Right after I made my last post, I headed to New Iberia, LA to do a service week and help rebuild in that area. The New Orleans affiliate of Rebuilding Together that I work for has 25 house captains (like me) from two different grants. Twenty AmeriCorps members are on a state grant and the other five (including me) are part of a national grant. Also included in the national grant, are other AmeriCorps members serving with Rebuilding Together affiliates all over the country. In total, there are 40 people on the national grant (30 of us who started in September and 10 more who just started). The service trip to New Iberia is more of a big deal to all of the other national members because they are coming from all over the country and their jobs are more office oriented. For the five of us from New Orleans, it was pretty much just a normal week except we had to stay in volunteer housing.
The five of us (Leo, Mary, Cat, Dave, and me) carpooled up to New Iberia which took about three hours. Leo is from south Texas and has been raving about Whattaburger for the longest time so we stopped at one near Baton Rouge on the way up. I didn't think it was anything too special and I felt like I was having a heart attack the rest of the way up. We arrived at the volunteer housing late Sunday afternoon (I was pissed at the time we had to get there because I missed both championship football games and couldn't see how my fantasy football championship was going- don't worry I won). The volunteer housing was just one big room with 20-25 bunk beds and long tables for eating in the middle of the room. I already wasn't looking forward to the trip and this just confirmed it was going to be a long weekend. People filed in for the next few hours and it was good to see some of the people again. The last time I was together with this group of people was during my orientation back in September. Sunday night was pretty laid back for the most part. In the middle of the night I woke up to this ridiculously loud noise (I had no idea what it was). After a minute, I realized it was the old guy snoring in the bunk below me. My Dad snores pretty badly but this guy blew him out of the water. I had to listen to my Ipod on over half-full volume just to drown this guy out. I barely got any sleep for the rest of the night (or rest of the week for that matter). I probably only got about 4-5 hours a sleep a night which was brutal.
The volunteer work we did in New Iberia was actually a lot of fun. We learned how to build handicap ramps that led into people's homes. Since most of the other Rebuilding Together members that were there work in an office and don't spend much time in the field, it was a chance for me to show off my skills (which I did). I was in a group with Leo and we delegated jobs out to others when appropriate. Building a handicap ramp is one of the harder things I've done so far. It takes a lot of patience and a math to make sure the angles and spacing are correct. My group ranged from 8-12 people a day and I had a good time working with the people in my group. After working, we would go back to the volunteer housing, where there wasn't much to do. It was a lot of being around people at all times and constantly talking to people and trying to come up with things to do.
Overall, it was an okay week but it really took a toll on me. The lack of sleep and just being in a room with all of those people and germs affected my body. Because when I got back Saturday around noon, I slept for five hours and felt extremely groggy when I woke up. I felt this way for much of the next week. Last week at work, I just didn't seem to have much energy. Leo and Cat missed a couple of days last week because they got sick in New Iberia. I didn't feel sick, I was just exhausted. I kind of hit the wall last week. I was going to take off last Wednesday but felt alright when I woke up so I've just been trying to power through it. Last week was pretty low key for me. I just tried to catch up on some sleep and relax.
By the weekend, I was feeling much better. On Friday night, I went to a bar called Finn McCools (not the some chain as the on in Chicago) which was a good time. It was nice to relax a little bit with some friends from work. On Saturday, I hung around for most of the day (I couldn't get myself out of bed) and went to the French Quarter Saturday night and to a place called Mimi's for a little dancing. Unfortunately for everyone at the bar, I didn't get that drunk and really give them a dancing show. There are two new girls who just started with our affiliate that were with us in New Iberia. I convinced them to come on Saturday night to hang out so it was nice to see them starting to feel comfortable here and get used to the people they'll be working with. I didn't do anything special for the Super Bowl but thoroughly enjoyed the game (I think this is the first year I didn't do squares which was kind of a bummer).
Now that it is February and I'm pushing my way through "the wall," there is a lot coming up that I'm looking forward to. Since a lot will be going on, I'll definitely try and post a little bit more and take more pictures. Once I get a CDs worth of pictures, I'll let you know and I can send one to whoever wants it. The first big Mardi Gras parade is Saturday night so it looks like the insanity is about to begin. Hopefully I'll be alive when it's all over. Talk to y'all later.
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