria food. I enjoyed myself and the food was really good. Thursday before we found out our teams the Water Unit went bowling in the morning. I bowled a 76 and a 67 so not my best, but I had a blast anyway. In the afternoon, we all went to Washington Park and stayed for the afternoon playing games and relaxing. Pat had his slack line out and I got up and stayed up for about a second without holding onto anyone. Friday we had meetings for the different team positions. I am the ISP coordinator with Shannon. We will find places to do ISP for our team. I am also a food shopper with Pat. Over all it has been a enjoyable last couple of days.

Hicking, Halloween, and Rock Climbing

It has been four days since the last time I posted on here, but it doesn’t feel like it has been that long. Time seems to fly by here, they call it Ameritime. Anyway Thursday was our snow day and I went with four friends to downtown Denver. We walked around and went into a few shops all the while it continued to snow. What they say about the weather here is right because Friday the snow stopped and the sun came out. Friday the whole corps went rock climbing at two different gyms. I had a blast. The first time I went up I was nervous but I just kept telling myself that I could make it to the top and I did! The second time I climbed I was much more comfortable and got to the top rather quickly. That afternoon the Water Unit did tool training, which wasn’t much. The TLs just showed us what certain tools were and how to use them. We were also showed the proper way to handle them. Friday night was also the campus Halloween party. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a costume so I dressed up as an 80’s dancer with what I had in my wardrobe and a couple items borrowed from friends. The party reminded me of being at a high school dance strobe light and all, but it was fun. I added photos from Halloween to the CTI album so you can see me in my costume.

Saturday was Halloween and I got to sleep in! Sleeping in felt great and was greatly needed. My roomy was making a run to Wal-Mart and goodwill to get something for her costume, so I tagged along. I tried to buy some fresh veges and fruit at Wal-Mart but it wasn’t a super store so I wasn’t able to. I did however pick up some yogurt, bagels, and cream cheese to supplement the food in the cafeteria. At Goodwill I bought a gray sweat shirt to go with my costume to wear to the Children’s Museum. All I had was a short sleeve shirt for my costume and I figured it would get colder outside as the night went on and wearing a coat would ruin the look. I went with a group of about 13 other people from both the Water and Fire Units to do ISP at the Denver Children’s Museum Trick or Treat Street festival. I worked the stroller parking and the art room. For stroller parking I sat with two guys from AmeriCorps NCC and watched the strollers that were left with us. In the art room, I cleaned up after the kids painted and helped them find things to draw with. After the event was over we helped take down the festival. Over all I had a really fun time and we got really good food for dinner which is a major plus! When we got back to the dorms a few of us watched Hocus Pocus, great movie, to end the night.

Today I went hiking with about 50 other corps members at Chautauqua. Chautauqua is right outside of bolder. A small group of us hiked about 1 ½ miles up or so. The views from where we finally stopped were amazing. You could see for miles and miles in every direction. We hiked for about 2 ½ hours and had an interesting time. Parts of the trail were very snow covered and at one point we bush wacked through the woods because we lost the trail. Tomorrow training starts up again, another 8am wake up call. Thursday we get assigned our permanent teams and find out our first project sometime around then which should be interesting.