We got back into the city around 11pm last night--all looking forward to hot showers and our own beds. I think pretty much everyone on our team has expressed desire to go down to help again soon--hopefully over the summer. There is still so much work to be done. We never saw FEMA, and barely saw the Red Cross.
We stayed in St. Bernard Parish at H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People in Everyway). Its just across the bridge from New Orleans. Common Ground Relief (www.commongroundrelief.org) is based in Orleans Parish, and does a lot of their clean up work in the Ninth Ward. H.O.P.E. branched off from them in January to create a center based in St Bernard Parish, working with those communities to rebuild. They have set up a distribution tent, offer a grocery delivery program and a propane exchange program, and go out and gut and treat houses in the area. They are set up in a big church that has been gutted and is in the process of being rebuilt.
There is a kitchen set up outside, two showers (mostly cold water) and some toilets and sinks set up. We slept on cots in a large room. The people who run this are so selfless and amazing--there are probably 10-15 who are staying there long-term. When we got there, another school with a group of 60 were working there as well. This was the biggest group H.O.P.E. had seen so far, and were still adjusting to expand everything to the needs of a group that large. This week, they have about 100 volunteers coming through, which is awesome that they are growing so much and that so many students are spending their spring breaks doing this.
Tuesday-Friday we drove out to a town called Phoenix in Plaqumines Parish. Its in the country, and a lot of the residents are gutting and rebuilding without any help. A guy named Morris started a distribution center out of a trailer and a gutted church--called Zion Travellers. He started up with the help of H.O.P.E. and has the same community-based idea as them. His wife Patricia had the best smile and energy, and cooked us some great lunch while we worked with them. He sent us to a house owned by a 90 year old man, Mr. Summers (who is moving along great for 90) and his wife, who is diabetic and in a wheelchair. Their trailer was right next door to the house we were gutting so we met them. It was also hard, and heartbreaking to see him wander around looking at all the ruined things we were pulling out of his house.
The house started out as three rooms, and he's added on over the years, so we had to pull out about 7 layers of flooring and a couple of wall layers in some areas. Because it was so layered it took us longer than we anticipated to gut, and only finished it up on Friday--but now another crew is going to come in and pull out all the protruding nails, and then spray everything with a solution to get rid of the mold.
