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