The Year That Was

Looking back on the year that was in 2008, it has been one crazy year from where I started to where I am right now. At this time last year, I was returning from a trip to Europe and was not too motivated for my second busy season at Ernst & Young. Little did I know that a year later I would be on my own in New Orleans.

Going into busy season at E&Y last year, I knew that I wasn’t really happy at Ernst & Young. A couple of months earlier, I had met with an accounting and finance recruiter to see what other jobs were out there and nothing seemed appealing. Along with my unhappiness at work, I was in a rut personally as well. I can be a very anxious person and just felt that my life was kind of at a standstill and every week and month wasn’t much different than the one before it. Throughout my life, I have been on this path that has kept me relatively happy but very conservative and secure. I have never been the type of person to take chances or challenge myself and it occurred to me that I am still very young and that living a conventional life was probably the cause of the funk I was in. By April, I had become even more anxious after working long hours for the prior three months. I had a trip to Arizona in April and a bachelor party in Vegas in May to kind of keep me occupied. I remember thinking on the way home from Vegas that it was time to finally do something. I was unhappy at work and unmotivated to do a lot of things for myself personally. I started writing down some goals for myself and gave myself a July 15th (my 25th birthday) deadline to make some sort of decision on what I was going to do about a job and the next phase of my life. I found that writing goals down really helps me get things done because once I write it down, it’s there and I can always see it. Through talking to my family and friends, I came across AmeriCorps and started looking at possible opportunities in New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, Washington D.C., and Boston. I decided that it would be a great time for me to go live somewhere else for a year or two and made this a focal point in trying to find a place to volunteer. I found the best opportunities to be in New Orleans and applied for three or four positions at different programs. I did not get accepted for the first few programs in which I applied.

However, at the end of the day on July 25th (a Friday), as I was sitting at my desk in the office finishing up for the week, I got the call that I had been accepted as a House Captain for Rebuilding Together New Orleans. The organization wanted me down in New Orleans by August 25, so I had exactly a month to get myself ready. When I got home from work that day, I remember thinking to myself (and definitely freaking out) that this was actually happening for me. I was going to live in New Orleans for a year. As soon as I found out I was going, I became very anxious and nervous. I knew the opportunity was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, but that didn’t do much to calm my nerves. It was a good nervousness though. I was taking a chance on something in a way that I never had before. And while that scared me, I knew it would be a great thing for me.

The month before I left for New Orleans was a difficult one for me. I had so many things to do just to get myself ready to leave Chicago and physically move to New Orleans. A lot more went into it than I ever had thought. It was also difficult saying goodbye to family and friends that I knew I wouldn’t see again for awhile. I had never lived outside of Illinois and away from family and friends, so it was very hard for me to leave and go to a place where I knew nobody. I drove down to New Orleans on August 21-22 with my Dad and just remember saying over and over again, “What did I get myself into?” Because I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into and who I would meet and what I would be doing on a daily basis.

It has been over four months (in which you can see what I’ve been doing through previous postings) since I’ve been gone and I can honestly say that joining AmeriCorps and moving to New Orleans was the best decision I’ve ever made. Every day here is a new day and I’m having experiences that I never imagined. I have also met so many different kinds of people, which keeps life fresh. There is still so much more of New Orleans that I need to see and experience that I get antsy at times and worry that I’m not going to have enough time to do everything. However, it isn’t always easy. I definitely have days where I want to hang out with people or do something and there’s nobody around or people don’t want to do what I want to do. There are also times when I have nothing to do and just spend the day kind of vegging out. But that’s the challenge. I have learned so much about myself and feel like I have gained a lot of confidence. When you are in a rut and things are the same day after day, it’s easy to have insecurities and lack confidence, which is where I was in my life. But having pride in what I’m doing and having taken this chance has given me a lot of confidence in myself. Also, through the things I’m doing at work, I realize I’m capable of a lot. I am gaining new skills and learning how to manage others. I just needed to push myself and continue to push myself.

And with the New Year coming, we all have the opportunity to push ourselves. We never really know what we are capable of unless we our challenged. Up until I decided to come to New Orleans, I wasn’t doing or trying many things outside of my comfort zone, which made life easy and secure. But it also put me into the rut that I was in. It took stepping outside of the box and trying something new for me to snap out of it. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same person as I was before coming down here. I know it’s definitely not easy, and I’m not saying that everyone needs to make a huge life-changing decision every year or all the time, but I encourage you to try and do one or two things in the next year that you never thought you would do. Take a chance on something. You may like it, you may not. You may succeed, you may fail. But at least you took a chance and went out on a limb to experience something different. I promise that it will be rewarding in some way. There is a whole world of possibilities out there and it’s so easy to fall into a routine that lets us forget that.

I hope everyone can find something new and exciting in the New Year that challenges you and helps you find happiness in a place that you never expected. Happy 2009!

Keep On Keepin' On

Since coming back from Chicago, it has taken me a little while to get back into the swing of things but I'm back in good "Adam" form (not "Weiny" or "The Ween" form since that doesn't exist in New Orleans) right now. The past few weekends have been pretty eventful and fun. Thursday nights have turned into burrito and dollar drafts at Felipes nights. I can't get enough of their burritos, I could eat them three times a week at least. The past couple of Fridays, a big group of us from work have gone out to happy hour and stayed out from there. It's nice getting a chance to spend time with people from work and see how they are when they have a few drinks in them. Needless to say, things get much more relaxed and I get a chance to see how people are in a normal situation, as opposed to everyday at work. Also, one of my buddies down here is pretty good at the guitar (not nearly as good as Vamsi for those needing a reference point; but forget Vamsi because I doubt he even reads this). So we've had a couple of good jam and singing sessions. My voice is definitely as good as I think it is. The nightlife has started to pick up as we discover new places to see music and new bars to go to. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a bar called One-Eyed Jakes which I'd never been to before and saw a pretty decent band, Deerhunter. The sound at the venue was better than I thought and it was packed with people. Since it is still pretty warm down here (don't be too mad at me, it did snow down here for about 3 hours and I've had some pretty cold days working outside), friends of mine have been having bonfires, so a bunch of people get together and hang out. This last Friday after happy hour, I went to a bar called Pat Fannies (I don't know why but I love that name; I think it's because I can reverse the P and the F and call it Fat Pannies) where there was some type of holiday party going on. That turned out to be great for me because I was able to get my hands on a couple of brownies and cookies, as well as free beer and Wild Turkey shots. When we left, I was craving pizza so badly but there is just nowhere good to get it down here late night (very disappointing). So if anybody wants to send me a couple of frozen deep dish sausage pizzas from Lou Malanatis, send them to 5836 Willow St. New Orleans, LA 70115. I would greatly appreciate them. Anyways, my time outside of work the past few weeks has been a lot of fun as I discover new places and hang out with people that I wasn't before.

Work has been very intense over the past few weeks. I have been the House Captain (in charge) of a house, 2601 Arts St, for about the past month. I had a group of AmeriCorps members from another non-profit group called City Year, for one day. As part of their program, they are required to do training or service every Friday. Since this is a normal part of the work schedule, they were not really into doing much. The fact that most of them just wanted to get done with the day and move on made it difficult to really accomplish anything. I had them working on fixing and priming windows and they ended up making a huge mess which pretty much negated any good work they did for the day. It was an extremely frustrating day. The next week, a group of us worked on installing baseboards around the entire house. For those of you that don't know what baseboard is, it's the inch (or so) piece of wood that goes along the bottom of the entire interior house. Baseboards are mainly just meant for aesthetic purposes to cover up any rough edges in the floor. Most people don't even notice them, but we spent a week installing them. Putting them in and making them fit given the pieces of wood we had felt a little bit like piecing together a puzzle.

To give you a little background on how our organization is structured, we work in five neighborhoods, with each having a professional construction manager (CM) that guides us on the work to be performed. Along with many other of their own things to complete, they also help us if we run into issues with the actual work itself. Over the past couple of weeks, two of our construction managers have left the organization which has left things pretty chaotic for the other three CMs and stretched the organization as a whole pretty thin. I had a group of 8 Georgia Tech students for the entire week last week and a lot of the work they were going to do was contingent on other things getting done in the house. However, those things required the assistance of the CM and since he really didn't have much time to come by the house and finish, I was left scrambling to find things for my volunteers to do. It wasn't his fault because he just had so many other things to do to cover for the other CMs leaving but it made for a very frustrating week. I could kind of tell that the volunteers weren't enjoying the work they were doing and became less motivated as the week went on, and I couldn't really blame them. It was definitely hard because Rebuilding Together has been working on this house for almost seven months now and we want to get the homeowner back in his house. But at the same time, we want our volunteers to have a good experience so that they keep coming back down and donating money. So, it was a very stressful week that I couldn't wait to end. We didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked, but my CM for this house was pretty understanding about the whole situation. The situation was a good learning experience and what a being a House Captain is all about. I think I will be better prepared to handle a similar situation the next time it occurs.

Life has been moving along pretty nicely since coming back from Chicago and I'm looking forward to a four day weekend this week and next week. A few of us are looking into going to Baton Rouge this Friday or Saturday just to check out the city. It's not ,too far away which is nice, so I'm hoping to make a day trip out of it this weekend. Almost all of my co-workers went home for the holidays so it's nice that things are relatively quiet right now. I figured that I just visited a month ago and am not really ready to come back home just yet. I had a good time with y'all but I thought it would be better for me to stay down here for the holidays and New Years Eve. I'm not really sure what I'm doing for New Years Eve yet but there are a couple of ideas that arer being thrown around. Anyways, I'll be posting a "Year in Review" type entry before the end of the year. Since it has been such a crazy year for me, I thought it would be a good chance to look back at the year as a whole. Well that's it for now, and seriously will someone send me down some decent pizza? I'm not kidding, I'm dying without it.

The Quarter Pole

I have now been down in New Orleans for about three and a half months which means that my service is just over a quarter (maybe closer to a third) of the way complete. On the plane back to Chicago, I had a chance to sit back and reflect on my time here so far and I realized that how this whole experience has affected me hadn't really sunk in yet. It was hard to believe that just three months ago I picked up and moved to New Orleans. I kind of just played back some of the events of the last three months in my head and can't believe some of the things that I've experienced. Heading home, it really made me feel like I have been down here for a long time. Almost every day I'm learning something different or having some experience that is new for me. On my way to Chicago was the first time that New Orleans kinda felt like home (at least for now). However, I desperately needed the break and was very excited to go home. The previous month of work had been really intense with all of the volunteers and big projects that were going on. I realized that in November alone I painted, deconstructed stairs, learned how to tile, installed hardwood floor, glazed windows, built a fence, and learned how to install kitchen cabinets. So I was definitely ready for the break and to get home to see my family and friends. Originally, I was only supposed to come home from the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving till Sunday. But since we had been working so hard, our supervisors gave us the entire week off. So I changed my flight and came home Sunday afternoon instead.

The week at home was much needed and everything I could have asked for in a visit. I had a great time getting to see everyone and felt like I was very busy the whole week and running from place to place which is exactly what I was hoping for. I ate way too much, which I wasn't used to. I think I gained three pounds in a week (it's okay though, I'll burn that right off now that I'm back at work). I wanted to thank everyone that I was with over the week for making my visit such a great one. You all made me feel happy to be home and reminded me just what great friends and family I have back in Chicago. It made me feel good that so many people were willing to come and hang out and make my visit special. I thought that going home would help me recharge my batteries a little bit, but by the time my visit was over, I was even more tired than when I arrived (which I think had to do with staying out till 4 in the morning a few nights), but it was well worth it. My visit to Chicago definitely made it harder for me to leave and go back to New Orleans but I know there is still a lot for me here.

It really has taken me about three months to get settled here but I feel good about being here and how things have been going and am ready for the next part of this experience. I've now gotten used to all of the different personalities at work and am really enjoying working with everyone. Everybody has their little quirks and things about them (as I'm sure I do) and we all kind of appreciate that about each other. Up till now, I have mainly interacted socially with people from my program so I think that is something I need to work on now that I'm back. That's the great thing about being down here on my own; it is up to me, and only me, to go out and meet people and make this experience what I want it to be. That can be tough sometimes too. I can be lazy and don't always feel like trying to find something to do. So that is kind of a work in progress. Life also moves a lot slower down here than in Chicago which is something I'm getting used to. There isn't something going on or something to do at every minute of every day like there is at home. That has been an adjustment and will continue to be.

At this point in time, there is a certain group out of the people from my program that I generally hang out with. And that's fine for me. I don't click with everyone, so I spend time with the people that I want to. A couple of weeks ago, one of my friends down here said that "it's up to each one of us to help make each other's time here fun." That just struck me as such a cool thing for someone to say. It is kind of up to me and each one of us to get what we want out of this experience but it's nice to know that I have met people that generally care about other people and their experiences here.

I know this post is a little bit different than what I usually write but I thought that since I have been down here for over three months now, and just visited home, it would be a good time to reflect on the time that I've spent here already and what lies ahead. I really did have a great time in Chicago and coming home was exactly what I needed. But now that I came home and don't know if and when I'll visit before the end of this program, it is time for all of you to start visiting me in New Orleans. Anyone who has any interest in coming down here, please get in contact with me so we can work out a time. There is so much I want to show all of you down here including the sites, some of the houses that I've worked on, as well as some of the better drinking and music establishments New Orleans has to offer. So come on down!

Starbucks Project Pictures

These are the pictures of 4437 Eden, the house I was in charge of for the Starbucks project. These pictures were taken after the volunteers were done. By the way, you can click on the pictures and they will open in a new window.

Yes, I'm Alive!

The past few weeks have been quite hectic but I have survived them and I'm looking forward to finally telling y'all about it. When I last left you, I was getting ready for our big Starbucks project at the end of October. During the last week of October (starting Monday, October 27th), Starbucks hosted their national managers convention in New Orleans which brought down over 10,000 employees. As part of their week in New Orleans, they were to all take part in a service activity with one of the non-profit organizations in the city. Rebuilding Together was given 4,000 Starbucks employees for 4 shifts over a 3 day period. Based on these numbers, we had 31 houses open and a few other small side projects for the volunteers to work on. The Friday before the build, all of the AmeriCorps (which includes me) spent a crazy 12 hour day at our warehouse pulling supplies, loading trucks, and getting ready for the week ahead. We were told that we would have to be at the warehouse the next Monday at 6 a.m. in order to be ready for the volunteers to show up at all of our sites at noon. Because of the late night at work Friday and the hectic week that was to come, I decided not to go to the Voodoo Music Experience that took place October 24-26. The people who went enjoyed it but I just decided last minute not to go and went out a couple of nights in the city to relax.

On Monday morning, I arrived at the warehouse bright and early at 6 a.m. where we got our instructions and logistics for how everything was going to work for the week. The director of Rebuilding Together, Kristin Palmer, gave us all a good pep talk and reminded us that this week with Starbucks was the largest service project in the history of New Orleans. Kristin is a very inspiring people and everybody in our organizations love her speeches and encouragement. She is an especially postive person and influence on the organization who has been working with Rebuilding Together for years now. After our meeting, we all went out to our sites to prepare for the volunteers. I was in charge of the house at 4437 Eden and was to have my volunteers scrape and prime and paint the exterior of the house. It's important to scrape a house of all of the old paint and paint chips before applying new paint. The house was enormous and very tall so I was skeptical about whether my volunteers could finish. I had gone over with my construction manager, Brad, the plan of attack and how I could space things out each day and what colors needed to go where. I spent all of 10 minutes with Brad a week before the build going over the color scheme so by the time Monday rolled around I had kind of forgotten so decided I would just make it up as I went along (and I had a general idea of what I was doing).

After I was dropped off at my house, it took me a couple of hours to get everything set up for the volunteers and noon crept up on me pretty quickly. So I went to the designated drop off area and had 20 volunteers come back with me to the house. I gave them an orientation about our organization, our policies and procedures, and information about the homeowner (who as of that Monday, I had yet to meet). The homeowner, Thomas Points, was originally from New Orleans and actually moved to the south side of Chicago when he was in high school. He joined the army and went to Vietnam. When he came back, he started his own landscape business and got married. He moved into the house we worked on two years after his wife passed away. When Katrina hit, he was displaced for over 20 months. His house was under 8 feet of water during Katrina and when he returned, his whole first floor had been damaged. Thomas lives on the second floor but hasn't had the money or time to fix up the first floor yet.

The shift went very smoothly and quickly. A couple of the volunteers had to get up on 28 ft. ladders and rip down the rotted gutters. I was pretty surprised that many of the volunteers were willing to get up on the tall ladders (throughout the week, not just Monday), which made things easier. I had a really good time leading this group, many of which were from Canada. They ended up getting everything done that I was hoping and the group Tuesday could come in and get right to work. I think some of the older adults (and when I say older I mean 50s) were getting a little tired of me telling them what to do by the end of the day because they started to make fun of me every time I asked them to do something or reminded them about something.

Tuesday was the big day because we had a morning shift (8 a.m-12 p.m.) and an afternoon shift (12:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.). When I arrived at the worksite at 5:30 a.m., I was able to meet Mr. Points. He was so appreciative of all the work that was being done for him and he said he wished he could have skipped work to help and hang out with everyone. I never got to see him again to see what he thought so I'm hoping he was happy. I had about 25 volunteers during each shift and they both went great. The volunteers were very enthusiastic and had a great time. A couple of the young girls took some nice pictures with myself and Brad (when he stopped by) which was pretty funny. Brad described these girls as "sexually charged" which never hurts a worksite I guess. By the end of the day, I was losing my voice and sick of hearing myself talk (which is very rare). It was quite an exhausting day but I had a lot of fun with the volunteers.

The last part of the project was one shift on Thursday. Even though I told Kristin I wasn't sure if I could have the house finished, she told me that we'd give it a shot. So I ended up getting somewhere between 35-40 volunteers for the last shift. This last group really worked hard and I think because I kept telling them that I didn't think they could finish, that pushed them to work harder. These volunteers got an unbelievable amount of work done and were pretty chatty and fun during the process. Between the four shifts (and about 16 hours worth of work time), they got done with about 95% of the house. I will add some pictures of the almost finish product after I'm done with this posting.

After the project was over, we were given a half day on Friday which was great because it was Halloween and we were all exhausted. I got to drive a huge UHaul truck back to the rental place on Friday which was cool. They are hard to drive but it was a fun experience for the 30 minutes that I got to drive it. The Starbucks build was exhausting but it was the best part of my experience down here so far and probably the most rewarding. It took such a team effort from everybody in the organization to manage this many volunteers and have everything run smoothly, which it did. I had a great time leading the volunteers and being in charge of everybody and what was done to the house. I think that the volunteers enjoyed themselves and really felt a part of the whole project and that they were making a huge difference in the community. It was a whirlwind few days but I loved it and look forward to having more volunteer groups in the future. I could keep going on about this so if you'd like to hear more, let me know I can tell you. This is your blog too. For whoever reads this, let me know the types of things you want to hear about. I'm giving you what I can think of, but if there's anything I'm leaving out, I will start posting more and adding it.

I was able to catch a quick nap on Friday after work and pick out a pretty cheap costume at a costume store. I dressed up as a hippie with a crazy shirt and sunglasses. I met up with my friend John who had two girl friends in town. They had both just graduated college and were living in their hometown in New Jersey (where John is from). We drank at John's house for awhile and then went to a party at his neighbors. The neighbor's house was all decked out in Halloween decorations and they had jumbalaya, kegs, and jello shots. We stayed for about an hour and got nice toasted over there. We were trying to head down to Frenchman Street but couldn't get a cab down there. We ended up just hopping in a car with two people from the party who were going to Frenchman. They were definitely weird and told John that his costume looked gay (which he is, but it was pretty rude the way they said it). I was happy to get out of the car. Frenchman Street, which has a ton of bars on it, was packed from sidewalk to sidewalk with people in costumes. It was completely nuts. There were so many people and everyone was in good spirits. We stayed on Frenchman Street for awhile but it was unbelivable crowded so we decided to walk into the French Quarter and went to a few bars there. We ended up at a gay bar, which was pretty funny. But it wasn't one of those gay bars with wall to wall techno music and guys without their shirts on. This was a pretty normal bar, only it was a gay bar. So I only felt somewhat uncomfortable (probably a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10). I ended up running into some of my Starbucks volunteers and they bought me a couple of drink which was cool (though I made it clear to them that I wasn't gay, not that there's anything wrong with that). We ended up staying out till about 4 in the morning and it turned out to be a pretty good Halloween. I somehow had energy the next day and went back out and saw some pretty good live music Saturday night.

We spent the following week (after the Starbucks project), trying to finish up some of the houses that weren't done yet. The house I went to was even bigger than mine. I was pretty much up painting on the roof or 28 ft. ladders for three days straight. After the three days, I hated that house. Dave, another AmeriCorps, spent most of the week on a 40 ft. ladder which was freakin' crazy. I wouldn't get up there (that thing was so wobbly; not for me). On Thursday of last week, Leo (an AmeriCorps) and I, spent the day deconstructing the outside staircase of a house. It was at least 80 degrees that day and the sun was glaring down so it was hot. We spent the whole morning swinging sledgehammers at the stairwell, which was made of bricks, concrete, and clay. By lunch, I was exhausted. My arms were dead. This stairwell easily went up about 8 feet. We spent the afternoon shoveling everything into a dumpster. Luckily, more people came in the afternoon to help us out. It was honestly the most exhausting and tiring day of work I have ever had in my life. I was sore for the next three days. It was honestly the most exhausting and tiring day of work I have ever had in my life. I was sore for the next three days. At the end of the day though, I actually felt great. Exhausted, but great. By the end of the week, I felt pretty burnt out.

I also forgot to mention that on Tuesday, I woke up earlier and performed my civic duty of voting. Watching the election coverage was very interesting and I’m very happy Barack Obama is the new president. I’m sure we all have our opinions on the matter so that’s all I’m going to say about that. On Friday night, I went over to Sean, my supervisor’s, house and who had a few people over. He lives close to City Park and Bayou St. John, so we went out on the Bayou and hung out there because it was such a nice night. I pretty much spent all of Saturday in bed and went to the New Orleans Hornets game Saturday night with Leo and met up with another AmeriCorps, Steve, after the game. Overall, it was a pretty relaxing weekend. I’m pretty tired of typing right now, so I’ll post again soon with details of this week, though it wasn’t too eventful.

Again, please let me know if there are things in the blog that you’d like me to talk about/add. I know I’m not posting enough, which I’ll try to get better at but please give me feedback if you want. Hope this was as good for you as it was for me (that’s what she said, this post I mean).

Blogger's Block

I am trying to get through the blogger’s block I have recently developed and put a good post together for y’all (I’m in the south so I can say that). I last left you with details of the first weekend of our big October build project in which I led a group of volunteers in the exterior painting of Mr. Jones’s home. The second weekend wasn’t quite as eventful for me. Because we had worked so many hours, we were all given off either last Friday (Oct. 10) or Monday to try and keep our hours down a bit. Since I didn’t have to work on Friday, I went out to see a band called the Soul Rebels at a small local bar. When seeing live bands down here, you never really know what you are going to get. But I must say that they were awesome and the crowd made it fun as well. It was a seven-member band and the bar was just this small little bar that was packed with people and a very diverse crowd. I guess the band plays at the same bar every Thursday and Saturday nights so I’m sure I’ll see them again. On my day off on Friday, I took it easy and caught up on some sleep and TV that I hadn’t seen. Some people from work had a BBQ Friday night which was fun, but pretty low-key as most of us had to work Saturday.

My job for the Saturday of the October Build (Oct. 11) was to be in our warehouse and get it setup for the volunteer groups to return all of their supplies at the end of the day. That really didn’t take too long, so the warehouse manager and I drove around to about 15 of the 30 houses we working on and visited with the volunteer groups to see how they were doing. It was pretty cool to see how much work a group of 20 people can get done in a couple of days. Most of the houses weren’t finished as far as our supervisors would have liked, but I think that was to be expected. Once the last volunteer group came back with their tools and supplies, the Director of Rebuilding Together New Orleans thanked us for our efforts and brought out beer for us all to drink together in the warehouse. It was definitely a nice way to end the October Build project. Most of us were pretty wiped out Saturday night and didn’t go out, myself included. The next day, I went to my new usual spot, Cooter Brown’s, to watch the Bears game. Now that the season is a couple of months old, I’ve started to see the same people at the bar every week, which makes it more fun.

Before I left work on Saturday, I was told that I was finally getting out of the warehouse (after three weeks) and back out in the field. On Monday (Oct. 13), I was assigned with three other people to go out to this farm and help clean it up because it’s being converted into an urban gardening training facility. I guess what that means is that they are using the farm to teach people how to garden different plants and crops and do it in a way that is “green” (I don’t really understand the whole project, but that’s okay). So we spent the day cutting razor and barbed wire off the fence on the perimeter of the garden because it needed to be reinstalled. There were wasps flying around everywhere which didn’t really help my attitude for the day. I’m down here to help the people and the community, but I don’t get paid enough and it’s not worth it to me to be working near huge wasps nests. We all kind of gave up on that project and spent the rest of the day digging up old concrete which was a pretty good workout. I was definitely happy when Monday was over and to learn that I didn’t have to go back out to the farm. For the next three days, I was with a team of three others, installing hardwood floors into two different homes. The other people I was working with had done this before so they showed me to how to do it and it was a really fun thing to learn how to do. It’s a pretty tedious process because the boards are pretty thin and there is a lot of cutting involved to make certain pieces fit. Overall, it is a great skill to learn and I’ve been having a good time with it and with the people I’ve been working with. I think I’ll probably get to do a little bit more flooring this week but I’m not completely sure. We had meetings on Friday that gave us the information for the Starbucks project that is coming up. Starbucks is bringing down 4,000 volunteers for three days at the end of the month which is going to be even crazier than this October Build project we just finished up. I’ll get into more details about the Starbucks project once I get the details but I know it’s going to be a busy few weeks ahead.

Because of all of the hours we have been working, we were given today (Monday) off, making it a nice three day weekend. Thursday night, I went to a Mexican restaurant (Felipe’s) with a buddy and ate a delicious burrito, had a few dollar drafts, and watched a little bit of the Red Sox-Rays game. We ended up staying for awhile and talking to the couple (Derrick and Jane) sitting next to us. They have lived in New Orleans their entire lives and we were just talking to them about what our organization does and what specifically we do. It was great to see their reactions because they didn’t really know much about Rebuilding Together but just thought it was such a great thing and by the end of sitting with them, they were interested in getting a volunteer group together. I really enjoy talking about what I’m doing right now and the organization. Rebuilding Together has such a long way to go but I, as well as all of the other members, like telling others about the organization and take a great pride in helping it get better. It’s nice to talk to others about something you enjoy doing and an organization that is helping out so many people. Derrick was also telling us how he works with the electrical equipment for the New Orleans Saints and how his main job during a game is to be on the visitors sideline making sure the coach’s headset is working properly. He said he was on the sideline for the Saints opening game against the Buccaneers and that John Gruden spent the entire game swearing and screaming at the quarterback, Jeff Garcia. I guess John Gruden is just as nuts in person as it appears on television. Derrick was hoping to go with the team on their upcoming trip to London but didn’t think he would get to go. We tried to see if he could get us tickets to a game or into the locker room but didn’t think he could (or probably just didn’t want to). They were a lot of fun to talk to and we gave them Rebuilding’s information before we left so that they could call to volunteer.

The rest of the weekend was pretty standard. I went out with people from work for awhile after Felipe’s and was pretty tired for our meetings the next day. Friday night, I went to a bar called The Maple Leaf to see another band play. They were just okay, but it was good to get out of the house because had I not gone to see this band, I probably would have just ended up staying in. During the day Saturday, I rode my bike around for a little while (the thing is such a piece of shit, but I guess that’s what I get for spending $75 on a bike). That night, a person that works in the office had a party at her house for a bunch of people which turned out to be a lot of fun. It was the first time that I noticed that it was starting to get a little colder out at night, and when I got there, she had a cool bonfire going in her backyard.

I think I’ve made it through my blogger’s block enough to put together a decent posting (not my best, I know). I’ll get myself back on track with the next posting because there’s a lot going on over the next few weeks. So I will be sure to keep posting and deliver it with the special Adam (I’m a no nickname guy down here, which is awesome) “touch” that I usually have.

October Build

This is a picture of the house I worked on last Friday and Saturday, along with the volunteers and Mr. Leonard Jones.

It's October?

Many of you may be wondering why it has taken me so long to post. I want to assure you that I have not forgotten about this blog and all of you. It was really that I just wanted to let my last posting ((Dis)Orientation) to really set in. It was a very important post and one that I was very proud of, so I wanted to make sure that you had plenty of time to read and re-read it before moving on with my next post.

Anyways, life has been pretty good down here lately. Luckily, I am a thousand miles away from anything relating to the Chicago Cubs or else I'd probably be much more depressed. That's all I'm going to say about that. I have been super busy with work. Last weekend and this upcoming weekend (and October in general) is the busiest time of the year. We had around 25 volunteer groups working on 25 houses last weekend and it will be about the same this weekend (many of the groups work both weekends, so it's not actually 50 volunteer groups). The past couple of weeks I have been working in our warehouse getting supplies, tools (you all know who you are, kidding, I meant real tools, like saws and such), and material ready for our weekend builds. It has been pretty intense at the warehouse and at work in general to make sure the weekend builds go off without any problems. On Friday and Saturday, I was house captaining about 10 Tulane MBA volunteers each day. Our project was to caulk the exterior of the house in order to weather-proof the house (prevent water from seeping in through the sides of the house), paint over the caulked areas, and prime and paint the new framing around the windows that were recently put in. It was a great experience leading these volunteers. They didn't work as hard as I would have liked but they had a good time (at least that's what they said). The house we worked on was a double shotgun house (which means that in you have to walk through one room to get into the next room). The homeowner lived on one side and was fixing up the other side to rent out. I was able to spend sometime with Mr. Leonard Jones throughout the weekend and he was very thankful and appreciative of the job we were doing for him. I think if he could have gotten up on the ladder himself, he would have been painting right there with us (unfortuantely he was a little too old).

The most interesting conversation I had with Mr. Jones was his Katrina story. He had sent his family to Texas a few days before the storm but decided to stay back. Hours before the storm hit, he walked to the Superdome (which was probably about a mile or two) from his house and decided to leave his car behind (which he now regrets). He was at the Superdome for three days
and said he didn't think he could last in there another day. There was so much chaos, people everywhere, terrible food, and nothing to do. Luckily, he was transported to the airport and flown to Mobile, where he stayed with his sister. He didn't really say how long he was there but said when he got back that you could see the water line was all the way up past the top of his front door, which is pretty amazing. Talking to Mr. Jones and the other homeowners I have been able to so far is one of the aspects of the job I like more than anything else. In talking to these people, you really get a sense of how much these people love and care about their city and how they want it to be rebuilt back to the way it was. If you are interested in learning more about our October Build project, you can click on the following link, http://prcno.org/utilities/news/1035.

It took me a few weeks of work to start to feel settled in. I'm finally getting to a point where I don't feel exhausted everyday after work. The past couple Mondays, a bunch of people from work get together and play beach volleyball at this really cool bar that has tons of courts and cheap beer. I'm not horrible at it which is nice (a lot of the girls are worse, which doesn't make me feel totally inadequate). We also played barefoot soccer, while drinking, in City Park a couple of weeks ago. The park is really a cool park besides the mosquitos and is where the Voodoo Music Festival will be at the end of the month. I think a lot of the people in the program are still getting to know each other, so we all aren't great friends yet but are definitely becoming more comfortable around each other. Now that I feel settled, I definitely need to start looking for other activities or things to do that will make it easier to meet people. It's a new situation so I'm just trying to feel it out. It definitely hasn't been easy, but I am definitely enjoying the experience and trying to take it in as it comes. It's crazy that it's October because time feels like it's flying and it is still so freakin' hot down here. It's been 85 degrees and muggy everyday down here this week so it definitely doesn't feel like the October I'm used to. I am definitely not complaining though, because besides the past 3 days, it has been beautiful down here.

On a really important note, I also learned this weekend that it is legal to have an open container in the car as long as the driver isn't drinking, which is awesome. So on Saturday, we drove around for a little while drinking in the car, looking for a bar to go to. It's the first time I've legally been drinking in a car (wait a minute, I've never been drinking in a car before).

Anyways, I'm going to go watch highlights of John McCain from the debate last night so that I can get to sleep quickly and not be exhausted tomorrow. Talk to y'all soon (and it won't be so long next time).

(Dis)Orientation

Sorry it has taken so long for me to post, but I’ve been pretty busy and worn out this last week.

After the Saints game during the day last Sunday, my week-long orientation began Sunday night at the Marriott hotel in downtown New Orleans. Just so all of you have a better understanding of the organization; there are 25 of us volunteering with Rebuilding Together New Orleans. There are 20 people that are on one grant, and me and four others on another grant. The five of us on the grant together are part of national Rebuilding Together, which had its orientation for the five of us, and 35 other new volunteers. It’s kind of confusing, if you really care, I can explain in more detail if you would like. The first night of orientation was pretty standard. We were introduced to everyone and served dinner. A few of the higher-ups at Rebuilding Together spoke to us and gave some pretty inspiring speeches. To see how passionate these people were definitely left a little impression on me and had me thinking I made a good decision in coming down here. The impact Rebuilding Together makes all over the country was even greater than I had thought. One woman told us a few stories about the home owners she encountered and to hear what they had to go through put the whole program in perspective. We really are helping people who can’t afford to live in a safe and healthy home.

Anyways, Monday was a pretty boring day of orientation because we pretty much just went over the policies and procedures we’ll need to follow for the year. I went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for lunch, which was delicious and a cool experience. Since I love Forrest Gump, I liked the trivia questions the waitress was throwing at us (though I surprisingly didn’t know all of them). At night, we had a scavenger hunt around the French Quarter that seemed pretty stupid. So the people in my group made a horrible attempt at it and instead went to The Coco Club which had a house band that was really good. They were a family band covering a lot of good songs of all genres and added their own funk to it. One of the guys in the band rapped a little in some of the songs and then busted out the trumpet on the other. It was pretty cool. I have to say (and I know I’ve bragged to Matt Pais too much) that the music down here is so good. There are so many places to see music and if you are open to it, it’s so nice going out and seeing different kinds of music.

Tuesday was more of the same from Monday. I found a lot of the icebreaker and activities that they had planned and a lot of the discussions pretty interesting. We had a pretty deep discussion about poverty on Wednesday and who is considered to be in poverty, the reason why poverty exists, and what we can do to fix it. The discussion definitely got me going and I was pretty into it and offered a lot of my opinions on the matter. If you are interested in discussing with me, I’d be glad to. I just don’t feel like rehashing the entire discussion in this post but I will say that I found it to be a great discussion. For the afternoon, we were split into three groups and went out to different worksites. The five of us from New Orleans went to a site together which was nice, and two of the other volunteers in the New Orleans program were there too. We learned how to insulate a house which I can say first hand is not fun. That stuff is hard to cut and there are little pieces of fiber glass that get into your skin and are very itchy. It was great seeing how much work we got done in a half day Wednesday and a full day Thursday. One of the things I really like about this process is that, at the end of the day, I can look around the house and see what the team got done for the day. It’s nice being able to physically see what you have accomplished in a day. After our workday on Wednesday, we took a drive around the Ninth Ward (the part of New Orleans most devastated by Hurricane Katrina) and spoke with a few of the community leaders. There are so many empty lots where houses used to be that you really can’t believe it until you see it. We didn’t see that much of the Ninth Ward so I’m hoping to take another tour of it. Another volunteer in the program, Dave, who has spent some time in New Orleans before this, offered to take me around again whenever I want. I’m hoping to do that soon.

We had a good day of orientation on Friday and then everyone went out to bars on Frenchman Street afterwards. The first bar we went to had a seven piece band that was a mix of a jazz and folk band (very hard to explain). After a few hours there, we went to another place where a reggae band was playing. They were sooooo good. The bar was half full (not half empty) when we first got there but was packed by the middle of their set. Everyone from orientation (except for the five of us staying in New Orleans) departed back their home cities on Saturday afternoon. I took a well deserved nap and watched the OSU-USC with some friends and had a pretty relaxed night out.

Sunday, I went to a bar called Cooter Brown’s to watch the Bears game by myself. The bar had all of the noon games on and was packed with all different kind of fans. People would yell but I’d have no idea what TV it was coming from. For the second half, I ended up sitting next to a couple of girls in Bears’ jerseys who were pretty nice. The end of the game sucked so I went home disappointed and got myself ready for my first real week of work.

Orientation was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I got to know some pretty cool people from all over the country who have a passion to help others. I enjoyed listening to others explain why they chose to do this program and explaining my reasons as well. If you don’t know already, or want to talk about those reasons more, again, I’d be happy to. After the week of orientation, I really feel good about being down here and know that even though it may be tough at times, I’m ready for this experience and the challenge that comes with it. This last month (almost) has been so crazy but has felt great about my ability to adjust to this new life and things that have come up (though I do miss all of you, ha). That’s it for now. I’ll update again soon. Sorry it has taken so long. I’ll be better. Also, I’m still working on a slideshow of pictures but it’s not working out for me yet so I’m trying to get that figured out. If you want me to send you a CD of pictures when I have a bunch, let me know.

Comin' Home

What is up y'all? It has been a very long week but even with that, I'm still going to make this an awesome post. So as I left off in my last post, I returned back to New Orleans on Thursday, had my power back on Friday morning (which was nice, except for having to clean out all of the gross food in the freezer and fridge), and went straight back to work on Friday. It was a very hot and humid day and I spent it working outside at our warehouse moving heavy doors and windows around. I got decent color so I was pretty happy about that but was pretty tired by the end of the day. I was planning on going out Friday night but found out at the end of the work day that I was going to have to be back at the train station (where we helped people evacuate) at 8 am on Saturday morning. I got a lot of sleep on Friday night because I was exhausted after a day in the sun. I have found myself slowly gaining more energy but for the first couple of weeks, it was hard to have the energy to do much after work. There are definitely things on the agenda that I need to get going but have been a bit worn down. I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning but couldn't find breakfast anywhere because Walgreens and the gas station near me were still closed. I arrived at the train station and it was relatively quiet. My first job was to unload MRE's (Meals Ready-to-Eat) from a truck, which was provided by the Red Cross. Originally, we were told to put two boxes of MRE's on each bus going back into the city but this is where bureaucracy reared its ugly head. At first, we were told to put two boxes of MRE’s on each bus. Then, we were told not to put any on there. And then, we were instructed to give them out, only if people asked for them. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out what the actual resolution was because myself, and the rest of the volunteers with my program (about 15 were there that day) were told to assist residents off the buses that they took to evacuate and help them get their bags and onto the buses that were going to take them to their communities. In the morning, we never got a huge rush of buses so it was pretty orderly. It was difficult at times to get people their bags and the correct number of bags. In the afternoon, there were numerous buses coming in at all times, which made things very hectic. People were getting off the buses before we could unload them so there was a lot of yelling and disorganization but we managed to get by. As hard of work that it was, I really enjoyed talking to the people as they came back. Many seemed worn out from the trip. These people evacuated the previous Friday-Sunday, sat in a shelter for a week, and the spent another whole day in a bus getting back. I felt terribly for these people and what they had to go through. What was kind of shocking to me was that people seemed genuinely disappointed that the hurricane wasn’t worse. Their thought was, “Why did I have to leave if the hurricane wasn’t going to be that bad?” I wanted to say, “because at least you are alive and there’s a good chance your house didn’t blow down or flood,” but obviously I didn’t say that. The toughest part of the day Saturday (besides not eating lunch till 1:30, but it was a good Subway sandwich) was seeing how hard it was for the people with special needs to travel and what they had to go through just to stay safe. Three people died on the way out of New Orleans just from having to go through the evacuation process. It felt really good to help these people out and when they weren’t screaming at us to get us their bags, or a wheelchair, or a cart, they seemed genuinely appreciative that we were there helping them. I’m not just saying this because I was a part of this, but if it wasn’t for our program (Rebuilding Together), bringing people back into the city would have been so much worse. The National Guard, the New Orleans Police Department, FEMA, and the Red Cross barely did anything. The Red Cross had 5 people standing around water handing it to people on the way out. We got over 12,000 people back in between Friday and Saturday and I can’t imagine how it would have gone without us. It makes me question these organizations and their commitment to serving. I’m not saying that these organizations don’t help people, but they are extremely disorganized and don’t understand how to handle situations. It made me feel proud to be a part of an organization that was able to be effective and efficient and help these people. Our program director was very happy with our efforts and how they day turned out. She took us out for beers afterwards, which was nice after a ten and a half hour Saturday. I came home, showered, had a light dinner, and went to some friends’ house. We had a few beers and were going to try and go out for the night but were all far too tired and never made it out.

I woke up Sunday and someone from my program called me and told me he had a free ticket to the New Orleans Saints game that started at noon. We had discussed the ticket the previous day but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go. So when he decided he didn’t want to, I jumped at the chance to go. I ended up going with two other girls from my program. Both of these girls are very nice and very into volunteering and into the program which I respect but I don’t really know how much we have in common and didn’t have a ton to talk about. Nonetheless, I had a good time at the game. It gets insanely loud inside the Superdome (which I learned is the biggest dome in the United States). After being so used to Soldier Field, the inside is just alright and I feel like could use some renovations. At one point during the game, I definitely got caught up in thinking about what it was like in there during Hurricane Katrina and that people walked miles in deep water just to get there and was stuck there for days. But then Drew Brees threw his second touchdown pass which got me back to thinking about how he was killing my team in fantasy football. I was happy the Saints won because with Gustav and the possibility at the time of Ike, the city needed something good. Getting out of the Superdome was insane. What usually would be a ten minute ride home, turned into over an hour. I feel like my whole life (dating back to my days long ago at Ernst & Young) is sitting in traffic. When this whole thing is done, I’m going to write a book about my experience and call it “Avoiding Traffic” (not really, but maybe I will). Anyways, I got back home and had to get ready for orientation which started at 5 p.m. This is where I’m going to leave off for now. I’ll get into orientation in my next posting. It has definitely been an interesting week so far. Hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from those of you who I haven’t yet, and I’ll try and get in touch with you all as well. Have a good one.

Sepetmeber 2008 Pictures

Flickr: Organize your photos & videos

Ee-Vack-You-Way-Shun

What seems like a month ago, was actually last Sunday. I woke up around 4 a.m. in order to get to the office by 5 a.m. and the New Orleans train station by 6 a.m.. Our task was to get the residents of New Orleans on the buses and out of the city. Everyone from my program who was there (this wasn't mandatory, only people who wanted to stay back and help were there) got their assignments for the day. My assignment was to hand water out to people before they got on the buses. I have to admit, before the whole thing started, I expected there to be mass chaos but everything was organzied every well. The residents were able to get through the line pretty quickly and off on their way. The whole experience was very interesting and humbling. Many residents were in pretty low spirits and I definitely heard a few people say that they wouldn't be coming back to New Orleans if the hurricane turned out to be bad. Most of the people taking the buses out of town came from the "swamps" as we were joking. But I really felt bad for these people. There were a lot of people who looked strung out on drugs and came from the worst areas of the city. Many of them were carrying as much as their arms could carry and some people barely had anything. They had travelled all day with their stuff just to get to the train station. Then, spend the next few hours on a bus out of town so that they could sit at a shelter for the next week, waiting to come back. Just handing them water and maybe making their day a little bit better made me feel like I was doing something. It was definitely a difficult day seeing these people and knowing how bad of shape the city is in and the effort it's going to take to turn it around.

We went back to our offices around 3 p.m. and rested up for a bit and ate in order to get ready to evacuate ourselves. Our plan was to head to Atlanta. I was driving with two other guys, one of which didn't have a license so was pretty much useless (and later turned out to be pretty annoying because why is someone who has no license a passenger seat driver?). We left at 4:30 and drove about 60 miles without any traffic, then the fun started. As contra-flow had stopped around 5 p.m., we went about 10 miles in the next three hours. I felt like I was driving home from Lake Forest on a Friday, only worse. On a normal day, we should have gotten to Atlanta in about 7 hours. We pulled into the house we were staying at around 8:30 a.m., 15 hours later. I honestly don't know how I made it through my 3:15-6:00 a.m. shift but we made it. There were about 12 of us staying in two different houses in Atlanta. My supervisor knew a couple of families in Atlanta so I stayed at one of the homes. I slept until about 4:30 in the afternoon and then went to a BBQ at the other house people were staying at. The family was really welcoming and had a nice house. We ate on the back deck and the house had a very southern feel to it. Both houses did. A lot of flowers on the couches and blinds. The back deck had nice furniture and lights outside. There were woods in the back of both houses. I almost felt like I was back at camp. It was nice.

The next day (Tuesday) we were given the option to return to New Orleans as first-responders back in the city (leaving at 3 p.m.) and help people return. Everyone except for me, and two others (Pat and John, who I mentioned in a previous post) wanted to get back. But given the long drive we just had, and the fact that I wasn't going to have power, I wasn't in the mood to hurry home. So everyone else headed back, and we stayed with John's aunt, who lived in Atlanta. I dropped my car off at her place and then we headed into downtown Atlanta. There really isn't much to see in Atlanta, I realized. We walked around the business district, went to the Olympic Park (the 1996 games were held in Atlanta for those that don't remember), and walked through the CNN Center. Unfortunately, the Coca-Cola Factory had closed. After walking around for awhile, we stopped at a pub, had a few beers and watched the U.S. Open. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. The next night Judith (John's aunt), Patty (Judith's neighbor and one of the most narotic Jewish women I've ever met), John, Pat, and I all BBQ'd and watched Sarah Palin's speech (don't get me started on that). Between the first family I stayed with and Judith, they were both so welcoming and took great care of us. They both made us feel right at home and probably even went overboard in looking after us. I almost didn't even mind being "displaced" for a couple days, though I was looking forward to getting back to New Orleans.

Thursday, we got an early start and about 10 hours later, we returned back home. After this trip to Atlanta, I had put close to 2,500 miles on my car since departing from Chicago two weeks early. Upon my arrival home, I was welcomed with no power. So I took a shower in the dark, grabbed a couple things and stayed at the house down the street (that has 5 people from my program staying there). That pretty much sums up the evacuation and my experience with it. I never really felt too bad for myself because what I was going through wasn't nearly as bad as what many of the residents we helped evacuate had to deal with. I had a nice place to stay and was able to enjoy another city while they sat in a shelter. The whole experience made me feel lucky to have what I do. Well, that's it for now. I'm still trying to catch up on what has been going on and will hopefully do so in the next day or two.

Before I Left

Since I haven't been able to make any posts over the last couple of days, I'm going to try and write a few over the next couple of days to catch up. Before I was forced to evacuate on Sunday, I had a pretty nice weekend. After work on Friday, I started getting myself ready to evacuate by going to Walgreens and filling up on gas. I went out with two of the other volunteers (Pat and John) to a place called The Blue Nile on Frenchman Street, which definitely seemed like a cool street with a bunch of bars and restaurants. The bar was pretty dead because people had already started to evacuate but there were a couple of bands that played that night (I never got any of their names) that were both really enjoyable. There are so many places to listen to live music in New Orleans so it should be a lot of fun to bounce around and broaden my musical horizons in the next year (I'm already starting to listen to a little more jazz, ha). Unfortunately, Friday night ended without a late-night, disgusting meal since nothing was open but I guess that's okay. There aren't nearly as many restaurants to go to or order from so I've pretty much been cooking almost all of meals which will probably be healthy and help me save some money (although I did just find a burrito place and a wing place down the street from me which could be dangerous). On Saturday, I woke up and had absolutely nothing to do which was a totally liberating feeling. It was nice getting up and knowing that I didn't have to work, I don't really know anyone, and could go and do whatever I wanted. So I ready my little touristy book/guide on New Orleans, got my map and was on my way. St. Charles street is one of the more popular streets in New Orleans and runs in a U-shape. There are a lot of beautiful houses and nice parks off of St. Charles. In New Orleans, it seems like each major street has it's own personality. St. Charles street feels like a nice neighborhood that has small restaurants and shops. I took St. Charles all the way down into the French Quarter, where I hadn't looked around yet. I parked my car close to the Quarter and got out to walk around. The area definitely reminded me of France because of the very narrow streets, the small homes, and the balconies hanging above. I actually wasn't that impressed with the French Quarter. I got myself onto Bourbon Street and it just seemed kind of scummy and dirty and smelled bad. Maybe it will look better and be better at night but we'll see. There seemed to be a lot of jazz clubs which was cool but a lot of the bars and clubs there seemed shady. I'll definitely go back and give it a chance but I wasn't that impressed with what I saw. I walked through a couple of parks which was nice and sat down and listened to some music along the Mississippi River and watched boats go by. I stumbled upon Cafe Du Monde, which is a famous coffee shop in New Orleans. They are famous for their Beineigts (that's probably not how it's spelled) and Cafe au Lait which were both delicious. It was definitely a nice afternoon treat and very cheap. For anybody that visits, that is definitely a spot we'll have to check out. I walked around for a little while longer and then went home and took a nap for a bit. I found out that I would have to be ready to help with the evacuation at 5 a.m. the next day and since everything else was closed, I took it easy Saturday night and watched college football (damn the Illini). I will try and make another post tomorrow about helping with the evacuation which was an incredibly interesting experience that I want to share. My hands are just getting a little tired now so I'll either do that this afternoon or tomorrow.

Man with the (evacuation) Plan

It looks like if and when Hurricane Gustav approaches the Lousiana coastline, I will be heading east to Atlanta. Myself, as well as many of the other volunteers in the program, will be staying back to help assist with the evacuation by getting residents on trains and buses. That is all I really know about it at this point but will know more in the next day or so, exactly what I will be doing to help with the evacuation. About 12-18 hours before Gustav is set to hit Lousiana, we will be taking off towards Atlanta where I guess we have free housing and food set for us. I’ve never been to Atlanta and think it could be fun to bum around the city for a couple of days. At this point, everything is unknown because the path of Gustav may change over the next couple of days. It seems nobody really knows where it is going to hit but I have been hearing on the news that it may land in Houston as opposed to Lousiana. Keep watching the news for information. Today is actually the third anniversary of Katrina (and the 32nd anniversary of Allen and Barbara’s holy union – woo woo) which is crazy because there is still so much left to be done here and now there’s another hurricane fast approaching. From what I’m hearing, it seems like the city, as well as FEMA, is much more prepared this time around as evacuation plans are set and food and water are ready to be brought in. Anyways, I just wanted to give an update of what was going on with the hurricane and my evacuation. I’m pretty tired right now after a long week of painting, chopping wood, moving heavy doors and windows, cleaning our warehouse, etc., so it’s a short post today. I’m going to take a little nap right now before figuring out what to do tonight. I’ll make another post before/if I head to Atlanta.

No Mucho Gustav

Well, after only five days down in the Big Easy, it seems life over the next few days is going to be anything but that. Hurricane Gustav, which is currently over Haiti right now is headed towards the Gulf Coast. The hurricane is expected to hit the U.S. somewhere between the Florida panhandle and south Texas on Sunday afternoon. My program has set up an evacuation plan for us where we can either drive out ourselves or take a train towards Memphis on Saturday morning. As of now, if we have to evacuate, I’m planning on parking my car at the train station and heading towards Memphis with other people in the program. The chance of the Hurricane hitting New Orleans is still unknown. I’m not really that concerned for my own safety at this point as it seems that Rebuilding Together has a pretty good plan ready for us. Also, it seems like the city is fully prepared and ready to handle an evacuation that could begin as early as tomorrow night. I am worried about how this Hurricane could affect the city of New Orleans. Many people who left New Orleans after Katrina still haven’t come back and another hurricane would mean even less people would probably return. The city is in bad enough shape already that another hurricane would be devestating. Also, I fear that a major hurricane (they are predicting a possible Category 3 or 4) would greatly impact my opportunity with Rebuilding Together. I have just gotten started and don’t know what would happen with the program if we are not allowed to return to New Orleans for an extended period of time. Right now, it’s too early to tell but I should no more by tomorrow or Friday.

My first few days on the job have been a great learning experience. My last post discussed my first day which included an orientation. On Tuesday, I got down and dirty and went to a home that I will be working on for the next couple of weeks. The house is a 4 room, shotgun house (meaning you have to walk through one room to get to the next room) and I spent a lot of time applying primer to the walls and painting. We also had to move a lot of different things to clear space and get the rooms ready to be painted. I probably would have had to walk to and from the copier about 5,000 times at Ernst & Young to equal the physical labor of one day with Rebuilding Together. It felt good to get out there and sweat from 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. If this doesn’t get me into shape, I don’t know what will. Today, I had First Aid training in the morning which was at the Trinity Christian Community (TCC) Center. As soon as I walked in, I saw a picture that said “Jesus will save you,” so I knew I was in the right place. Many of the other volunteers applied through the TCC and the TCC is paying their living stipend and in charge of their progress. At the First Aid training, I was there with 7 other people, all who applied through the TCC. It was one of the first times in my life I really felt different than everyone else. At home, almost all of my friends and all of the people I associate with are similar to me. It was a very strange feeling to be, in a sense, the minority. I’m not Christian or Catholic and I didn’t just graduate college like many of the other volunteers. I feel a little self-conscious because of it also makes me feel good to be different because I know that many of the others haven’t met too many people like me. I have a lot to learn from them but feel that I can offer a lot to them. Anyways, the First Aid Training was very informative. I’m well on my way to being a doctor (harris), kidding. We did learn basic CPR and how to treat injuries and I feel better suited to handle an injury or emergency. With volunteers counting on us, it is important for us to be able to respond to situations that arise. The end of the day had me moving and organizing broken window frames and front doors in our scrapyard, and paint in our warehouse. It has certainly been an interesting first few days and I hope the experience can continue uninterrupted. I will keep you posted and hopefully Gustav stays away.

First Day at Work

Today, I woke up early (6:15 a.m. is early for a guy who hasn’t had to get up in the past two weeks, which was nice by the way) and got to work by 7:45 where I was met by the other volunteers and a large semi-truck filled with packages of insulation. I said hello to my supervisor and asked her where the gloves were and spent the next hour helping the others move the insulation into the warehouse. At 9:00, I was told I had to go over to our offices with another one of the volunteers since we both missed some of the presentations that were given last week. The first presentation was done by the director of the Rebuilding Together Program. Just to give a little background, Rebuilding Together New Orleanse is a program within the Preservation Resource Center (PRC). Rebuilding Together is comprised of staff members on salary, AmeriCorps Vistas who mainly work in the office working with homeowners, sponsors, obtaining grants, etc. I am an AmeriCorps Direct who will be a House Captain. My role, at least what I know of it so far, is to lead the volunteers that come down to New Orleans so that they know where they need to go and what they need to be doing. I’ll get into more detail about my job once I figure it out myself. The Director of Rebuilding Together, Kristen, gave us a brief introduction to the architecture of the city. Houses in New Orleans were built based on who was occupying them and where it was located. For instance, many houses built in the French Quarter and occupied by the French were Victorian cottages. It was pretty interesting to learn about the architecture since I have no real background in it. I tried to remember as much as I could but I’m still learning. I think once I begin working on houses, I’ll start to have a better idea. Kristen also talked a lot about Hurricane Katrina and the affect that it’s had on this city. I didn’t realize how bad things were down here at the time of the hurricane and how slowly things are moving. She talked about how long it took FEMA to get down here and how there was complete failure at every level of our government. In the efforts to restore the city, Rebuilding Together and the PRC are making it their mission to restore neighborhoods and the communities in New Orleans. They are very specific in working to bring back the people who already lived in New Orleans before the hurricane. The city has lost approximately 35% of its population since the hurricane and the program is doing what it can to bring back those who resided here. Rebuilding Together works with low-income elderly, disabled, and first responders to get them back in the house that they lived in before the hurricane, which is the main difference between Habitat for Humanity, which completely rebuilds houses (not necessarily for low-income homeowners). There are so many problems down here, I can’t even begin to tell you. Kristen was telling us that people are very passionate about living in the houses the way they used to be. Her presentation was very informative and gave me a greater sense about exactly what is going on in the city. I feel like I could go on for a little while so maybe I will in future posts. I have attached a couple links that provide more information on Hurricane Katrina if anybody is interested. Also, I have included some interesting New Orleans facts.

http://neworleans-hurricanekatrina.com/

Hey Everyone

So I have finally made it to the Big Easy and am writing this post from my room in my new house. I left last Thursday night and drove down here with my dad. We drove for about five hours and then stopped in Carbondale, IL to get some sleep and break up the trip. We hit the road Friday morning and about 10 hours later we were in New Orleans. The only delays on the way down here came from me getting on the wrong highway for a few miles and a car on fire on the side of the road. We finally got to my new house around 6 pm on Friday. The address of the house is 5836 Willow, New Orleans, LA, 70115 for anyone interested. The house is a nice, small place which I will be sharing with two girls who are seniors at Tulane. I've only met one so far for a few minutes and she seems nice but I've barely run into her at all yet. My room is a little smaller than the one I had at my old apartment but I have my own bathroom which is nice (for obvious reasons). I dropped my Dad off at the airport at around 12:30 yesterday and was officially on my own. I'm not going to lie, I am a little freaked out about this whole thing but am keeping positive and know that this experience will be life changing. Shortly after dropping off my Dad, I went to a BBQ that AmeriCorps had for all of the new volunteers. The training for my program actually started last Monday (August 18th) so most of the other volunteers have been down here for a week or two. The BBQ was a good time and I was able to meet a lot of the people. A group of 5 of the other volunteers live in a house (which is definitely nicer than mine, ha...which I'm jealous about) so I went over there last night before going out. Cabs are pretty expensive in this city so it seems like someone is going to need to drive most nights which sucks but I'll have to make do. I went to two bars on Magazine Street, which is a pretty big street down here, with 3 of the other volunteers. We went to The Bulldog which was a pretty laid back place. The main beer down here is Abita and there are all different types (similar to what Goose Island is in Chicago). After The Bulldog, we walked down Magazine Street for a bit, and it was surprisingly pretty dead. I guess most places and restaurants don't stay open late, even on Saturday, I'm not really sure. At Ms. Mae's we watched the first half of the USA Basketball Gold Medal game, stopped at McDonalds since we hadn't eaten in 12 hours, and then headed home. Overall, a good first day. Today, I have to get some groceries since I have no food and get ready for my first day tomorrow, which I'm very excited about. It doesn't seem like I missed too much the first week and will hopefully catch up quickly. Well, that's it for the first post. I'll post again in the next couple of days with an update on what exactly I'll be doing down here and how my first couple days on the job went.