Saturday day 8

Going home, or are we?

Arrived to the airport 2.5 hours before flight. 

Ice and snow in Dallas, flight from New Orleans is cancelled.

Hundreds of people in line because AA has their hub in Dallas and three counter agents. Wow. They do not care about their customers. American Airlines SUCKS! Stood in line for two hours. The nice airport management from the New Orleans transportation authority gave us water.

Managed to get four students onto Air Canada without time to spare. No goodbye, no group hug, not a nice ending after a great week.

Four of us are stuck in NOLA, leaving Sunday for Miami and then to Montreal. Luckily we got the last two hotel rooms near the airport after a long and stressful day. Winter plays havoc with airlines.

Big shoutout to Raz, Kaitlyn, Ashley and Eve for traveling back to Montreal solo. Not the travel day you expected but thank you for being so brave and understanding. I am super proud of you.

Friday day 7

Finished off the week painting the exterior of an opportunity house. The house is for sale to a New Orleans family within a required income bracket and with special financing terms. This ensures that all people can afford quality housing and it provides Saint Bernard Project with some cash flow, I think.

As you can see, the ASB group is a team. We lent a hand by volunteering and our hands learned new motor skills, our hearts learned new forms of caring and we opened our minds to learning outside the classroom.

If you come to New Orleans do three things:

Volunteer or be of service.

Enjoy the city, there are many fun things to experience.

Go home and tell the truth about NOLA in a balanced story between hedonism and a community in need.

Thursday day 6

It was easy to take ownership of a house, after three days we felt attached to the house. Today we completed the drywall and we finished our three days with Paris and Michelle, the site supervisors. We learned a lot and gained more than drywall skills. We met a SBP home owner, a Katrina survivor. Her story was beyond moving and she was greatful to have her home in New Orleans. Her story about staying alive for nine hours by holding onto a post while neck deep in water tugged at our hearts. But then we had more drywall before we could finish our day. We stayed an extra 45 minutes to help finish and give the job site a good clean-up so the tape and plaster crew can start working Friday.

The evening debrief is alway enjoyable. Maybe not having internet is a blessing, we are talking and listening to each other. The house has no heating and the nights are cold and damp, about 5 celcius. What is better than snuggling in your sleeping bag and talking about life?

Wednesday day 5

Today was all about teamwork and drywall. We worked hard, covered in drywall dust and learned to feel comfortable on a construction site with power tools. The house on Pratt Drive

Day 3. Monday

Our first volunteer day.

Out the door at 8 am. 

Volunteer orientation at 8:30 with Saint Bernard Project.

Off to find our first house.

9:30 house orientation, "what is your favorite pizza topping"?

10:00 filling in cracks along the fireplace, painting, scraping bricks clean above the fireplace and cleaning used rollers and paint pushes. We got to try a variety of tasks today and we worked in a house with three supervisors. There was also two other groups on hand and working. One group from a methodus church in Cincinnati and a second group from non profit in San Francisco. We worked quietly and we all ate lunch together. Of course the topic was food, chili and poutine. Some of the volunteers have been coming to NOLA for ten years! 

The house style is called a shotgun because you can see the front door if you are in the far end of the house in the back room. This house was being from a two family back to the original 

Day 4. Tuesday

Out the door at 8:00.

One not so fast pit stop and we arrived at the new build site.

The order of the day was skilled labour, putting up drywall.

Measure,

Transfer to the drywall

Double check

Cut

Dry fit

Screw

Cut outs for pipes, Windows extra.

Dusty and tired and looking forward to home made pizza.

Day Two, Sunday

Made it to sleep at 1AM last night. We have the upper floor to ourselves. Two bathrooms, lots of beds. But of course all the popular kids are in one room and that does not include me.

Sunday, we need to orientate ourselves to the city. Find a grocery store and be at the museum for 11am. After that we are free to our own wonderings. The plan is to pack a bag lunch and stop at Cafe de Monde for a snack.

Easy navigating around town, with GPS. Feeling lucky to be in shorts and t-shirts. We spent the day gearing up for volunteer work by being total tourists. We drove to the French Quarter and spent five hours wondering around Jackson Square. 

1st stop was the museum exhibit, KATRINA, Hurricanes and Beyond. Highly impactful. 

2nd there was free time to wonder, listen, see, smell, taste. No one made it far before a street artist captured our attention.

3rd we split up. One group walked the sea wall at the Mississippi River, the other group found alligator jerky.

4th. We found each other at the Cafe de Monde and got a table and 15 beignets to share.

www.cafedumonde.com/

5th we had a picnic lunch after our donat dessert. Then everyone was free to explore for anther 60 minutes.

Thought of the day? Privilege. 

The privilege of living in a warm climate vs Montreal

The privilege of traveling for spring break

The privilege of entering the museum for free

We also listen to Street performers, a family of young children working for donations, living out the back of a van with Tenasse licence plates. What privileges do they have? What do I think about child labor? 

We can see the poverty, the people, the neighbourhoods, the infrastructure. But the tourist industry is upscale. A contrast between two economic and social realities.

Chicken and baked potatoes in the oven for dinner, early to bed. Tomorrow the real vacations starts, volunteer orientation at 8:30am, with Saint Bernard Project.