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).