New Orleans, Day 10

So we waited until the end of our trip to experience some excitement.

After cleaning up the church housing, a number of us headed down to the French Quarter to get in some last-minute sightseeing. Martie stayed behind at St Paul's to relax and recover from the illness she was battling. After lunch, we started to make our way to the airport when we heard from Morgan and Jimmy. It turned out that they had been in an accident and their van was in sad shape. They had been on their way to pick up Martie and all of their luggage, when they were hit in the side navigating one of the more complicated intersections under the highway downtown.

We arrived on the scene to find them shaken, but not injured. Meanwhile, we all had a plane to catch! So, the team jumped into action. Alan was redirected to pick up Martie, and after a bit of work on the wheel well with a prybar and the jack, we were able to bend the metal enough so that it only rubbed the rear tire just a little bit.

Morgan drove the van slowly down the highway (alone so there wouldn't be any extra weight pressing down on the tire.) He did an impressive job, even maintaining control when a huge tow truck blasted its horn next to him at another car that had cut through traffic.

Finally, we started trickling in to the airport. Jill, Janice and Aleta were there early starting to coordinate ways to get us in through check-in quickly. (I believe they were recommending that Martie rush Wayne through by telling people that he had had a stroke and she was his minister.) Jean and I dropped Morgan and Jimmy off at Hertz with and instructed to tell them that they thought the scratch on the side was there when they picked up the van. We took Karen to the curbside check-in where she waited for Alan, Tom, Wayne and Martie who had gotten off course in Metarie. Eventually people started showing up at the gate and, thanks to a last-minute call from Wayne to Alan and a fortuitous 7 minute delay of the plane, Alan was able to check-in on our flight instead of being rebooked on a flight through D.C. that would have gotten him to Denver after 11pm.

With that said, I'm starting to reflect on the work we did here, and why I'm now convinced it's important. When I first came down, I believed that this area needed our help, but I carried some misgivings and worries: Who would we be helping? Will it even make a difference? Should people even be living in those areas? Now, after seeing the area, meeting a few of the people who live there and getting a small understanding for what happened, I too am convinced that we should be helping them rebuild.

Jean and I were able to visit the Historical New Orleans Collections museum in the French Quarter and watch a really well-made video called Surrounded by Water. It described how the waterways (the Mississippi, Lake Ponchartrain, the canals and the ocean) are all an integral part of the geography, economics and culture of not just the region, but the country and world as a whole. Not only does New Orleans provide a culture unlike any other, but most of the grains exported by the U.S. goes through it's ports. I feel convinced from what I've heard that what happened when Katrina hit was not a natural disaster, but a human one -- poor engineering and bad planning in the way that we've attempted to constrict and control the Mississippi river. Others can explain it better than I.

As John "Wilkes" Booth said, when we asked him why he hadn't left St Berndard Parish, "Where am I gonna go?!? All my friends are here." To me, the largest tragedy of the floods were the families that were ripped apart. From what I heard, while Orleans parish (where the city is) is back to 70% of the pre-storm population, St. Bernard parish is only at 30%. These were not the same neighborhoods that we have in Boulder, either -- extended families all lived within minutes of each other, and now they've been scattered. As John Booth told his stories, he included details of what seemed to be hundreds of people that he had been close to -- names, addresses, ages, etc. Most of them are no longer anywhere near. Again, others can attest to this better than I can.

As for whether I made a difference -- I'm still overwhelmed by the scope of the problem. If you look at this one image of Chalmette, just one of the towns in St. Bernard Parish (which was just one of the parishes affected), you can find the house I worked on. It's somewhere just NE of the double bend in the large road (Judge Perez) :
http://www.globexplorer.com/disasterimages/images/new_orleans_chalmette_aug31_2005_dg.jpg
We just put in one week of about 10 that it will take to make the house re-inhabitable. Obviously there are plenty more in the area that need help. So, what I did is hardly even measurable in the overall size of the problem. However, I have to assume that there are others who will come after me (as I know there have been many before me) that will continue on helping these people who, unless they are very lucky or happened to have saved up extra money before the store, don't have the means to help themselves.

Are you next?

http://www.stbernardproject.org/

New Orleans, Day 9

Dear Em,

Today was our last day working for the St. Bernard Project. As I mentioned, they are another amazing group here that are helping many families get back into their homes. They've build 128 homes so far and are working on 30 more right now. It's amazing.

We spent our day working on finishing the texturing, priming and putting on the first coat of paint on the walls and ceilings. We finished two big rooms as well as one bathroom. Also, during the day, siding (covering for the outside of the house) and flooring was delivered. Next week, there will be nine new volunteers working on the house to take care of that.

In the morning, Carmelite came by with Dakota. Dakota had been sick in the emergency room last night but was feeling better and was looking forward to her birthday party this weekend. (Her birthday is Tuesday.) I went to the store and bought her some presents, including a magnadoodle (since you like them), a ball like the dirty one that was under their trailer when it was taken away, and a stuffed dog that looks like Calvin.

Here's a picture of her in front of the house:



I'm running out of batteries, so that'll have to do for now. If you have time, look at the trip blog the church is hosting:

http://firstcong.blogspot.com/

I Love You!
-Dad

New Orleans, Day 8

Dear Em,

Today we did more texturing of the walls. We did a bathroom, a hallway, a closet and a bit more. We also painted a some of the rooms with primer. (Primer is a paint that you put down to make the walls easier to paint with another color. When Carmelite and her family move in, they'll get to choose what color to paint the rooms themselves.)

As I was driving to the house this morning, I saw someone in the road that looked familiar. As we got closer, I realized it was Herb, Carmelite's husband! He was working in the neighborhood of the church where we are staying. I think he pours concrete for a living -- that's hard work.

Here's a picture of me showing why you need to be careful with the texture mix -- my beard is already gray enough!



(That's Grandma's leg in the background.)

Tomorrow is our last day working for the St. Bernard Project. They are a great organization and have been recognized by some national TV stations. If you have time, you can read about Liz at the CNN website:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/05/08/heroes.mccartney/index.html

She spent 45 minutes with us this afternoon answering our questions and telling us about her experiences. She (and her boyfriend Zack) are amazing people.

Thanks for the ideas of presents to buy Dakota. Tomorrow at lunchtime, Grandma and I will try to go shopping and see what we can find. We'll see if we can find a good ditch digger or doll house.

I was glad to hear about you practicing with your new bike with Grandpa today.

I miss you so much and can't wait for a big hug.

I Love You!
-Dad

New Orleans, a house goes down

Here's a quick video I took of the house three doors down from ours being demolished:

New Orleans, the inside of our house

Dear Em,

You had wanted to see Dakota's room, so here's a quick video taken walking in to the house. Grandma is working on her room and Jimmy and Morgan are working on her play room.



I Love You!
-Dad

New Orleans, Day 7

Dear Em,

Today I skipped working on the house and, instead, brought 4 people from our group with me to ARNO. We cleaned out a bunch of cages, walked a bunch of dogs, and gave them all lots of attention. One person in our group even thought about bringing one home.

While I was there, I did see a note from Jeff and Daphne who came down on the last trip and brought a dog home with them. That was nice to see.

There were two groups of high school kids there also, so the Robin Beaulieu, who coordinates ARNO, gave a short talk about their history and how they have been recuing thousands of animals since hurrican Katrina hit the city. When we asked her what she need most, she said, "mnoey." They keep a lot of their cats outside, and it can get very hot in the summer. Right now, in the spring, the temperatures are over 80 degrees out there, and it's only going to get hotter.

I don't know if you've seen it, but there is another blog run by some people from the church which also has notes from us on it. I tried to send some more in tonight, but I accidentally deleted things other people had written before I could send them in. Ooops! I felt terrible.

Anyway, if you want to see those sroties, they're at the church's blog:

http://firstcong.blogspot.com/

Hope you're doing well. It sounded like you had a busy day and a fun dinner with everybody. I miss you and wish I could have been there.

I Love You!
-Dad

New Orleans, Day 6

Dear Em,

Today we continued working on the house. As we were working, two men came by and took away the trailer that had been sitting outside for a long time. Carmelite (the mom of the family who will be moving in when were done) was very happy to see it go away. They did not enjoy staying in it.

Here is the trailer hooked up and ready to be dragged away:



After they left, I was looking at the trash pile and three toys there reminded me of you: a Sponge Bob ball, a Disney Princess ball and the same plastic toy thermometer you have:



At lunch time, we went to one of the other houses and met John Booth. He survived the storm and told us stories about some of the people he knew. He had survived trapped for 11 days in his house until some Canadian soldiers came to rescue him. He is an amazing man and has stories about all of his friends in he arean.



When the two parents came back, we had cleaned up the sidewalk and the front yard. It was a good thing, because they had a special sign to put up in their front yart for their daughter who was a special student for the month:



Since you wanted a picture of the daughter's room (her name is Dakota, but we haven't met her yet), here's Grandma working on it:


I took a video as well today going in to the house and seeing Dakota's bedroom and playroom.
I also took a video as the house up the street was knocked down yesterday. I can't get them to show up, so I'll try again later.

Tomorrow, I'm going back to ARNO for the day since a couple of others want to as well. I hope you have a great day

I Love You!
-Dad

New Orleans, Day 5

Dear Em,

Today, we started working on a house in St. Bernard Parish. Here's a picture of the house:





The house next to it has a white X drawn on it by the rescuers over two years ago after hurricane Katrina. The sign with the red X was put up a few months ago by the government telling the owners that the house will be torn down soon.

The family we are rebuilding the house for had lived in this trailer for many months, but now lives with the dad's parents. It's very small, especially for a family with two kids.



We spent the day inside finishing up sanding the "mud" that is used to smooth the walls of the house. Here's Grandma getting dusty:



During the day, the house three doors down was torn down. A group of people came in with trucks and a big backhoe. They knocked it down and put it in the truck. After two hours, where there used to be a house, there was only a concrete pad. Here's a picture of them loading some of the broken down house into the truck:



At the end of the day, our "clients" came to visit us. They were very nice and thankful for what we were doing. We didn't get to meet their children, but I'll try to take a picture of the rooms were finishing for their daughter for you.



I hope you have a great day today.

I Love You!
-Dad

New Orleans, Day 4

Dear Em,

Today, I went back to ARNO to help take care of all the dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. I did tell them all you said, "Hi!"

While I was there, I was able to give them a donation check from the church. Here's a picture of me handing it to Natalie, the kennel manager. She lives at the kennel so she can take care of them any time of day!



I was really happy to give her the check. Everyone there works so hard for all the dogs and cats. As I handed it to her, I was proud to remember that part of that money was from your donation when we held the fundraiser at Redfish!

Afterwards, I went for a kayak paddle in the bayou with some friends. It was a nice trip, and we saw lots of birds. The water was clogged up with a lot of swamp grass because they have let a lot of fresh water (from the Mississippi river) into the bayou, so sometimes it was hard to get around.

As we paddled, we came across a bunch of little frogs. They were as big as my thumbnail. After I took a picture of this one, he (she?) jumped and bounced off of my nose!



We also saw some alligators. This one was about five feet long:



Have a great day at school today! I miss you!

Love,
-Dad

New Orleans, Day 3

Dear Em,

Today started off with a lot of rain. You can't see it very well in this picture, but the water was up over my ankles:

Luckily, they have an amazing system of pumps to get the water off the streets and out into the ocean. The streets were dry an hour after the rain stopped.

After breakfast, I went back to ARNO and walked some dogs in the rain. I also did the "dishes" -- I cleaned some kitty litter boxes (about 50) and food bowls:

This afternoon, everyone from the church showed up and we went out to dinner:

Tomorrow, I'm going to go back to ARNO and walk a few more dogs. Afterwards, we're hoping to go for a kayak paddle in the bayou. I hope you have a fun day!

I love you!

-Dad

New Orleans, Day 2

Dear Em,

Yesterday I went to ARNO (the Animal Rescue of New Orleans) for a few hours. I walked some of the nice dogs they have there and cleaned out some of their cages. It was pretty messy work, but most of the dogs really seemed to appreciate the attention. I said hi to each of them for you.

This one got out for her walk, and then didn't want to go back. She decided to lay down on a manhole cover:


This poor girl had been in a fight, but she was a really sweet dog:

I also got to clean up after some puppies! Of course they were really cute. They were brought in after being homeless on the streets and are now going to be adopted all over the country.


Afterwards, I went to the Jazz Festival. I saw a lot of great music, and even got to juggle a soccer ball with Michael Franti before he performed.

Have a great day!

I Love You!

-Dad

New Orleans, Day 1

Dear Em,

I arrived in New Orleans today. I spent most of my time driving, and forgot to bring my camera in to the festival with me, so I didn't take many pictures.

Here's one of your chalk drawings melting away under the snow:

Calvin didn't seem too convinced about the snow this morning:

As I went to take this picture, I noticed a kid biking down the sidewalk. I thought it would be more interesting to take it with him in it, than without.

Not sure why, but seeing half of a man working on an escalator made me think of you:

And finally, here's a picture of an actual band in New Orleans. These guys were playing by the baggage claim, and we're paid by a hotel, but at least it's something.

I hope you take some pictures, too!

I Love You,

-Dad