I know its long, its more for my benefit than yours, My Week doing relief work in New Orleans!
Ok
Now that Im all back to school and settled in, Im pretty ready to write about my week in New Orleans. It was probably one of the most emotionally and physically demanding and intense things I have ever done, but I would not have wanted to spend my spring break doing anything else...it was just....amazing...
so, here goes..
Friday 10th- woke up early with Trisha, Melanie, and Nicky who had slept over my house and we went to Bradley airport...being poor college students we bought the lane tickets that were the cheapest, meaning we had 2 layovers on the way there. Plane rides went well...first stop was Detroit, we got some food and took off for Memphis and then finally after an hour in Memphis...we flew to New Orleans.
We had to get a cab to Common Ground, which was the relief organization we worked with which was located in the Upper Ninth Ward, which is the poorest section of New Orleans. THe Ninth Ward is also the section that got hit the hardest. It was around 10pm when we finally reached the Common Ground Community center and we met up with some other people frokm MCLA. Since the assignments for relief work were already established for the next day, the four of us volunteered to wake up at 430am and do kitchen work til around 1. After we figured out the assingment we had for our official "day 1" we followed the other MCLAers who were with us over to St Marys Elementry school. St Marys is a 3 floor school,making it the most elevated building in that neighborhood. During the storm, over 200 people took refuge there for over a week, until they were finally air lifted off of the roof. If you go to the third floor and look at the chalk boards, you can read the messages that people wrote while they were trapped in there. 1 man died because he was a diabetic. The room I stayed in was on the second floor. It was really eerie because the lesson plans from the day before the storm were still written on the boards in the classroom and it really put into perspective how their world just stopped. Everyone from MCLA shared a classroom to sleep in.<3
Saturday 11- WE woke u at 430 am and went down the kitchen area, which was back at the community center, 8 blocks away. While walking, the sun was coming up and you could really start to see all the damnage that surrounded us. Every house had spary painted markings on it. On the top of the marking was a date, which was the day the house was inspected. Under the date, there was usually the letters TFW in a circle. This stands for Toxic Flood Water. What happend was, there was a factory somewhere that got washed away during the storm and all the toxic chemicals got into the water, and contaminated the houses. To the side of the TFW a lot of the times was the symbol NE which stood for "No Electricity" There was no electricity in the area, and St Marys ran off of 2 generators, but they broke a lot so you needed a flashlight at night. The last thing that was spraypainted on the housed was a number. The number stood for the amount of bodies found. sometimes there would also be a message like "dog missing".
The kitchen work mainly consisted of prepping breakfast and lunch for everyone in common ground. I washed dishes and peeled garlic. Thats where I met The Superheroes. The Superheroes are a group of people who ride around the country on their bikes and when they see something that needs help, they stop and they help. They have had their camp set up there for a couple months now. They actually dress as super heroes too. When I met them, they just ran up to Mel and I go "EXHIBIT A! SUPERHERO! GARLIC STEAL! AWAYYY!!" and they stole handfuls of garlic and ran away. One of them was dressed as superman and there was a whole in the butt of his costume and I saw his butt haha.
When we finished working in the kitchen we spent the resta the day cleaning out this old house for all the spring breakers who couldnt fit in the school to sleep in.
That night the resta the MCLAers got there and we had orientation. I joined Team Sunglasses at Night.
OverView!
This is how a basic day went after that, since I dont feel like typing each day individually anymore.
Wake up call- 6am
Breakfast-630 am
Morning Meeting-730 am...this is where we all went over what work needed to be done that day. There was also this guy who thinks hes a pirate and has a big truck called the Jolly Roger and he would tell a Pirate Joke every morning. The only rule to a Common Grounds Pirate Joke is that the punchline has to have an arrrrrrrr sound in it. and you have to stress the arrrrr sound like a pirate.
After morning meeting you would get your gutting assingment and head over to said house. Since the houses has black mold inside and were rotting away, we had to wear full tyvex suits, work boots, latex gloves with work gloves over them, and respirators that you pretty much couldnt breath in. Work day was pretty much from 830am-430pm. The walls were so rotted that you could punch through them with your fist, we had hammers and sledge hammers though. A lot of the times the owners of the house were there and would help you out. Sometimes they werent there and when we cleaned out the houses to be gutted we would have to put all the stuff we could possibly save to the side for owners. This got really depressing. This one mans house had a closet full of mardi gras beads everywhere which werent ruined. I also found some old photographs of his daughters graduation that I put asside, but I had to throw away a lot of them cause they were so damaged. It was completely heartbreaking. Then in one of the closets, the man had his record collection...I swear there was stacks and stacks...prolly over 200 records...Motown,Blues, Jazz, Rock...everything. They all had to be thrown out. Between that and the pictures, I was crying.
After 430 we went back to St Marys and would shower...in the coldest showers in the history of showers. House gutters had to do it though cause we were contaminated. A couple of nights after all the work was done though we went out and relaxed and had some fun. I went with my team to French Quarters which was like tourist city. All strip clubs, bars, neon lights, and gift shops. It was pretty awesome though...I had some amazing sea food. They have these seafood grinders with this mayo/tabasco sauce stuff on it called a Poboy...AMAZING!
The next night we all went to a baseball game. A college team had helped out common grounds so common grounds people went to support them. On the way there we drove past the SuperDome. It was pretty intense. The game was so much fun too!
The night after that...we hit up Frenchman Street, which was the coolest thing ever. Dory, Mike, Becky, Meghan and I stopped at the convenience store and bought cigars and then walked 40 minutes over to Frenchman. First we had dinner at this amazing resteraunt with the best calamari ive ever had. Then we went to this bar called the Spotted Cat and there was this AMAZING jazz band that played and we smoked the cigars. It was like a scene in the movies. The perfect new orleans experience. To top it off though, there was this old guy...prolly like 75-80. He walked in the bar with a fancy cane, a bowler hat, a cool suit and these fancy jazzy shoes...and he just...danced...like he literally rocked out to the jazz music. PERFECT!!
I miss Nawlins!
(Pictures to come soon!)
Now that Im all back to school and settled in, Im pretty ready to write about my week in New Orleans. It was probably one of the most emotionally and physically demanding and intense things I have ever done, but I would not have wanted to spend my spring break doing anything else...it was just....amazing...
so, here goes..
Friday 10th- woke up early with Trisha, Melanie, and Nicky who had slept over my house and we went to Bradley airport...being poor college students we bought the lane tickets that were the cheapest, meaning we had 2 layovers on the way there. Plane rides went well...first stop was Detroit, we got some food and took off for Memphis and then finally after an hour in Memphis...we flew to New Orleans.
We had to get a cab to Common Ground, which was the relief organization we worked with which was located in the Upper Ninth Ward, which is the poorest section of New Orleans. THe Ninth Ward is also the section that got hit the hardest. It was around 10pm when we finally reached the Common Ground Community center and we met up with some other people frokm MCLA. Since the assignments for relief work were already established for the next day, the four of us volunteered to wake up at 430am and do kitchen work til around 1. After we figured out the assingment we had for our official "day 1" we followed the other MCLAers who were with us over to St Marys Elementry school. St Marys is a 3 floor school,making it the most elevated building in that neighborhood. During the storm, over 200 people took refuge there for over a week, until they were finally air lifted off of the roof. If you go to the third floor and look at the chalk boards, you can read the messages that people wrote while they were trapped in there. 1 man died because he was a diabetic. The room I stayed in was on the second floor. It was really eerie because the lesson plans from the day before the storm were still written on the boards in the classroom and it really put into perspective how their world just stopped. Everyone from MCLA shared a classroom to sleep in.<3
Saturday 11- WE woke u at 430 am and went down the kitchen area, which was back at the community center, 8 blocks away. While walking, the sun was coming up and you could really start to see all the damnage that surrounded us. Every house had spary painted markings on it. On the top of the marking was a date, which was the day the house was inspected. Under the date, there was usually the letters TFW in a circle. This stands for Toxic Flood Water. What happend was, there was a factory somewhere that got washed away during the storm and all the toxic chemicals got into the water, and contaminated the houses. To the side of the TFW a lot of the times was the symbol NE which stood for "No Electricity" There was no electricity in the area, and St Marys ran off of 2 generators, but they broke a lot so you needed a flashlight at night. The last thing that was spraypainted on the housed was a number. The number stood for the amount of bodies found. sometimes there would also be a message like "dog missing".
The kitchen work mainly consisted of prepping breakfast and lunch for everyone in common ground. I washed dishes and peeled garlic. Thats where I met The Superheroes. The Superheroes are a group of people who ride around the country on their bikes and when they see something that needs help, they stop and they help. They have had their camp set up there for a couple months now. They actually dress as super heroes too. When I met them, they just ran up to Mel and I go "EXHIBIT A! SUPERHERO! GARLIC STEAL! AWAYYY!!" and they stole handfuls of garlic and ran away. One of them was dressed as superman and there was a whole in the butt of his costume and I saw his butt haha.
When we finished working in the kitchen we spent the resta the day cleaning out this old house for all the spring breakers who couldnt fit in the school to sleep in.
That night the resta the MCLAers got there and we had orientation. I joined Team Sunglasses at Night.
OverView!
This is how a basic day went after that, since I dont feel like typing each day individually anymore.
Wake up call- 6am
Breakfast-630 am
Morning Meeting-730 am...this is where we all went over what work needed to be done that day. There was also this guy who thinks hes a pirate and has a big truck called the Jolly Roger and he would tell a Pirate Joke every morning. The only rule to a Common Grounds Pirate Joke is that the punchline has to have an arrrrrrrr sound in it. and you have to stress the arrrrr sound like a pirate.
After morning meeting you would get your gutting assingment and head over to said house. Since the houses has black mold inside and were rotting away, we had to wear full tyvex suits, work boots, latex gloves with work gloves over them, and respirators that you pretty much couldnt breath in. Work day was pretty much from 830am-430pm. The walls were so rotted that you could punch through them with your fist, we had hammers and sledge hammers though. A lot of the times the owners of the house were there and would help you out. Sometimes they werent there and when we cleaned out the houses to be gutted we would have to put all the stuff we could possibly save to the side for owners. This got really depressing. This one mans house had a closet full of mardi gras beads everywhere which werent ruined. I also found some old photographs of his daughters graduation that I put asside, but I had to throw away a lot of them cause they were so damaged. It was completely heartbreaking. Then in one of the closets, the man had his record collection...I swear there was stacks and stacks...prolly over 200 records...Motown,Blues, Jazz, Rock...everything. They all had to be thrown out. Between that and the pictures, I was crying.
After 430 we went back to St Marys and would shower...in the coldest showers in the history of showers. House gutters had to do it though cause we were contaminated. A couple of nights after all the work was done though we went out and relaxed and had some fun. I went with my team to French Quarters which was like tourist city. All strip clubs, bars, neon lights, and gift shops. It was pretty awesome though...I had some amazing sea food. They have these seafood grinders with this mayo/tabasco sauce stuff on it called a Poboy...AMAZING!
The next night we all went to a baseball game. A college team had helped out common grounds so common grounds people went to support them. On the way there we drove past the SuperDome. It was pretty intense. The game was so much fun too!
The night after that...we hit up Frenchman Street, which was the coolest thing ever. Dory, Mike, Becky, Meghan and I stopped at the convenience store and bought cigars and then walked 40 minutes over to Frenchman. First we had dinner at this amazing resteraunt with the best calamari ive ever had. Then we went to this bar called the Spotted Cat and there was this AMAZING jazz band that played and we smoked the cigars. It was like a scene in the movies. The perfect new orleans experience. To top it off though, there was this old guy...prolly like 75-80. He walked in the bar with a fancy cane, a bowler hat, a cool suit and these fancy jazzy shoes...and he just...danced...like he literally rocked out to the jazz music. PERFECT!!
I miss Nawlins!
(Pictures to come soon!)