(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

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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.