work day- numero 1

So today we split off into two groups:
three vans full went to different parts of Broadmore, the town in which the mission is located. Mine (Grady) went to a house at which our task was to prime and paint all of the wood parts of the house. Thankfully, the house had a lot of plastic siding but this still took our group most of the day, right up until it started to rain. We all got good at maneuvering ladders to reach high places and using paint rollers to cover the maximum amount of wall space the most efficiently. While we were working on the front door the residents of the house came in and out a few, but did not say much, though they seemed happy when an intern from the mission came to discuss the progress with them.

Four vans of us headed down to the Lower 9th Ward-- we were working for NENA, the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association.
On the drive we noticed how different it felt from the main roads we'd traversed last night. All the houses were dilapidated, with chipped paint, caving roofs, and spray paint on the walls. We saw a few people on various stoops, but for the most part it seemed very deserted, and a lot of the houses un-lived-in. Almost all of them still had large spraypainted X's on the front left over from the first few weeks after the storm, full of desperate attempts at organized recovery. In the top section of the X, recovery workers jotted the date, and in other segments were the numbers of survivors and bodies found.

We arrived at our worksite: a block of jugle-ish brush. The government charges the owners of the land $100 a month because their lots are overgrown. Our task: to clear the land. It was daunting to break into the field of shrubbery, but within an hour we were seeing fast progress. We weeded, wacked, chopped, hacked at stumps and dug up roots. Before lunch, we had already mowed and raked two lots-- watching the finishing touches was incredibly gratifying. We were sweaty and caked in dirt, but it was so satisfying to watch these clean-cut lots emerge where before there had been only unmarked jungle.

We were also incredibly happy when around 2 in the afternoon the ice cream truck passed, and David graciously got us all frozen deliciousness.

We got home around 5, took remarkably refreshing (and super-fast military-style) showers, and after dinner met in the mission's sanctuary to talk to a CA grad who has been doing recovery work here for the past year with the Louisiana Recovery Association.

He talked about the difficulties of rebuilding infrastructure, prioritization, and the love of place and spirit of home you find here. He stressed how much he loves this place he's discovered, describing it's melting pot atmosphere like a classic Louisiana gumbo.

We hit the French Quarter around 7. It was full of bright lights, busy streets, and beautiful European-inspired architecture with pillars cast iron railings around balconies. The French Quarter luckily was not hit as hard as other parts of the city during the storm.

It's almost 10 (lights out) so we have to wrap it up, but we're happy to be headed off to bed after a satisfying day's work.

Pictures to follow tomorrow morning when we get our technology figured out.

-Grady and Sandy