St. Bernard Project

Today we started work with the St. Bernard Project. This is a grass roots organization started to help the people of St. Bernard Parish refurbish there homes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We had our orientation with them this morning and one of the leaders described the people of St. Bernard. They are working class people who mostly OWNED their home for GENERATIONS! They have a very strong sense of family and typically the whole family lived on the same street or block. Kids saw and/or talked to their grandparents daily. Their aunts and uncles and cousins all lived on the same street and you went to school with your cousins. When you grew up you wanted to buy a house on the same street as you folks. Quite often houses were informally passed from one generation to another without a trip to the town clerks office to oficially change the name on the deed. So when Katrina hit and all of these houses were flooded it was impossible for homeowners to prove that they actually owned the house and the land. She told us that somewhere between 60 and 70% of the people who lived in St. Bernard prior to Katrina owned their homes. She emphasized that they were tax paying, hard working, family oriented people!

The other big point that they made during that orientation was that it is important to get the word out that there is STILL a lot of work to do to put the parish back together. 100% of the parish was destroyed as a result of the flooding. The other interesting thing that I learned today was that in just 2004 the Army Corp of Engineers reccommeded that people in St. Bernard no longer needed flood insurance because they were so well protected by levees and there had not been a significant storm since Hurricane Betsy in 1965! Since the median income of families in the parish is about $37k it makes sense that many people who were carrying flood insurance discontinued it.




After orientation we were sent to our worksite for the day. We were scheduled to work on a house on Livingston st. Our job was to finish priming the walls and to start laying down the lamanent hardwood floating flooring. I did some painting and then worked with Wally and Sid to lay the flooring in the front bedroom. It turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be. Julia and Kim (our St. Bernard Project site overseers) did a demo for us to teach us how to properly lay the flooring. The thing that I liked the best about Julia's demo was that she emphasized to smartly use the flooring material so that if we don't use a box they can send it to the next house to get that home owner home faster! It was hard work - I guess sitting behind a desk for a living does not prepare me well for a full day of laying flooring and painting! I am very tired tonight, but feel pretty good about what I was able to accomplish.






On our way home we decided to stop by Miss Lillian's house on Munster. Last year when we were here we sheet rocked her home. It was great to see her and her house finished! The look on her face when she opened the door and saw us there was priceless! What a great ending to a good day!

We're back

Well I'm back in New Orleans for my 7th trip in 3 years. What a difference this trip is from my first trip. I remember being so anxious and nervous before leaving back in Feb. 2007. I had NO idea what I would be doing, who I would be doing it with or if I would make any type of impact. Little did I know that would be the trip that totally changed my life! It sounds strange, but the people I met and the experiences that I had that week transformed my life. I have made friends that I will have for the rest of my life! In preparing for this trip there was none of the anxiety or nervousness that I felt back in 2007, there was only excitement to be spending a week in fellowship with a group of close friends! And excitement to reconnect to those we have met over the years here in New Orleans! I am also very thankful to all of my friends back at home who support me and the work that we do down in New Orleans. I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life!

Today (Sunday, Jan. 31st) was very different from every other Sunday here. We didn't worship formally with any congregation. Betsy went to worship at Good Shepherd to represent our group. The rest of the group got up somewhat early and headed over to Miss Cely's house (via Home Depot) to work on a workshop that is being built for her in her backyard. Carolyn Mains has spearheaded that project for her, helping to get materials and people to work on the structure for her. Our task was to put shingles on the roof - which Wally and Chip did with great speed and expertise!! George, Caleb, Steve, and I worked on putting up cross beams on the ceiling and then we stapled up all of the insulation. Sue and Tammy tacked a HUGE pile of twigs and branches - bundling them up and taking them to the curb for the trash man to take away. We finished all of these tasks in a little over 3 hours and we were all amazed at how much we accomplished and how quickly we were able to get it all done. I guess that says something about us as a group! The best part of the morning was having Miss Cely come into the workshop when we were done and tell us about her vision for the space. She described how she was going to put shelving here, tables for sewing machines there, a black fabric to hang up her in process quilts. She talked about how she wanted to do workshops there for kids and how having that space is just a dream come true for her. Prior to Katrina she was spread out in her house. Since the storm both her mom and son have moved in with her making space very tight!

Every time Miss Cely looked like she was about to cry she would mention that "God is good!" Indeed God is Good and very much a presence with this group this year.

Tomorrow we start work with the St. Bernard Project. I'm looking forward to learning a new construction skill and seeing what kind of work we will be doing!!

Here are some pics from Miss Cely's work today: Cely pics

Beecher and Sheet Rock!!

What an incredible week I am having here in New Orleans! So many things have happened this week that I am going to try hard to remember them all so that I can capture the memories. The week started with a few of us - those who have been here before - deciding to go to worship at Beecher church. What an incredibly spiritual feeling their worship service had in spite of the lack of a finished building. Beecher church is STILL not rebuild following the devestation of Hurricane Katrina. The building has been gutted for some time now. I believe that it was fully gutted during my first trip back in February of 2007. They have been worshipping in that space for about that time. The sermon that morning seemed specifically directed to the congregation. It was based off of Deuteronomy 1:6 when the Israelites were tested by God and they bickered so much amounst themselves that they eventually... The pastor (who I believe was a guest speaker) drew the comparison between a baby only drinking milk and a person growing up and wanting and needed meat. That it was a natural progression, one eventually had to stop solely drinking milk so that they could taste the meat. She then brought that to the people of Beecher. That it was time for them to eat the meat! That maybe not everyone would come along for the ride, but that they needed to start moving forward! That you can’t stand still in life, you have to keep moving forward. She basically told Beecher to cut the crap and it is time for them to take charge of their building and their congregation! That they needed to stop standing still and move forward - whatever that may bring. There was a reason that the 6 of us were at the worship service. It really got me upset to think that a sister congregation of ours STILL more than 3 years after Katrina is not put back together. A congregation that appears to WANT to be put back together. Sue (a member of our group) said it best. She said that she is ashamed of the UCC for letting one of our family members down. There is no reason for that! The other good thing that seemed to come out of our service at Beecher is that we were told that we could send money directly to Beecher and that they would be able to get it and use it (hopefully) for their rebuilding efforts. Whenever I start to get too angry about the situation at Beecher I remember their alter prayer. We all went up to the alter and stood in a large circle holding hands and Brenda Square very loudly proclaiming thanks to God for all sorts of things! The spirit was most definitely alive and well in the members of the Beecher Memorial congregation! It just goes to prove that the building really does not make the church that the people make the church. The building just provides a facility to do God’s work.

Wednesday I joined the construction crew. They were busy working on Miss Lillian’s house on Munster Rd in Marearo, LA in St. Bernard parish. We are working the the people of the St. Bernard Project and let by two people working for Americore (Becca and Katie). I learned today that Americore provides a lot of the employees for the St. Bernard Project work sites. A St. Bernard Project guy named Mike came to our work site today and we learned that only 6% of their budget goes towards administration costs! Which means that 94% goes towards the costs of rebuilding people’s homes! Which I think is absolutely fabulous!! Anyway - getting slightly off topic... The task for the week has been sheet rocking the entire house. It consists of 3 bedrooms, a hallway with a closet, a bathroom, a living room/kitchen with a closet, and a family room. I joined the team on Wednesday and Chip, George, and I started on the hallway and then as another group of three volunteers (Dick, his fiance Jane - yes we had lots of fun with Dick and Jane... - and Beth (of no relation to Dick and Jane) we moved on to the living room. We first put up the ceiling and had to cut holes in the sheet rock for the vent and ceiling light fixture. The first piece of ceiling we put up that we had cut broke and landed on my head - Liz got their about 10 seconds too late to help us hold it up! We then measured and measured and measured another piece, cut it, and with a lot more helpers got it up! The amazing part was that both the vent and the light fixture holes were right on! Which was great, since I measured them! We continued working our way on the living room ceiling until we got enough up so that we could start on the walls. We were able to do the left wall until the hallway entrance and the front wall - cutting around the door and big picture window! I left Wednesday achy and tired but so excited that I was able to help someone put there home back together! It was such a good tired and I was pumped to be able to go back for more on Thursday! Thursday we were hoping to finish the living room and kitchen. We had the rest of the ceiling to do and the majority of the walls, including two headers where the kitchen cabinets would be. We started in on the ceilings and had a lot of measuring and cutting that needed to be done. On our last peice of ceiling we measured it, cut it and started to put it up only to realize that it was 10 inches too short! The hole for the light fixture also did not line up. George, Chip, and I decided that it was time for lunch since we had screwed up two measurements! During lunch we saw a truck come with a demo thing on it along with a really large dump truck. We quickly learned that they were going to demo the house diagonally across the street from Miss Lillian’s house. I took a series of pictures that show the house being demolished! It reminded me of an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition only a house made by Ty and the team was not going to be up in its place this time next week. It was incredible and sad at the same time to see over the span of just 2 hours a house become a slab. I had since learned that that house was not a LLT (Louisiana Land Trust) house and the demo was paid for by FEMA and another house cannot be build on that slab for 100 years! (that was according to the construction guy that Liz talked to this afternoon - gonna have to remember to do some research on that!) Having never done construction in all of the trips that I have taken down here I really wanted to work in someone’s home. I wanted to be able to go back home and tell people that I DID something concrete while I was away. The education peices that I have done in the past were good, but nothing compares to the feeling of looking around that house today and seeing that I was a part of putting that house back together! Now that I have done construction I am not sure that I want to do anything else in future trips! I am so looking forward to tomorrow where I really hope that we can get the living room and kitchen totally sheet rocked and then start in on the ceiling of the family room! It is going to be an early morning (for those of you who know me know I am so NOT a morning person), but I am totally up for the challenge! I have such an incredible team working with me that I am certain that we will be able to reach our goal!!

A tour and a prayer...

Today was quite an eventful day.  I woke up early - for those of you who know me well know that I am so not a morning person!  So waking up early is quite rare!  I got up a full hour before my alarm...  Ah the joys of sleeping in a bunk house.

We started the day with Carolyn's explanation of the different reasons that different parts of New Orleans flooded.  Several of us - upon Carolyn's suggestion last night - decided to go worship at Beecher Memorial church.  So around 10AM Sue, George, Liz, Marilyn, Joan, and I piled into the car and headed over to Beecher.  The service there was so unlike anything I had been to.  Even though it was a UCC Congregational church they way that they approached the worship service was quite different from what I was used to in Bedford and any other church I had been to.  Even though there sanctuary is still not finished - they still don't have sheet rock up - except for a very small area in the front corner - the spirit that is with the people of that congregation is incredible.  They proclaim their faith in such an open way that was a little uncomfortable for me because it is not something that I feel I could do so openly, but it was also very powerful to me.  

The pastor that preached the sermon did an incredible job.  It was based on Deuteronomy 1:6 and she talked about the parallels between the Israelites listening to God and moving forwards with their lives and how Beecher needs to move forward in their journey.  It seemed like it was a kick in the pants type of sermon.  She basically said that they all need to band together and work to move forward and put the church back together - whatever that means.  That you can't be a baby and drink milk all of the time.  You need to eventually grow up and eat meat.  It was like it was a sign for us to be there this morning.  It sounds like Beecher is slowing getting ready to really want to put their building back together.

After church we came back to Good Shepherd and had lunch and did some prep for tomorrow's education program.  Carolyn took us on our tour.  We started at the 17th street canal and wound our way to Musician's village and then to the Brad Pitt houses in the lower 9th.  We then drove down to the bayou and saw her son Ronnie's house.  We got the bayou shortly before sunset.  Standing on Ronnie's porch we could see the sun setting in one direction and the full moon rising in the sky in the other direction.  I so love the bayou.  The peacefulness of the water just brings me great joy!  If it wasn't for the pesky gnats I could have sat out on that porch all night!

Reluctantly left and came back to church for a wonderful dinner and conversations.  Gonna try really hard to get to sleep at a reasonable hour since we have an early early morning tomorrow.  Have to be at the school by 7:30!  Gonna go to the Amistad Research Center with about 20 8th grade students from the Carver elementary school for a program.  Should be an interesting day!

Unfortunately...Fortunately

Courtney Stacey
Day 5 -- Hynes Charter


Unfortunately, our trip is coming to a close. Fortunately, this journey has been added to the things that I will never forget in my life. (In a good way).
Katie Gerrish told me about these books that kids wrote regarding their experiences with Katrina. They used the format "Unfortunately/Fortunately". I learned that this is a wonderful way to look at life. For every unfortunate event, there is a fortunate thing that counteracts with it. These people in New Orleans have spent the past two years in disarray and devastation. Kids childhoods were interrupted, people's homes and livelihoods were ruined. They realize their situations and horrible results of the storm, but they do not let it bring them down. These people still manage to look at life with bright attitudes and open arms. They think they are so lucky, and never do you a hear a complain sneak out of their mouths. This trip has taught me a lot about appreciation and gratefulness. These people say the volunteers are the heroes of the storm, but they have no idea how inspirational they are to me.

So, unfortunately, there is still an extreme amount of work to be done. But fortunately, this gives us the opportunity to come back over and over again, and touch these people's hearts.

Tuesday's thoughts... - A visit to Beecher!

Tuesday April 22, 2008 –

24 hours+ later… Well this was yet another amazing day! Today we all went to the Martin Luther King Elementary school in the lower ninth ward to listen to Miss Celey do her presentation on the underground railroad. All of the kids helped her with her presentation to the fifth grade kids by holding up the different quilts as she described their significance. After her presentation she took us on a mini tour of the ninth ward and then through the 7th ward – through areas where she had relatives and people she had grown up with. We stopped at her aunt’s house which was in Ponchatrain Park (I hope I remembered that right!) We all got out of the car and was able to go into the house. We saw a small pile of ceramic belongings that I can only assume where the only things that we salvageable from the house. Inside on of the pots was an American flag. It was kind of cool to see. We then wandered through the city about seeing more things on our way to Beecher Memorial church. We met Brenda Square at Beecher where she let us inside and we were able to see all of the sayings on the beams that volunteers had written over the course of time. It was so powerful to finally be able to go inside Beecher. All of the stories that I have heard about the people of Beecher made it a very overwhelming experience. Brenda took us into their sanctuary, which currently is just studs, a temporary alter, and some folding chairs serving as pews. BUT being in that space is a total sense of faith and what I can only seem to describe as the HOLY SPIRIT… I can’t seem to put into words what I felt just being in that space, it brought me to tears. We then continued our tour into the parish hall and ate lunch. Miss Celey then took me on a quick tour of the rest of the building. She showed me the room that was going to store her quilting supplies, the room she would use as her Sunday school room and quilting room. The room that was going to be the women’s bathroom and the one that would be the men’s room – each are to be modified from their original design to be handicap accessible. She showed us the space that would be the kitchen- they are going to enlarge the space so that it is more useful for them. I ate lunch with a women named J. She and I had a great conversation during lunch and before. She told me about how her two sons helped to rebuild her house. The only room that she has left is her den. She needs to fill in a hole (for lack of a better word) in the cement in the floor before the insurance company will insure her house – at least that I was I thought I understood. After we finished lunch I gave her one each of the Target and CVS gift cards that we had brought with us. She was so funny, she kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to give them to her. Like she thought that she wasn’t worthy of getting them or something. I told her that I was absolutely certain that I wanted her to have them. She then hugged me and asked me yet again if I really wanted her to have them and I said that I was 100% positive that I wanted her to have them. So she hugged me yet again and said Thanks and that she would used them to decorate her den one it was finished! What a great moment…

We then went back to MLK where we helped the kids make a quilt. Each of the kids had to pick out 9 squares that they would then sew together. They were each to make a 3x3 square. They each had to sew the pieces together by hand. They did them in strips of three and then would have to sew the three strips together. Michaela, Courtney, Kyle, Nathan, Bryan, Ian, and Ally along with Mary and myself with Miss Celey, Carolyn, and J helped the kids pick out the squares, thread the needles and sew the pieces together. I was able to sit with one girl and help her through sewing the pieces together. The more that she did the better she got! We (she) was able to finish the three strips before they all had to pack up and go back to their classrooms for dismissle. We cleaned up the area where we were making the quilts and then went to a third grade classroom where our kids presented the bookmarks that our (First Church’s) second and third graders made for us to take. Our kids told the third graders about the bookmarks and handed one to each child. The extras were given to the third grade teacher who promised share them with the other third grade classroom. That was lots of fun – the kids were so excited to be getting this bookmarks. THANK YOU – to our second and third graders for wanted to make these for us to give to these kids!!

This group then had some free time before we had to meet Julie, John, Emma, Kaitlyn, Chris, and Kevin over at the St. Bernard Community Center so we decided to head back into the French Quarter primarily because I wanted to get something at one of the shops. We wandered around the area for a little while – the girls shopped for some clothes while the boys and I wandered into a few shops and then went to Café Du Monde for another round of beignets! YUMMY! Two trips to Café Du Monde in one visit – makes up for not getting any when I was here in February. So, I was successfully able to get my secret item from the shop. I had to call Cathy, tho, to have her tell me – yet again – where it was! BUT – I found it and bought what I was looking for! We had gone into a t-shirt shope when we first got into Jackson Square. Ally was looking for a t-shirt that said that we were here to rebuild and to help out or something like that. WELL… She found a t-shirt that said Recover, Rebuild, Re - New Orleans. So, we bought one for every kid and then for the RAs we bought the shirt that Bob the plumber has the says “Re Cover, Re Build, Re New Orleans” When we get home we are going to tye-dye the shirts and the kids are all going to sign each others!

Oh… We had court tonight. Ian brought charges up against Chris for wearing flip-flops to the school when we had told the kids not to where them to the schools. They named me the judge. Ian was the prosecuter, Chris the defendant, and all the other kids were the jury. Michaela and Julie were called as witnesses for the prosecution. Ian presented evidence that Chris did indeed have flip flops on and not sandals – which would be in violation of our dress code for working in the schools. Well all of the evidence was presented and Chris was found Not Guilty by a 5 to 4 vote. The stipulation tho, was that he was not to wear them at the school on Wednesday or traveling on Thursday. All seemed to be OK with the outcome… It was pretty funny to watch it all play out tho!

We decided that we are all going to go to Hynes charter school tomorrow and that we were going to stay with Carolyn in Kenner tomorrow night – so that we didn’t have to leave Delacroix at 6AM on Thursday. Very generous of her! So, we all had to pack up our stuff tonight. Well… while we were packing I decided that it was the right time to give out my presents – since that was when I had gotten mine from Cathy on our trip back in February. I started with the girls and gave each of them a silver coin with a flure de lice on it and the word “Believe” written on the back. Actually Michaela’s had the word “Celebrate” on hers. They were all so touched by it. It was really cool to see that! I am very proud of all of these young adults. I can’t say enough good things about them. They are always willing to help out and will do anything we ask of them with a smile on. Ally thinks that we should be doing more – or wishes that we could do more. Each of them tonight are all talking about when they can come back and that is what this trip is about. It is not just about what we do – although that is important too. It is more importantly about the people we meet and the stories that we hear. It is about the fact that these kids decided to take their vacation and come down to New Orleans to do mission work when they could have easily chosen to stay home or go some other place. It is about the listening to the people of New Orleans and hearing their stories and them knowing that we in Massachusetts care about them and are thinking and praying for them. That to me is what coming down here is all about. It is connecting with Carolyn and Pastor Gary and Karen. Meeting J and hearing her story and giving her the gift cards. It is about touching and connecting with other people. I feel totally blessed that I was able to come down to New Orleans with these people and experience this week and work with an amazing group of teens and RAs! I am very proud to call the First Church in Bedford my home knowing that you are all a reason that we were able to make this trip. Without your support and thoughts and prayers this trip would not be possible.

Well it is getting really late now and we all need to be up bright and early to leave for Hynes Charter… I look forward to another day and can’t wait to see what it will bring!

Some thoughts by Ally...

Ally Tomeh
April 21, 2008
Day Three.
Today we went to a Vietnamese village, and we cleared brush from this huge field. There was tons of broken trees and fallen limbs that we picked up. It was me, Michaela, Kevin, Kyle, Ian, Chris, Papa Crockett and Mrs. Criscone. It was really fun! We worked for about four hours, and I got a huge sunburn on my shoulders.. its kind of funny actually. I’m proud of it haha. Then we went to a community center and met this man who was amazing – so amazing I fell asleep. I was so tired haha. But he told a lot of stories and people told me about them.. apparently he was blind and then could see again, and then he also said how he had a limp and walked through a group of people who were praying for him and then he could walk fine afterwards. It really made me wish that I was more religious, because he seemed to radiate with love for god.

Yesterday I started to write in my journal but I didn’t get a chance to finish, and I’d much rather type than write haha. But anyway. Yesterday we listed to pastor gary and he talked about two different ponds, one was big, beautiful, and clean and the other was small, ugly, and very dirty. I didn’t really understand the next part but basically each of the ponds represent different things.. the big one is the what you make of life and the other one is reality. Then he also talked about how the Holy Spirit was everywhere: a smile you give to someone, a kind gesture, the fact that we came down to help. I don’t know if I believe in God and everything that Christians are supposed to believe in, but I do believe that there is some heavenly being that makes hope, love, and things like that.
This is going to sound horrible, but I can’t get myself to be very sad about everything that’s happened in the hurricane. I mean, I feel so sympathetic and obviously its horrible, but I feel like I should be a lot more sad than I am right now. All of these things that they lost are material items – things that can be brought back and remade. However, I do understand how they miss their memories in the places that were ruined. How specific items have memories that can’t be reproduced. But other than that, I just really don’t see whats SO horrible. I just can’t empathize, I guess.
There are a lot of things I’ve gotten out of this trip, and I want to remember them. The first is that I shouldn’t get so caught up in being better than other people and so uptight about grades and such. I mean, compared to other troubles in the world, mine are so petty. Also, there will ALWAYS be people that are better than me, ALWAYS a LOT more people than are better than me, why should I try and measure my success in comparisons? Plus, I also want to remember to relax and be happy. That’s something that will bring me far in life.. even if I loose everything else, as long as I can keep myself fine emotionally the rest will all be alright.
Honestly, just be happy, be carefree, have no regrets and no restrictions.

I want to type and type just like Hannah did with no periods or punctuation of any sort right now im watching little miss sunshine and I don’t get it people say its really good but I don’t see how I mean its kind of stupid actually and Katie just came by and I am going to give her her computer now but this is actually kind of fun so I don’t want to but I guess I will because I have nothing to say.