Hey everyone! We couldn't blog yesterday because, well, we were too content with hanging out and bonding to venture over to a coffeeshop to get wifi.
Yesterday was our first day of work with PNOLA. Needless to say, for most of us, it was pretty shocking to see that after almost six years, there is still SO MUCH work to be done. We also passed a few houses on our way to the site that actually still had the logos that search and rescue/search and recovery teams put on the outside once they had finished searching. One of the numbers is how many bodies were found in the home, another corner is the date of the search, a third is the initials of the searcher, and the final corner warns of any concerning things like asbestos or black mold. Here's a picture that I stole from google images of this logo (it was strange to stand outside of the house that people once called home and may have died in, so none of us actually took a photo of it):
On a happier note, when we finally got to the PNOLA headquarters, we met the volunteer coordinator Jen who told us the history of PNOLA and gave us a general idea of what we would be doing during our time here. Shortly after, we met our crew leader for the day, Will, and followed him to the site we would be working at. Immediately after our arrival, we met the woman who owned the house we were working on rebuilding, and she was incredibly kind to us (and brought us gum!). It's interesting to note that she lives in one of only a few hundred FEMA trailers still left in the city, and FEMA is now charging her $800 per month to live in the trailer! PNOLA and the contractors they're working with are working really hard to get the house in a livable condition as soon as possible so she doesn't have to pay the ridiculous rent to FEMA. Basically, we did one thing: paint. Some of us primed the house, others painted it, and some people worked on painting the ironwork on the porch. We aren't sure if we will be back there next week, or at another site.
When we finished with work for the day, we came back to the church and made tacos for Cinco de Mayo (in both vegetarian and omnivorous forms, as all of our dinners are), and then had some intense conversations about life, school, and religion in the parlor, before moving to an outdoor patio/rooftop to relax for the night.
Since we don't work on Fridays, we did not have a specific time to wake up, so we all woke up and did as we pleased, which was largely having coffee, reading, and tanning on the patio. Around two, we took the streetcar down to the French Quarter to explore, and had PoBoys at the Streetcar Cafe. The owner there seemed to have a genuine interest in his customers, and invited us back. He was also the first person to ask Keegan "Who Dat?", which obviously caused much joy in the group.
We spent the day exploring the French Quarter, doing everything from visiting the extraordinarily high Mississippi River to having beignets at the Cafe du Monde. We also did quite a bit of shopping, and found a lot of things that would be strange in the rest of the country but common in New Orleans, like real gator heads and voodoo dolls.
Beignets!
Chelsea eating beignets, and getting covered, inevitably, with powdered sugar!
At the French Market, we met a local poet/pastor/salesman who read us poems that he wrote. He also gave us personalized, autographed bookmarks with his poems on them in appreciation for the work that we are doing. We spoke with him for a while and learned more about what happened during Katrina.
On the way back we met a woman who works with the Make it Right Foundation (Brad Pitt's foundation) and she told us a lot about the work that their organization does.
We are currently watching the Land Before Time X, and hanging out in a local coffeeshop (as opposed to the Starbucks we went to last night).
Until tomorrow,
Love and Jambalaya,
The PNOLA Group
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