| Christ Church New Orleans Blog 
The Mission Group from Christ Christ Church Parish is in New Orleans for a week. We are working with the Episcopal Diocese of New Orleans (EDOLA) and Habitat for Humanity efforts to clean up, fix up, and help provide housing for residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina in September of 2005. Our contingent of more than 100 is divided into 17 working teams, each dispatched to a specific destination each day. With God's help each day we will make a difference-however small or large. This is our story.
June 22 -- Friday
Kathy C.: More than 120 people went on Christ Church’s mission trip to New Orleans. We ranged from middle school to retirement and were organized into teams of seven people with a van and a driver/team leader. I was on Team 11, along with Carlo (our intrepid leader) and Mario Colella, a friend from work, another friend and her son, and my son Michael. A particularly enjoyable aspect of the trip was the many friends and family of fellow parishioners who came along with us. It was great fun to meet extended CCPK family.
On Team 11 (and I am sure for other teams as well), our first miracle each day was the fact that three 16-year old boys were up (though not necessarily awake), dressed, and ready to leave the hotel at 5:45 a.m. This in itself seemed like a sign that we could do the unexpected and the difficult, an important reassurance given what we quickly learned about the enormity of the task before us. I mean this in terms of both the long, physically taxing work days and the extent of remaining damage to New Orleans and the surrounding communities.
What Words Can’t Describe (But I’ll Try)
Everything you have heard or read about post-Katrina New Orleans is true. The devastation is breathtaking and ubiquitous, stretching far beyond the now famous 9th Ward. I cannot imagine anyone visiting here and not being appalled that a country with so much has done so little after so long. The area is slowly recovering, primarily because of the work of local residents who have stuck it out or returned and volunteer groups like ours working with the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana (EDOLA), Habitat, or Rebuilding Together. However, the area still has a long way to go.
After two years, Katrina’s thumbprint remains everywhere. Team 11 was assigned along with six other teams to build Habitat houses in Slidell in St. Tammany Parish about 35 miles north of New Orleans, on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain. Each morning at 6:00 a.m. we drove 40 minutes out of town on I-10 over the lake, passing damaged office buildings, empty retail stores, boarded-up schools, closed medical clinics, and houses with roofs so rotted that vines grew out of them (a perverse twist on Green Building). Outside of the city, we drove by mile after mile of battered and abandoned housing complexes that straddled empty shopping plazas with plywood windows and weeds consuming the parking lots. One apartment building with a hole punched in the roof still has HELP written in large white letters across it. I-10 also goes through a wildlife preserve that is now riddled with blackened trees snapped in half backward toward the Gulf by Katrina’s spiraling winds. The area between the north side of the lake and Slidell saw 220 mile an hour winds and a 28-foot storm surge.
Wildflowers and Groundcover
The extent of the damage seemed overwhelming when the most we would accomplish in a week was “progress” on seven houses. What kept us from feeling futile was the evidence of recovery sprouting up amidst the devastation. Like wild flowers and groundcover after a forest fire, life is returning here. Downtown, the Garden District is lush and elegant. The French Quarter hums with that famous music, food, and bon temps spirit. Landmarks like the Riverwalk, Audubon Park, and the Rock ‘N Bowl are equally vibrant. We enjoyed them all. Sprinkled throughout the city, FEMA trailers parked in front yards signal homeowners’ intention (or hope) to rebuild. A few neighborhoods, like historic Broadmoor, have about 60 percent of the homes occupied, if not fully repaired. Out I-10, you can see some houses being worked on, a brand new Toyota dealership, and individual establishments like Cora’s Day Spa and Ralph’s Cajun Café and Barbeque with “Open for Business” blazoned across the roof. Nearer Slidell, stretches of operating commercial districts and occupied residential communities represent something closer to normalcy. Home Depots, church outreach centers, and Habitat ReStores are everywhere.
Grit and Grace
Katrina still marks the people here as well. You find it in their faces, their stories, and their heartfelt, “Thank you so much for being here’s.” Resilience as well as loss molds their sense of purpose. Our construction boss, Rock, lives in Slidell, survived the storm at home, and took a 50 percent cut in pay to work fulltime for Habitat after Katrina because “it was the right thing to do”. About two hours into the first day, everyone’s name at the site had become “Darlin’”, (easier to keep track of us, I guess). Although a pretty gritty guy, he was patient and appreciative of our efforts, even when telling me, “Darlin, that there’s real nice drillin’ but those porch boards are upside down. Take ‘em off and turn ‘em over.” It is easy to feel humble here.
Many members of our group worked with EDOLA in the city, gutting houses and serving in the mobile respite and medical clinics. EDOLA runs one of the largest recovery operations in the state. One morning when our mobile respite team was stationed near the 9th Ward, a city transit bus cruised by, stopped, and backed up. The driver jumped off, ran over, and hugged a couple of our crew members who were handing out cans of Vienna sausages, toilet paper, detergent, and Chapstick. Shaking hands, she said, “Thank you for coming. Thank you for all that you are doing here.” Then she climbed back in her bus and continued on her route. Another team from our group put the finishing touches on a woman’s house in the upper 9th Ward. The day the team left, three of the boys who worked on the house interviewed her. To help share her story, she put on what she called her “Katrina outfit”, the clothes she wore when she evacuated and spent nine hours stuck on I-10. Her son was stranded in their house for six days before being rescued. She hasn’t seen him since. Yet another woman lost all of her children and grandchildren in the hurricane, but this was her home and she was profoundly grateful to have someone helping to rebuild it.
As I said, it is easy to feel humble here.
These are but snippets of the lives continuing on in New Orleans. Everyone has a story, which usually also involves an incredible sense of frustration over battling with FEMA, unemployment, and insurance companies just trying to get the resources to move forward. In between skirmishes and fulltime jobs, people like my friend (a school psychologist in New Orleans public schools) are mucking out, gutting, and rebuilding their homes on their own—and then waiting a year for electricity.
Starfish and Air Conditioning
One of our challenges on the trip was wondering whether the difference we made individually was significant enough given the scope of the problem. We learned, though, that every small step counts. (See The Starfish Story below.) However small, our work contributed to recovery for someone and rewarded us in turn. I think one of our younger participants, Erin Keane, summed up the overall experience well. She described the first few hours of one day picking up trash along the side of the road in the sweltering, sticky heat as “the worst morning of my life.” That afternoon, still in the oppressive heat, she joined a mobile respite team handing out basic supplies. One woman selected her items, looked up, and gave Erin a huge smile of thanks. “And that,” Erin said, “was the best air conditioning I ever could have wanted.”
Hope and Opportunity
The Bishop of Louisiana came to church the Sunday after we returned from New Orleans. In addition to saying, “Merci Beaucoup” for our efforts, he talked about the serious social and economic problems facing the city (exposed as much as caused by Katrina), including racism, poverty, and economic and educational segregation. He specifically spoke about the desperate need to improve education for children in the area. Above all, though, he emphasized that everyone who comes to New Orleans reinforces for the people who live there that their lives matter and that they have not been totally forgotten by a distracted nation. It doesn’t matter if you are slinging a hammer or eating Crawfish Etoufee in the courtyard at Café Amelie in the French Quarter, (both of which I highly recommend). Just being there brings hope and opportunity to an incredibly battered yet resilient community and people.
And what we brought home in return, I believe, was grace, gratitude, and perhaps just a little grit.
The Starfish Story
Note: At one of our evening gatherings, we were told the following story and a given a starfish pin to remind us that all efforts to help others, however small, can make a difference.
There was once a wise old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. One day as he walked along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dance. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man, and the young man wasn’t dancing, but instead was reaching down to the shore, picking up starfish, and very gently throwing them into ocean.
“Good morning! What are you doing?” asked the wise man. The young man paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The sun is rising, and the tide is out. And if I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”
“But young man, don’t you realize that there are miles of beach and thousands of starfish all along it? You can’t possibly make a difference.”
The young man, listening politely, bent down and picked up another starfish, throwing it into the sea past the breaking waves. Turning to the old man, he modestly replied,
“It made a difference for that one.”
After Trinity Church Service
 Virginia S. The photo of Bill and some of the committee outside Trinity Church following our evening service and before we headed out to Audubon park for a picnic and to walk the labyrenth.
June 21 -- Thursday
A New Orleans Story (Calvin S.)
To do justice to the story of New Orleans−think of the death of love.
I can think of no better way to describe the experience I have had here in a city of love. The people are a witness to tragedy but still know God's will and love.
This morning, the WalMart manager who has been helping me provision our Teams on their daily assignment, taught me about love for God−faith in God−trust in our Lord−and the love of our God for us.
When I picked up sandwiches for Christ Church at 4 in the morning, he and I joined our hearts in the parking lot as he told me his story.
I choked up and teared as he described how his family lost their history. But I choked up and teared the most as he spoke of God's will, his love of God, and God's love of him.
He told me how they are safe and are rebuilding. He told me of a company− WalMart−that has been there for New Orleans through this tragedy, and he said he blessed people like us who continue to pour their souls out to help New Orleans.
He knew the enormity of the task and told me to tell my people that they make a huge difference to each person they touch. He told me what a blessing we were and acknowledged us as God's love and care of those to whom we have been sent.
He and I choked up and had tears in our eyes as we acknowledge that we would see one another only one more morning at the 4am Christ Church sandwich run.
I shall truly miss my friend!
We bonded in God's love!
I am tearing as I close this note. Thanks be to God − for it is actually a prayer.
Working Through EDOLA
 Each morning the Teams assigned to EDOLA breakfast at the hotel and caravan to the EDOLA warehouse in the Lower 9th Ward, a depressing area to drive through, transitioning up Canal Street from the tourist centered hotel/casino/restaurant area to boarded up businesses, blocks and blocks of derelict houses.
There are about 26 interns are busy loading Episcopal Dioceses Disaster Relief trucks with tools, water, and materials needed at various home sites. Katie announces which team will work with 2 or 3 interns and tells a little background info about each site. Then in 2s and 3s, trucks and vans disperse around the city for a days work.
One Team will be mucking out a house that has stood untouched for 2 years. The task will be to clean it out. Wearing masks, hardhats, glove and goggles, we troop in and start moving out everything movable. Then shoveling begins to rid the floors of debris, next the wall paneling comes down, and then clean up.
Another Team might be doing the final processing of a house. With claw hammer and crowbar we pull leftover drywall nails and screws and then sweep up as much loose material as possible. EDOLA will turn the 'cleaned up' house back to the owner who will at some point decide to rebuild, sell, are demolish as emotions and funding allow.
Today one team started at a house site that was in the rebuilding process. Cutting and putting up insulation bats was followed by putting up scaffolding and then measuring and cutting drywall to size. The taller of the group got the fun of putting the drywall on 12' high ceilings. A second team got called away from the drywall site to do the final nail pulling at a small home that was almost ready to be turned over to the owner, who happens to live in a FEMA trailer in the front yard.
Throughout all of our days our Teams are lead by the interns. We rarely stay with one set of leaders throughout the whole day as they get called away to another project. But universally they are a great crew of dedicated young people who are committed to helping the homeowners find closure to the devastation that struct 2 years ago. Interestingly, many are from Grinell College in Iowa, recruited by Grinell graduate Katie.
They are instructive, cautious with all safety issues, and immensely patient in dealing with a daily changing cast of
7 to 12 volunteers. They make the EDOLA disaster relief effort work.
St. Anna’s Medical Mission (Team 16) (Marcia C)
 Over the past few days we have seen a variety of clients at the St. Anna’s Medical Mission mobile van. Some have pre-existing medical problems but have been unable to connect with any stable medical care, either due to lack of funds, medical insurance or transportation or their physician never returned to New Orleans after Katrina. Others have new problems like rashes, earaches, abdominal pain, depression and hypertension.
Today we saw many Spanish-speaking immigrants who have come to the area as day laborers at construction sites. The resilience of the New Orleanians who have come back is amazing, but it does take its toll. One woman we saw today witnessed the death of her significant other as she tried to resuscitate him from cardiac arrest 4 weeks before Katrina then lost her home and business in the storm. She used her insurance money to pay off her mortgage and keep her property, but she is living in a FEMA trailer next to her gutted home, without money to rebuild the house or pay for medical insurance. Recently she began having panic attacks and has become depressed.
Another man had a heart attack while being evacuated to Texas after Katrina and had by pass surgery. He has not been able to take his medication or see a doctor since last August. Another woman returned to her home a few weeks ago and is rebuilding, but has not been able to get treatment for her hypertension until she passed by the medical van yesterday. One patient comes to the unit every week for her blood pressure and blood sugar check, mainly because she says all she can do is sit in her FEMA trailer and for her house to be rebuilt. Throughout all these woes, the people are polite and grateful.
A New Orleans Acrostic
by Barbara & James S., Kathy and Tom M and Tony C.
Mission to New Orleans
I see hope
So many individuals making a difference
Scraping the walls and floors
It's so darn hot and humid
One church with a big heart
New friends, young an old
A turning point in the life of Christ Church
Rejuvenation of the city and our souls
You're a missionary now!
Thursday Social
Tonight we all met at Trinity Episcopal Church for evening services. A wedding rehearsal was scheduled for the main sanctuary, so we gathered in the chapel, dominated by tall stained glass windows. Lacking a choir, we sang Amazing Grace. The service ended with a New Orleans ritual—following the cross out while singing “When the Saints Come Marching In”. The evening ended with a picnic in Audubon Park and quiet time and reflection while walking the stone labyrinth modeled after one at Chartes Cathedral.
June 20 -- Wednesday
Reflections from Team 6
 We have 44 teenagers on our trip. For some of the teenagers, the toughest jobs they do at home include washing dishes, taking out the trash, and mowing the lawn.
Here they're working almost nonstop painting, tearing down walls, and picking up trash in the New Orleans heat.
A few of the parents of boys and I have joked that their sons are working so hard because they're taking directions from beautiful college women, but the realty is that they're being treated like adults and they're working like adults.
The muscle power that normally goes into pitching baseballs and making goals on the soccer field is going into helping a city heal.
We are very proud of our youth!
Childrens Book Donations
 A note to all of the children, young and old, of Christ Church who donated their gently used books: Adele Mangipano of the Live Oak Elementary School picked up 9 boxes of books, videos, and art stuff yesterday. She sends her heartfelt thanks to you all for caring and sharing your books with her students. School will not start until late August, but she is already planning how she can have projects with some of the books. Live Oak Elementary School is on Constance Street in the heart of the Irish Channel (a section of New Orleans).
In our daily news notes to Christ Church we have included photographs of some of the parts of New Orleans that we have visited. Many of the children of Live Oak come from the more disadvantaged parts of the area and do not have any books of their own. The gift of a book that they can keep is a very special gift.
The EDOLA Process
The Episcopal Diocese of New Orleans (EDOLA) uses a well-defined process in their approach to providing disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The availability of these services is made known primarily through word of mouth and other referrals by other agencies. A home owner must apply to have EDOLA help them clean up and fix up their home. Once a house is accepted into the process, EDOLA volunteers proceed in four steps to clean up the site and return it to the owner. Often the trauma of losing their home and all of its contents–a family's heritage, sometimes possessions handed down through generations–and being relocated to some distance state leaves the owner uncertain as to what should be done. Can they rebuild, can it be fixed, should it be demolished, etc.
EDOLA provides the first step in a healing process by getting rid of the rotten clothes, broken appliances, damaged walls, so the owner has a place to start from.
We here to work under the supervision of EDOLA volunteers to do this work. The four steps in cleaning up a house are: 1. Remove the contents.-this means going into a house flooded two years ago when the levee broke. Refrigerators and stoves floated to ceilings, clothes in dressers and closets were soak with polluted water, TVs, VCRs, radios, CDs, records, family pictures–all the things families accumulate over the years are soaked; 2. Remove the trim from windows, doors, flooring, etc.; 3. Remove drywall and paneling; and 4. Remove the ceiling drywall, fixtures, etc.
Each step is followed by “sweep and shovel”. All of the debris is shoveled into wheelbarrows and buckets and piled in the street, sorted into 4 piles – electronics (VCRs, TVs, lamps, toasters, etc. ), hazardous stuff (cleaners, cosmetics, medicine, etc), trash (drywall, carpets, clothes, mattresses, couches (all other stuff), and personal possessions (photos, albums, any readable family papers, etc.) The hope is to save some special pieces of a past life in order for a person to move on.
June 19 -- Tuesday
Getting Down to Business!
 Teams going to work with Habitat for Humanity get an early start to reach the Habitat site in Slidell by 7am. These Teams are working at building new homes for qualified recipients. There are eight houses in various stages of construction. CCPK Teams are learned new skills, practicing basic manual labor, and gaining a sincere respect for power tools. At various times they have been backfilling a trench where a new water line was installed, added decking to a new porch, used power saw to cut siding to size and power nailer and level to install it, and climbed to new heights installing new roofing shingles.
 Habitat supervisors are good at what they but they have patience in dealing with volunteers, supervising, encouraging, detail- oriented staff who value the short time each volunteer group has to give to building affordable houses.
Habitat for Humanity builds new houses. The Episcopal Diocese of New Orleans (EDOLA) works with existing house that have been severely damaged by Katrina. CCPK Teams working with Habitat put up drywall, tape seams, install wood trim, paint, etc. - depending on the stage of completion of a house.
Working With EDOLA
 Teams 5 and 7 worked with EDOLA projects on Tuesday. The morning assignment was definitely 'down and dirty' at a historic victorian house being gutted. It may or may not be rebuilt, but EDOLA is working with a Green
Group that recycles materials from historic buildings for reuse in other historic structures. Architectural moldings, light fixtures, and hardwood flooring are all reusable. The assigned site had already been processed and now it was clean up time¯with sledgehammers and pry bars the guys and gals pounded away at tiled walls, metal lathe and plaster, and wood lathe strips. Everyone did a little bit of every thing, rotating among the tasks. Shovelfuls of drywall, broken tile and wood pieces were thrown out of the second story window into waiting wheelbarrows, to be emptied into waiting dumpsters. Everything removable was stripped from the studs. Three hours and a lot of sweeping and dust later, the assignment was done and we loaded up to go to our afternoon assignment in the St. Bernard area.
  This house had already been processed to the final step that EDOLA uses. The last thing is to ensure that all wiring is removed and nails are taken off the face sides of the 2x4 studs, then sweep the debris and the house is ready to
be turned back to the owner. The owner of this house lost her son in Iraq two months before Katrina flooded her home. Little remains of her former life and things her son left behind. There are similar heart rending stories behind all of the homes. EDOLA leaders share what information they have and we can get a sense of the personal lives, sorrows and hopes that are represented by the houses we work on.
Rock and Bowl Tuesday night!
 With the rain pouring down and a couple of whopping lighting bolts lighting up the sky, 85 members of the group assembled in the hotel lobby to dash through the rain onto vans bound for Rock & Bowl. Arriving at Rock & Bowl another dash through the rain led up to an entrance and steep stairs up to a bowling alley combined with a stage and dance floor. Tasty platters of finger food were set out while everyone got bowling shoes and started to bowl.
Six members of Trinity Church of New Orleans joined us along with Katie Williford their youth minister. Two of the Trinity girls are headed off to college in the fall and the other 4 kids are in middle school or the early years of high school. The Trinity kids were friendly and enthusiastic. Many of Christ Church youth met the Trinity kids and spent some time bowling with them. One of the rising college freshman thanked us and commented that “It’s people like you who are rebuilding this city.”
We continued to bowl as the band set up and started to play. We heard that the whole bottom floor of the Rock & Bowl building was flooded but upstairs where the bowling alley is, was spared massive water damage. The stores around Rock & Bowl are not coming back so the owner of Rock & Bowl is buying their property.
June 18 -- Monday
 The day started early for Teams 8 thru 13, assigned to work with Habitat. To be at the work site by 7am, breakfast started at 5:30am, followed by a 40 minute van ride to Slidell, LA. Following orientation, each van was sent to a specific home to work for the day.
Several members assigned to a Mobile Respite Unit went St. Paul's and then to the lower 9th Ward to distribute food, support and pastoral care. Coming together as a group to make a contribution – small or large – to the people whose stories we are getting to know is rewarding.
The day ended with most of the group dining at Mulate's, a well-known cajun eatery with great live music and dancing. Lisa and Scott Rickard are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary today with us.
Early curfews for all because Tuesday again begins as early as 5:30! Stay tuned – more tomorrow!
Working With EDOLA
Teams 1 thru 7, went to EDOLA where, in a warehouse full of tools and bottled water, we received a general  orientation of the purpose of our work and were assigned to a volunteer who would lead us to a work site and supervise our labor efforts. Maggie is an upbeat, no-nonsense 21-year old from Iowa. EDOLA's mission here is to gut damaged houses to a point where they are structurally stable to give the owner time to decide on his/her next step. Our homeowner is a mid-50's grandmother with a 14 year old grand-daughter who was relocated to Texas. She's still making mortgage payments on a totally unusable house, but it's hers.
The first step in the clean up process is to remove belongings, saving what is savable after weeks under polluted water. Next comes the removal of appliances, furniture, big stuff. That's been done in our house. Now we start pulling down all the wood molding and trim, from doors, windows, flooring, etc. to make it easier for the next step, which is to remove all the walls down to the studs.
Wallpaper, plaster, wood lathe all go into a debris pile on the road, to be picked up by Habitat contractors. With crowbars, prybars, gloves, and dust masks, we got that done. Then the rains came. EDOLA's policy is that volunteers should not work when thunder and lightning are around, so our first day ended earlier and we returned to the hotel and a welcomed chance to get cleaned up.
Teams 8 and 13 were assigned to Habitat and had a much more rigorous labor day – back filling trenches, putting up wallboard, taping, spackling, and painting.Their day also ended with afternoon thunderstorms late in the day.
 Evening prayer at the hotel was the first opportunity for the group to get together and share thoughts and experiences from their days' work at various sites. Frustration that two years after Katrina there is still so much to do and so many visible reminders of the damage to homes and businesses was a sentiment expressed by many. One team met the owner where the work was being done.
She is living in a FEMA trailer nearby and visited several times. Coming together as a group to make a contribution – small or large – to the people whose stories we are getting to know is very rewarding.
Recollections of Day 1, Team 1 (Steve B.)
 Team 1
Steve B., Michael J., Jacqui J.,
Abby B., Megan B., Lisa J., and Freddie M.
Today I met a friend I’d never known, whom I will not see again.
Help arrives in many guises. Today I met Barry and his mother, struggling to regroup and rebuild after a contractor took her money without completing the gutting job he was supposed to do.
We helped move some belongings out into the yard where they went into a tent or the newly remediated garage. During a break in our work, Barry was pleased to talk. He talked of his daughter, now in college with a full scholarship available to flood victims, how he had to convince her to go to school and not stay behind to rebuild. And how he was so proud of her, soon to graduate and begin medical school for pediatrics at Duke.
He spoke of the hurricane and the flood, how he had stayed through the ordeal, found a boat and paddled to rescue some of his neighbors. There were the dogs, his two and two others he had found. People he rescued were grateful and in thanks gave him the only thing they had at the time, food; food that would soon spoil. So, for a while, he ate well and he ate meat. So much meat that he fed the dogs well too.
Barry explained one of the most difficult things he’d had to endure was the loneliness. He lived alone in a FEMA trailer in his front yard. Thank goodness for the dogs, he’d said. He told us of the Jefferson county Sheriff’s department’s blockade of a bridge just after the hurricane, refusing to allow anyone to cross either way. Victims tried to cross to their relative’s homes on the other side and were denied passage. That and other incidents involving the police have left the citizens with a great distrust of local law enforcement. Barry believes that he lives in an occupied city- the National Guard still patrols the streets. The crime continues to be a problem. Stealing, robbery and murder are still prevalent. Throughout this though, he remained optimistic. He said he knew how to survive, but more so that he had kept his humanity throughout. He was comfortable with himself, confident he had done the right things. I appreciated his stories and his views. We hit it off. We shook hands several times, like old high school buddies who promised to stay in touch. We wished each other luck and he said “thank you.” I told him that if he could take anything away from our visit, it was that there are people who haven’t forgotten him or the other folks in New Orleans.
But I will not see him again.
Other Team 1 Notes
Exhausting! Day filled with debris, dust and dirty volunteers. Arrived at home of 'Miss Delphine' in the Gentilly neighborhood—a small four room home with a FEMA trailer in front. Our team cleared out most of the personal belongings to her 'mold-free' shed. The home suffered water damage she hopes to rebuild. Lots of trash was removed from the yard as well.
Her son Barry was present and shared his stories of survival for 7 days in his rowboat alongside his 2 German Shepherds.
He rescued a number of his neighbors and their animals before he left New Orleans.
A powerful thunderstorm raged during our lunch break and then we went to a 2nd site in the Lower 9th Ward.
Our Team donned new safety masks and goggles and valiantly followed the lead of Kenyon, our EDOLA leader, and did more demolition. This was a small home with irreparable damage where the water was 10 deep. Rotten floor boards, decaying ceilings dripping with water, soaked insulation, crumbling drywall, and personal belongings rained upon us as we tore up carpet, shoveled muck, and carried out termite and water damaged timber.
Our only company were the cockroaches zand an occasional army vehicle that drove by.
Dirty and very tired, we had completed our mission to help leave New Orleans just a minuscule cleaner than before we began.
It's not all work and no play!
 Monday night the group met at Mulate's for dinner and had a grand time. Great music, classic New Orleans food, and a lot of fun. A live band provided music and a few bold ones took to the dance floor.
June 18 -- Sunday
 A caravan of CCPK rental vans transported Mission participants to West End Park Sunday evening for a watermelon party. A stop at the 17th Street Levee gave Darlene an opportunity to share the details of the levee failure that left much of New Orleans, particularly the 9th Ward, under 3-12 feet of water. It took several days for the initial surge to level off, and many days for the water level to disappear. At the park, the devastation was clearl y visible. The park pavilions used to be surrounded by mature trees. Now only a few survive. At waters edge, the storm destroyed the several waterside restaurants, leaving only the tiled outline where they once stood. A scrawled message reminds the viewer of past good times.
At the park, the devastation was clearly visible. The park pavilions used to be surrounded by mature trees. Now only a few survive. At waters edge, the storm destroyed the several waterside restaurants, leaving only the tiled outline where they once stood. A scrawled message reminds the viewer of past good times.
June 13: Wednesday
 Eva N: Tina called from the Chicago airport to pass along a message from Deacon Quinn Bates. Deacon Bates has seen Calvin and says "that man is a warrior!" He was mightily impressed with (1) the packing job (Calvin's truck was jammed front to back, top to bottom, leaving room for nothing more than Calvin himself) (2) the quantity of stuff we brought them and (3) our organization. He would like to get a picture of our team with the stuff at some point. Deacon Bates told Calvin to get some rest, but suspects that Calvin went to Wal-Mart instead.
|
