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/