Wednesday - February 23

Our Team Bloggers for today are Rachel Berkrot and Alex Salvatore - aka our two brave females among all these adolescent males:

A thick fog blanketed the atmosphere when we returned to 3010 Gen Ogden Street for our second day of work this morning.  Our team has begun to get into rhythm as we continue our job painting the house’s interior.  Though we were initially intimidated that our Americorps worker, Anne, wasn’t there to guide us, we quickly realized that we knew what we were doing.  Everyone jumped to work: cutting in around windows and room’s edges, finishing up with primer, and rolling egg shell white on the house’s walls, base boards, and ceilings.  A troop of volunteers marched through the halls holding the doors that were finished yesterday.  We (Alex and Rachel, that is) spent the majority of our workday crammed in closets, painting every corner, ignoring the claustrophobia and the paint that stuck in our hair and on our arms.  At our water break, everyone on the team emerged, their bodies covered in a fresh coat of paint.  We only worked a half day, but were extremely productive, finishing the first coats of paint in almost every room.  People in the neighborhood have been increasingly appreciative of our work, waving and thanking us as they walk and drive by.  It’s uplifting to see the direct effect we are having.

We took the afternoon off to tour New Orleans by car.  We learned the city’s history all the way from the 1700’s. We were struck by how diverse the city is and always has been.  Our guide explained that this diversity, apparent on almost every block, in every neighborhood is one of the many things that makes New Orleans unique.  Because of it, everyone was affected by Hurricane Katrina.  Rich, poor, middle class, lower class, everyone.  As we drove through the many neighborhoods learning the history, our guide took time to tell us how high the water had risen in each region.  We grew used to the eerie repetition of, “Five feet here, Three feet here, Ten feet here, Fifteen feet here.”  While many houses have been fixed up, revived, and rebuilt, still many more remain exactly as they were after the hurricane struck almost six years ago.  Roofs are still caved in, windows still broken, and trees still strewn about lawns.  We were shocked by how much of the city is still in ruins.  Abandoned houses (present on almost every street) have numbers and letters spray painted on their fronts.  The bottom number on each house is the number of bodies that were found in the house upon entry.  Other information includes the group that entered the house for the first time and the date it was entered.  Some have excess words spray-painted such as “GAS OFF” or “DOG.” 

Though our tour was nothing short of distressing, our guide, a life long resident of New Orleans, was hopeful.  She said, “A lot of good things came out of the devastation.  We’re rebuilding neighborhoods, fixing up a corrupt school system, and electing more honest government officials.  And we have groups like you coming down to help.”  She assured us that things were looking up.  

This is Michael our Australian member of the Louisiana 10 team.

This is a better shot of Michael.

Our rollers all wrapped up and ready for us tomorrow morning.