We are Back, Safe and Sound

Our Sheil group of twelve students, Fr, Ken and myself have made it safely back to Chicago. We returned Sunday evening the 18th of December. The entire trip was a blessed experience and the students were more than a joy to spend time with during the Advent Season. God's Grace was so prevalent during this trip, from our hosts Fr. Tony Rigoli O.M.I and Bro. Andy Lawlor O.M.I., to the beautiful people of New Orleans and our work sponsored by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

I want to thank all of you who have kept our group and the people of New Orleans in your prayers, for your support and interest in this Sheil Service Project. I want to thank the students for their hard work and commitment to one another. And finally, I want to thank Fr. Ken for making this program possible by his vision and the resources he has in place at the Sheil Catholic Center.

There are so many rich experiences to share and we would like to invite you to join us sometime mid-January to meet the students and hear their stories and reflect on this aspect of our faith journey and community at the Sheil Catholic Center. Tim Higgins Campus Minister

The Crew in Costume!

Friday... last day of work

Hello everyone and many happy greetings from all of us down here in New Orleans! This is Noel, and I'm excited to be able to share a little bit about our experiences during this incredible trip. Today was our last work day, as Cathy mentioned, and we finished our hard work with lots of success. It's amazing what God allows our bodies to handle when we are working so hard for such an amazing cause. We've had few injuries (except for Shannon but she's doing wonderful :) ) and our fatigue has not dampened our spirit in all that we have done here in New Orleans. I find it to be crazy that it can already be Friday when I feel like I just got here and have so much more to give.

As for today, we took a ride around St. Bernard's Parish. This part of New Orleans was absolutely devastated by the flooding. All week people kept telling our team that despite everything we had seen so far we still had seen nothing yet. And, boy, did we ever see it today. This portion of the city was hit not only by the flood waters but it also withstood extreme wind damage. We saw neighborhoods upon neighborhoods with homes falling apart, garbage everywhere, cars and boats tipped over, deserted streets... I kept thinking to myself that it felt like we were in a different country that had just endured an awful war. It was an eerie drive, and I felt myself wishing for it to be over with because one can only handle looking at so much destruction for so long. The massiveness of the damage is often very discouraging but what I've come to realize is that every little bit helps. We have done so much as a team in the last 5 days. I am so honored to be a part of this group of wonderful people. We touched the people of 5 different homes and that is really something to be proud of. When you look at it piece by piece instead of this gigantic challenge, the obstacle that the city of New Orleans has been dealt becomes a lot more manageable. I speak for the group when I say that we are just so happy that we were able to give of ourselves if only for a short time.

On to some lighter stories...
Our car rides today were quite enjoyable. We have found that dancing to crazy music while in the car has proven extremely effective in trying to pep us up even in the toughest parts of the days. Today my car, full of Maureen, Cathy, Emily, Martin and Shannon and myself, of course, danced around (while in our seats) to cheesy 90s dance songs while the camcorder was passed around enough so that everyone in the car got their share of embarrassing air time. Needless to say, we have made time for lots of fun and laughter on this trip.

Cathy and I gave our talk tonight on Catholic Social Teaching which focused on our responsiblities to God's Creation. It was shared that ultimately we hope to strive to live in harmony with nature, trying to have a mutual respect between humanity and the world. So often we find ourselves trying to dominate or control nature, and a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina challenges that thinking. God's "handiwork" on this Earth carries more power than we will ever understand. I've found that to be so evident during this trip as I have witnessed what several feet of water can do to one family's home let alone an entire city. Perhaps as we try to rebuild the city of New Orleans, which will happen without a doubt, we can make sure to understand the relationship we are meant to have with one of our greatest gifts, the Earth.

Tomorrow is our last full day here, and I'm sorry to see the trip end. We will spend our Saturday sleeping in (FINALLY!), exploring the city a little more, shopping and enjoying each others' presence. This trip was more than I could have ever hoped for and perhaps, in a way, one of the best Christmas presents I've ever received. Just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful posts we have received from our friends and family. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to leave the wonderful city of New Orleans which has become our home for the last week. God bless.

~Noel

Our Last Day of Work

Greetings from Father Tony's computer here at St. Judes, New Orleans!!

For four of us (Cathy, Joe, Shannon, and Tim), we commenced our day as usual in the early hours of the morning. It was about 5:30 am when we left for our morning run. For the rest of the crew, the day started at 6:30 am with morning prayer followed by a delicious breakfast. Brother Andy made tasty pancacks that made my mouth water. Yummy.

Then, it was off to work. We were all so motivated to end this day with a bang and go all out in our work. When we arrived at the site, we learned that there were only a few rooms in the house that needed to be gutted. So off we went. Charged with Brother Andy's pancacks, we quickly removed the carpets, dry wall, and panelling. After cleaning up the rubble off the floor, we moved on to the ceiling.

Before I continue, I must explain that at this point, we were all working in the living room. In other words, all 15 of us were in only one room, whereas in previous sites we filled an entire house with our presence. Therefore, as we went on to conquere the next obstacle and clear the ceiling, crowbars were up ripping at beams and bringing down sheet rock. It was really crowded and for the first time I felt it was a little dangerous. As I (Cathy) was picking up pieces of sheetrock, two beams, which Martin was working on, smacked the back of my head as they fell to the floor. Luckily, I escaped with no injury. However, minutes later, as the room was filled with dust and particles of fiberglass from the installation, I heard a warning. "Watch the ceiling!", someone called out. Everyone tried to duck out of the way as the ceiling caved in on us. It was a little scary, but we thought everyone made it out alive. Then, as I went outside for fresh air I noticed Shannon holding her forehead. Apparently, we all didn't escape the impact of the ceiling. A piece of sheetrock hit Shannon on the forehead. Father Ken quickly put ice on her forehead and she recovered. Despite the quick recovery, she left with a battle wound--a bump similar to the ones you see on a cartoon character protruded from Shannons right side of the forehead. Currently, Shannon is feeling great and the swelling has gone down tremendously.

With the ceiling cleared and installation finally removed, we speedily finished the remainder of the work. After work, we went for a drive through St. Bernard's Parish, which Noel wrote about in her commentary.

As day turned to night, we had our daily reflection, followed by another rememorable dinner. Then, we thanked Father Tony, Brother Andy, and Johnny for all their hospitality and presented them with Northwestern gear.

Thanks for reading and go on to read Noel's portion of today's other events.

Work Day 4

Today was a short work day. We began as usual with morning prayer, which Cathy gracfully led, followed by a great breakfast consisting cereal, cinnamon buns, fruit, and breakfast burritos (so good...). After breakfast, Father Ken went to the fridge to retrieve his lunch bag which read "F K" only to find 11 other lunch bags which read "F K" as labelled by Julia and Maureen (you don't know us!).

Before returning to Roseann and Joycelyn's home, the group went to see one of the broken levees, which surprisingly was only about 5 blocks away from the house. This particular break at the London Ave canal was about 75 feet wide (by our amateur measurements) and there was still a lot of standing water in the streets near the break. The impact of the break had been so strong that it pushed a house out into the middle of the street--about half a block from where it had been.

Afterwards, we returned to Roseann's house where Martin, Cathy, and Emily sprayed the wooden studs with bleach to kill and prevent mold. About a third of the way into the process, they ran out of solution and refilled the tanks. Cathy was under the impression that the water in the gasoline tanks was already mixed with the chlorine. They didn't see the bottles of bleach anywhere, so they refilled with the "solution" from the gasoline tanks. After almost emptying that round of spray, Emily started to suspect that something was not right. She tested the solution on her purple shirt, which failed to change in color. They had sprayed almost half of the house with water. After finding the bottles of clorox behind the wheelbarrow, they successfully redid the water soaked walls and finished the house. Sadly, we did not get the chance to say goodbye to Roseann and Joycelyn, but we hope to be in touch in the future.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was disembowling (GRRRR!) the contents of an extra-large garage filled to the brim with...ummm...black...muddy...smelly...foul...rotting...drenched...stuff. Father Ken and Jaimee were the first to cross into the abyss. Right away, a highly-efficient system of shovelling, trashing, wheelbarrowing, trashcan-toting, and dumping emerged. Within two hours, most of the contents were removed and we began to strip the walls, ceilings, and floors. At one point, Father Ken was demolishing long shelves in an over-crowded garage and our Jaimee came within inches of losing her face. But thanks to the heroics of Martin, she was whisked to safety by our hero. In other words, he pulled her a few inches away from the falling wood.

Then an unexpected situation sobered our normally pumped-up mood. All of a sudden, those of us in the garage heard wailing come from somewhere near the door and turned around to see the distraught homeowner who had not expected the garage to be emptied so soon. She kept asking about what we had found because many of the contents of the garage had belonged to her now deceased father. After Adam, Neil, and Deacon John (the Catholic Charities dudes) managed to calm her down, we were able to show her the tools that we had salvaged from the mess. They had helped her sort through the trash piles, but explained that nothing else in that pile was salvagable. Adam commented that she had not yet been able to let go.

Her response was especially understandable because the only living relative that she had was a cousin who had chosen not to help her and she had been scammed by a demolition crew who charged her two-thousand dollars and only completed half of the work. She had no other choice but to hire another company for $1500 to finish the job. Luckily, the second floor of her home was largely spared. And by the time she left, she began to talk about the future in a more positive light. Before she got into the car, she thanked us for our help and told us that she would have a mass said for us.

By noon, we had finished gutting and cleaning the garage. The rest of our time there was spent eating lunch while Joe, Noel, and Tim disinfected her house with bleach solution. Afterwards, Deacon John talked to us a little bit about the history of the levee system and the future of New Orleans and the rebuilding process. He gave us a lot of hope and expressed the need for more money to support the work of Catholic Charities since the money runs out fast as the need for more tools and supplies quickly depletes the supply. But he really emphasized the need for people to come to New Orleans to continue the work done by groups like us. He said that we need to get the word out about the long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina and needs of the city.

We can only hope that the experiences we're sharing on this blog and in the future inspire others to continue to serve our brothers and sisters in *N'Awlins*.

Martin and Maureen

Over the hump!

Well, we are over halfway done, and although our wrists, feet, and backs might disagree, we are excited to have two more days still. It is amazing how efficient and fluid our teamwork has become. I will give one example from today. After ripping out a couple layers of flooring from the front bedroom, Noel and I were told that we had to pull up every nail in the room, spaced 4 inches apart across the whole floor. Once we got started, more and more people joined us. A feat that might have taken the 2 of us an hour or more got done in about 20 minutes. As Julie and I talked about Solidarity tonight, we all thought about how our exprience here in New Orleans is bringing out the unity within both the Sheil group and the New Orleans community. Although disasters like Katrina are devastating, they also cause people to come together, united by the common human bond.

The day was spent cutting down the women's house to siding, roofing, wood floors and plywood. This included much floor scraping, nail pulling, wall and ceiling smashing, and our ever-favorite cockroaches and mice. Julia and Martin had a little tousle with a few mice in the back bedroom, consisting of one running up Julia's leg, jumping on Martin's head (well, almost) and getting chased out by a crow bar. No screaming from Father Ken today, but he did have a little spill off the ladder, although thanks to Noel for breaking his fall, there was no harm done. The emptying of the attic today was quite a job, with only a few breaks in the assembly line. Joe just couldn't resist a good prank. As they handed down boxes, Joe and Julia would say "heavy" or "breaking" or "fragile", etc. After a "really heavy" box he told Cathy that the next one is even heavier, so as she braces for the handoff, he tosses it in the air! Thankfully she had no trouble because it was actually nearly empty. Another funny joke was when I was prying tile off the bathroom wall and the ceiling starts falling in on me! Apparantly sheet rock from an attic view looks like a sturdy place to stand (thanks Father, no harm done). I guess I deserve it for grazing people with falling pieces of ceiling earlier this week.

Well since you all are jealous and wish you could be knee deep in moldy clothing, spend 2 hours emptying an attic, or haul a dripping toilet outside, there are endless opportunities for you to do this! There is such a great need for more and more groups to come down here and help out. Keep checking in on our blog (or "blob", as Father Tony has renamed it) and keep praying for the Grant family, Roseanne and Jocelyn, and all the other people who have lost something.

Shannon

Day 3 (Wednesday) New Orleans Service Trip

Hello everyone we're all fine and well and made it through another day. Today started out at 7AM with morning mass. Maureen started the mass out with a beautiful guitar melody and accidentally dropped the guitar and consequently made the guitar out of tune (oops). Charles said a reading and Father Tony's homily centered around the idea that we are hope for the New Orleans residents. We ate a great breakfast (awesome Tastee doughnuts) and were energized for the day. We went back to the same house (Roseanne and Jocelyn) as yesterday and got to work. Many great moments occured throughout our 7.5 hrs and Shannon and I (Julie) will recap a few. Johnny, our friend from the Covenant house, made a cross that said "Rest in Peace" for Roseanne and Jocelyn's deceased neighbor Mrs. Beverly. She refused to leave her home when rescue workers arrived because she did not want to leave her pets. It is sad because the woman did not have any family. Roseanne and Jocelyn said that they missed her today because she would always come out onto their front lawn and talk and would have enjoyed all the youthful faces. No one has come to clean out her home and it has been three months.
At the end of the work day when we finished cleaning and gutting the entire house, Roseanne and Jocelyn were extremely pleased with our work. I think they now have a sense of hope because they can begin a new life. The women even commented that they wanted to restore the hardwood floors. I was shocked because the floor seemed to have to be ripped out because it had been under water for three months. The women are already making plans for what their new house will look like and that brings me joy.
After a wonderful Gumbo dinner prepared by one of the St. Jude of the shrine parishioners (I was sooo happy because I wanted authentic New Orleans cuisine before I leave tomorrow) we had a guest speaker from Loyola University in New Orleans. The Professor of Statistics and Research Methods talked about how Katrina will affect the socioeconomic structure of the city. Some of the facts he stated were: 30% of New Orleans residents did not have access to a vehicle and that did not include people without a reliable car; 80% of city population left by Monday; New Orleans relies on nonprofit social services (10%) and almost all evacuated so the city was left with limited aide; East New Orleans was not prepared for the devastation like the 9th ward (which is flat and always floods) and did not expect the levy to fail; 1.5 million New Orleans residents were homeless within 24 hrs. so whatever networks wouldn't be sufficient due to the large scale disaster. Father Tony also commented that the press "made the people of New Orleans look like monsters and the African American community are gentle and loving people...they repeated the same looting scenes that were so exaggerated and it wasn't true...I feel extremely safe."
The facts that the professor noted made me feel more like the people were unprepared for this natural disaster and did as much as they could to escape. Father Tony's closing comment is true and I feel very safe and at home in New Orleans. Everyone at home please keep praying for us and don't believe all the bad press...the city of New Orleans will be back in no time and better than ever
*Julie

Roseann

I didn't get a chance to write about my talk with Roseann yesterday, so here it goes:

Roseann and her sister, Joycelyn, are the owners of the home we gutted for the past two days. Both are life-long New Orleans residents and had been living in their home for the past 27 years, over a quarter-century. Roseann retired two years ago as a secretary in the federal government and Joycelyn planned on retiring soon as well. You can only imagine how Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath changed their plans.

John video-taped her narrative of the events that followed Katrina, and I wouldn't do her justice if I tried to retell the whole story. Here's the short version (and you can watch the DVD with the interview when it comes out). When Katrina hit on August 29, Roseann, her sister, and her 84 year old mother evacuated their homes for a tall office building in the city. When the levee broke and that part of the city had been flooded, the New Orleans police came by in a boat to take people to the Convention Center. Roseann had to wade water chest-high to get into the boat. Many of you heard about the chaos that went on in the Convention Center, and you probably, like myself, got the impression that people falsely followed rumors that there was help at the Convention Center. It especially seemed that way when Michael Brown, then-head of FEMA, said in an interview with Ted Koppel that he was not aware that people were at the Convention Center (to which Koppel appropriately responded "Are you serious? Have you not been watching TV?" But as Roseann's case shows, many people were brought to the Convention Center by authorities who told them help would be there.

No help would come for 5 days. None. Thousands of people were put into the Convention Center, where, as we heard in the news and as Roseann confirmed, chaos emerged. Roseann told me about teenagers running throughout the Center causing trouble. Gangs began to fight, and eventually rumors about bullets being fired spread like wildfire, causing a stampede in the Center. One elderly man who Roseann had befriended was sleeping at the time and he could not get up quickly enough to avoid getting hurt. Roseann said she was scared for her life, and especially the life of her elderly mother who could not get around by herself. For the next few days, Roseann and Joycelyn sat on both sides of their mother to protect her, with at least one of them staying up at all times.

In addition to the violence, the conditions for those 5 days were inhumane. 5 days without water. 5 days without without food. 5 days without medicine. 5 days without a clean bathrooms (Roseann says feces and other unmentionable human waste caked the floors of some women's bathrooms). 5 days without security. Just put yourself in Roseann's shoes and imagine that kind of situation. We are not talking about a third-world nation--even the tsunami response, Roseann points out, occurred within 24 hours).

Eventually, Roseann was brought to Texas where she said she was treated really well. Afterwards, she and Joycelyn brought their mother to California to stay with their uncle. In October, two months after the Hurricane, they came back to New Orleans and were overwhelmed when they saw their home. The rest is described by the other bloggers. Like I said, it is difficult to retell Roseann's story, but it did give me and others she told an opportunity to empathize and feel her pain, anger, and hope.

-Martin

It's only the second day and already I'm digressing

Lots of work and Darth Vader-esque heavy breathing. (I'm not kidding - it felt like all we needed were red lightsabers and we could be in battle, but I digress.) That could sum up the day, but that's not all that went on. Oh, this is Charles, by the way. Anyhoo, today we made good on our promise to the nice ladies we ditched yesterday morning (it wasn't really our choice) and returned to their house at 8 o'clock (I think we were a tad early) to start the real work.

The house was a mess. The storm and subsequent flooding and other random water-related incidents had pretty much wrecked the house; the place was so waterlogged (it apparently had been soaked/moist for the past three months, really) that in some of the rooms where we took down walls and plaster it was easier to actually kick in parts of the wall rather than use the tools that were provided. I, for one, became friendly with a crowbar as I rather excitedly took down many square feet of wall (but, like everyone today, I was not stuck doing just one thing today). As a great many people in the group had noted, it isn't often that we actually get to destroy stuff for volunteer work.

We were pretty darn efficient today. We were greatly focused on the task at hand (i.e. gutting a house) and we almost finished the entire house today. We are good. Oh, we found random living things in and around the walls today, for example some rather sluggish cockroaches that apparently had come in, carried by the flood (maybe they were sick? Well, it doesn't matter now - they're dead).

Speaking of animals, one of the things requiring removal (we were taking out everything out of the house save for the frame and the windows) was a rather overgrown refrigerator. While all of us had our respirator/gas masks on because of the mold that covered all of the walls between 2-4 feet above the floor, we could still smell the putrid stench emanating out of that pit of rot. But again, I digress. The most notable thing about that "fridge" was that a rather live rat pounced on Fr. Ken, who let out a bloodcurdling scream (but with that respirator on, who would have known) as the rat almost overpowered him in its quest to reclaim the house for itself. Then the rat saw Tim, and one glance was enough to make the rat beat a trail to the door. Alas, though I embellish this tale of yon mighty rat, it escaped ere we could make more jest of it.

But more importantly, today was a serious day. I think the next entry (time-wise) will be from Martin, who spent about a half hour interviewing one of the owners of the house we were wrecking (did I say we make great home wreckers? - Julie is probably the best of us) as well as some time getting all of our work on "film." The things we heard from Roseanne about the first few days and nights of Katrina were eye-opening to say the least. Martin, I'm sure, will expand on this, so I'll start winding down and actually add some of my thoughts and reflections today.

I'm personally not really fond of looking at suffering while not doing anything about it. That doesn't mean I'm queasy or faint of heart or weak in any other way, but that means it was difficult to look around New Orleans, the Big Easy, as we went to work today and yesterday. The destruction (and incompetence) wrought by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent storms are like nothing man has seen before. While I was actually working, I was mostly focused on doing the job at hand, but during breaks and lunch, my interest was piqued by the clear, almost cloudless sky, and how in a few short months it will be deadly again. Usually not much really fazes me, but this is not usual.

Later tonight, Jaimee and I were doing reflections and we had some prayers to close that I had found last night while almost "winging it." I think they are rather poignant and relevant, and I hope all of you out there to whom our love goes (and hopefully is returned) can also pray this for us and for all victims and the oppressed.

Prayer for Basic Rights:

Lord of Wisdom,
awaken us to our duty
to care for the basic needs
of all people.
Strengthen with hope
people denied
their human rights and freedoms.
Provide us all with the voice
to cry out for justice
for the poor and the oppressed.
Amen.

Prayer for the Poor:

God of Justice,
open our eyes
to see you in the face of the poor.
Open our ears
to hear you in the cries of the exploited.
Open our mouths
to defend You in the public squares
as well as in private deeds.
Remind us that what we do
to the least ones,
we do to you.
Amen.

I'm always trying to come up with something really deep and insightful, but apparently I'm not really capable of it tonight. Plus everyone else is complaining that I'm hogging the computer. So good night everyone, sweet and pleasant dreams, and keep us in mind and heart as we keep you. Thanks.

The story goes ever on and on...

Story time seems to be the synopsis of the last 24 hours. We have heard so many different points of view not just about Katrina but a hilarious sharing of embarrassing priest moments courtesy of Father Tony. It’s amazing how lives cross paths. One of our dinner guests tonight was a man from Chicago who has come to New Orleans to build roofs for a local contractor. Another one of our dinner guests, the Grant family shared with us their situation. They had no warning except for the flood water rushing into their house and a single boat passed by to rescue them and whisk them away to one of six different places, they would spend the next three months. After finally making it back to New Orleans, there was no where they could stay and they have yet to see if any of their stuff has survived. What surprised me the most was the story of the two sisters whose house we gutted today. They were sent to the convention center and went four days without food or water. I was never surprised by the city flooding, it’s below sea level in a hurricane area, it was bound to go under sometime. But, listening to the way people’s lives have been affected and still are, there is no gas or electricity in most of the homes only one hospital in the entire city is open and grocery stores are few and far between, it’s just sad that as Americans we can’t do more to help out. The only thing that gives me hope is the resilience I have seen in all the homeowners to get their family back together, their communities, and even their city.

~Jaimee

The First Day of Work

Greetings from New Orleans! We arrived safely on Saturday evening, in case anyone was wondering. Today was our first day of actual work. Yesterday, Sunday, we went to mass at St. Jude's Shrine where Fr. Tony, our host, is the pastor. It was an amazing mass with wonderful, joyful music. Starting this week of service with the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, is going to make a big difference in the work we do here. Fr. Tony spoke about finding joy in the present, amidst all the sorrow and pain of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Most of the people at the mass had lost family members, friends, homes, possessions, etc yet we were able to rejoice together remembering the joy of Christ and the hope of the days to come. Joe and I led our first reflection on Catholic Social Teaching this evening and we focused on the second principle - the call to family, community, and participation. Mass yesterday was a coming together of the community which is what supports us in our work here in New Orleans.

We went on a driving tour of the area yesterday as well. Some of the ride was spent in stunned silence as we saw houses that had been moved by the flood to the middle of the street, cars vertically leaning on trees, and the forboding X-marks on every door made by the search and rescue teams, signalling when the houses were searched, if any pets were found, and most importantly, if any dead bodies had been discovered. We have all seen pictures of the devastation in newspapers and on the news but they are just snapshots of the city. We drove for over two hours and saw the destruction everywhere we went in some form or another. There is no way to fathom the vast area affected without being here and driving along the streets yourself.

Our day started this morning at 6:30am (although the insane runners of our group were out on the streets "exercising" much earlier) with morning prayer. We were at what we thought was the first job site by 8am. Our plans were changed at the last minute this morning however, and we were supposed to simply meet the Catholic Charities representatives at the house we were originally scheduled for and follow them over to another house that needed to be finished from some work yesterday. While we were waiting though, the women who lived in the original house arrived and the joy on their faces when they saw us there to help was heartbreaking, because we knew we would be going to another site today. We will go back there to work tomorrow. When we got back in the car to drive to the other site, we were all a little upset, I think, and Fr. Ken reflected that we got a little taste of what it must have been like to be a rescue worker and to see all the people who needed help but not being able to give everyone what they needed at that specific time. It was a somber way to start the work day but we let it pass and focused on the good work we were going to be doing over the course of the week.

~Emily

Joe here, first time "blogger". As Emily said, media "snapshots" of the area do not do justice to the devestation around here. Denise from Catholic Charities came to talk to us and used a mind-blowing example. A group of volunteers from Christmas in October sent 7,000 volunteers for one weekend (to somewhere other than NO), and they fixed up 450 houses. In New Orleans there are about 280,000 uninhabitable homes, and Catholic Charities has about 2,600 volunteers currently lined up. Although not all the rehab work is done through Catholic Charities, they help those in the community who do not have the means to fix up their homes, i.e. the elderly, the uninsured, and the disabled.

Being immersed in the environment here has already given us several opportunities to have conversations with the people here. Everyone is excited to share their story and tells us of the enormous hope we give them by being here. In fact, we have a personal tour guide, John. He is a nineteen year old runaway trying to make a life for himself in his hometown of New Orleans after Katrina. His stories could fill a book and bring tears to your eyes. Almost to the effect that it is reassuring that the world has not forgotten the people here. Not only do we have the chance to hear about the victims' stories, but also the paid workers hauling away all the rubbage. These workers come from all parts of the country, and are trying to capitalize on the huge supply of jobs. Many work over 70 hours a week, live in tents, and have to pay money for a hot shower. The city is bustling with bulldozers, bobcats, front loaders, and dump trucks constantly going and coming. It is hard to imagine that people will try to salvage what is left of their house.

Our work today could be described in one word: destruction. To give you an idea, our tools include: shovels, brooms, spades (to scrape sheet rock), pry bars, and hammers. The two houses we attacked were mostly done, and we basically took out the ceiling, the wiring, the duct work, and some plumbing. We finished both houses today, and we left them with a finished outside and just a wood structure inside. Like most lives here, the houses are starting from barely nothing. All 15 of us found our groove at the first home, destroying, cleaning, and hauling ruble to the street. By the second house, we were working on all cylinders, and it was truly by God's good grace that no one was knocked with a spade. In the end, two houses are ready for work, and everyone escaped injury free, and with all fingers and toes.

Of course, I must include a humorous story. Since guys and girls are staying in one floor, we don't have separate bathrooms. So at the beginning we had to figure out a way to shower, without seeing people's other sides. I suggested to Charles that guys shower at the same time, then the women. However, at the group meeting, Charles said, "the guys should shower together". Unfortunately, someone had to add "separately" at the same time to clarify.

That's it for today, people are anxiously waiting to use the computer out of curiousity to see pictures of a certain someone's significant other. Please, please add comments, we will check them each day, and relay the messages to the group.
Joe