chapter 2. so far.

at Camp Hope again.

or rather, at the new Camp Hope.

The new Camp Hope is very different from the place where we stayed last May. very different. the showers and overall facilities are nicer. but, IMHO, the spirit, the amazing energy that permeated the original Camp Hope is not here yet. the beautiful murals that thousands of volunteers created on the drywall at camp are gone. probably forever. also missing, a few hundred AmeriCorps volunteers (they're on vacation, will be back soon).

Some familiar faces, Dave from the old camp is here, i remember him, he had to be reminded of my name, but i understand, there's one of him, and a few tens of thousands of volunteers that have marched through the doors of both camps. Steve, one of the locals is around too. I wrote about Steve last May, his experience is still as heart wrenching as it was then. things have changed, but not that much.

The parish feels more together than last time. I don't think I'm imagining it either, there are more restaurants, for sure, and more dollar stores, and more finished homes, and there's more of a sense of purpose. or so i want to believe.

This time around one brick is working only with habitat for humanity and things are for sure different between habitat and the St Bernard Project. let's just say that the SBP has better project managers, and maybe because they're so small and their resources are so limited, they have learned to make the most out of them (or are getting there), habitat... well, there are times when volunteers idle around because there are not enough tools or ladders or whatevers, or just plain not enough to do for 15 people working on a single house. we are working on a total of 5 houses, 4 of them within a block from each other. while all 5 houses are at a similar state of completion, not one of them has the same things finished, our house has flooring. others don't. we're installing baseboards and door casings. but all our walls are textured drywall. other houses are painted but floor boards and flooring are missing. we're all still working on the outside, most of the siding is completed for all 4. most. outside paint also varies from house to house. ours is pretty much done (for all the siding we have completed), others are not quite there yet.

I have this stretch goal: prime the entire house tomorrow. i doubt we'll even get started. oh well...

At the habitat build i have: painted (with Ben and Ming) the house's 2 long sides (48 ft each?), that took the better part of 2 days. conquered my fear of extension ladders... well... maybe conquering is a bit of an overstatement, but i can climb up and down comfortably. puttied (is that even a word?) about 75% worth of a house's door frames and base boards. cut enough insulation for about 60% of the house's square footage (installed under the house). helped assemble the back steps. then disassemble because the sides where flipped, then assemble again, then disassemble because the cardinal rule of "measure twice, cut once" had been ignored. then assemble again only to realize the 2by4's we were going to attach the stairs to were not square, nor level... and this is new construction.... hmm... at least my little old house has the excuse of being OLD, and having being built BEFORE the era of power tools. as an aside, funny how easy i slip into the role of carpenter or woodworker apprentice/assistant. Tato has trained me well. no doubt about that. hell i even know when and where to find an extra cordless drill when the battery of the one being used dies and there are no extra batteries around. (i even can tell a ryobi from a dewalt drill just by sound alone)

so, now that you're caught up on the habitat build, allow me to wax poetically about how we spent Monday:

GUTTING the Mental Health Clinic.

Camp Hope Dave told me on Sunday night that we'd be gutting a clinic on Monday and working on a park. turns out that for once i got the inside scoop before anyone else :) (it's all in who you know) so when Monday came around, and the choices were laid before us there really was no question for me. gutting!!!!

I have to confess that the main reason was because in my twisted mind, there's way more glamour to gutting than there is to clearing brush.

So we arrived at the clinic and yeah... do we need to remind ourselves it's been over 2 years? yes, we do. it has been over 2 years and 2 of the buildings in the complex had not been touched. the third one was almost completely cleared.

2 effing years!

So before any work could commence we had to suit up in haz-mat bunny suits. and gloves, and masks or respirators (for those who managed to find cartridges), hard hats and goggles (pics to follow), and rubber boots.

A group set to working in the almost cleared building and you can read all about it at the one brick blog here. the rest of us sorta ambled towards the untouched, unopened for 2+ years mental health center. a bunch of very determined guys set to working on prying the front door opened. it took them maybe half an hour. the rest of us started working on one of the side entrances.

Imagine a building that got flooded to the rafters 2 years ago (Aug 29, 2005, to be precise). a clinic. imagine the water receding after 3 or 4 weeks. imagine the building sitting there untouched until 4 days ago. also imagine some of the windows were broken and rain water has continued to get inside since. i don't think i can describe what we saw. i can't do it justice, I'm just not eloquent enough to paint the picture of what we had to deal with: 4 inches of still wet mud (it had rained the previous week) covering the floor. sticky smelly wet slimy slippery mud.

Then there were the walls. you think you know mold? let me tell you about mold. you don't know sh*t about mold. you don't know the smell of it. you don't know the look of it. you don't know sh*t about it. and you don't want to. really, you don't.

Do you know what happens to a building when it gets flooded to the rafters? think about it for a moment. what do you think happens to the wood furniture inside a room when the room is filled with water? you got it, it floats. and it gets shuffled and then as the water recedes, the furniture just floats down and it lands where it may. now, what do you think happens to paper? to chair cushions? to carpet? to computers? telephones? filing cabinets? light fixtures? what do you think happens to drywall and insulation?

There's no way to describe the smell.

There's no way to describe the how dirty you feel. this is bad filth. saw dust? dry wall dust? soil? they're all CLEAN dirty. gutting dirty is not the kind of clean, healthy, dirty you've experienced.

First order of business: get the mud off the floor. second: get big objects off the rooms, in one piece if they will fit through the door, in pieces if they won't. third: take down the drywall and insulation.

Now try doing it all without fully functioning wheelbarrows. one team got creative and used wheeled garbage and recycling cans to cart off the crap. at lunch there was an uprising among the ranks: we need wheelbarrows. so a collection was taken and off to home depot we go. if anyone were to take a poll among those of us there that day, we'd all agree that the $200 or so spent on 3 brand new, top of the line wheel barrels was money well spent.

Did i mention bunny suits? did i mention it was a warmish day? what do you think happens when one engages in physical labor inside a plastic suit on a warm day? 'nuff said.

At the end of the day we had 2 enormous piles of stuff we took off the buildings. and we barely made a dent.

St Bernards Project in New Orleans Anderson Cooper 360 CNN

here's the youtube clip i mentioned earlier

that's my house!!!

well, not MY house, it's actually Les' home, but i worked on it for 5 days and i can't help but be so very happy that it's finished and the Sharfensteins are getting ready to move back in.

ok, let's start from the beginning: i got an email from Liz at the St Bernard Project today with a link to the video below. she mentioned that she was interviewed by Anderson Cooper in front of the Sharfenstein house, and yes, there she was, and there was Anderson, and LES!!!

so i called the only person i could, Bill. it's his house too.

SBP on CNN
(i'll try to embed the video later, you tube is undergoing maintenance at this time)

i made ceviche today

i had the brilliant idea of doing so yesterday in case Laura would be able to come over and hang out.
best idea i've had in a while.
got all my ingredients last night after consulting my dad's, shall we call it, recipe?

i don't know if it came out as good as his, because i haven't had his in years and i don't remember exactly what it tasted like, but i do know he makes the best ceviche in the world. mine came out pretty good if i do say so myself.

i really am lucky

and i have a wonderful life.

though, i sometimes forget, i do have a great life. good friends and family, a good job, a little house with the huge redwood tree, my stormy kitty cat who loves me, and good enough health to enjoy it all. and i get to live in one of the most amazing places in the world.

i'm not bragging, i'm not. i'm just reminding myself of how fortunate i have been. i am fortunate, and i am grateful.

i am grateful for the students and faculty exhibit at IMA, where my happy sox are happily hanging, surrounded by awesome pieces of art.
i am grateful i got to attend the CWO's fundraiser where i got to enjoy beautiful music in a very lovely and intimate setting. great food too ;)
i'm grateful for all the yummy food, drinks and wine i got to enjoy on and around my bday.

happy bday camp hope!

and happy bday to me...

(yahoo remembered!)

so i ask again, in case someone missed it the first time around, if you were planning on getting me something for my bday (the handful of you who usually do), i ask that you please, please!, please!!!! make a donation to either camp hope or the st. bernard project. please.

was it all a dream?

I'm starting to wonder if it actually happened. did i actually go to St Bernard Parish? did i meet all those wonderful people? did i spend an entire week plastering/sanding/texturing/priming?

it's starting to feel unreal, like a dream that happened to someone else.

the first week after i got back was brutal, i was not here nor there, my body seemed to have made the transition fine (10+ hours of airports and jets took care of that), but my soul? heart? essence? took a while longer to make it back. it seems to be mostly here by now, and that's why I'm starting to feel like it was all a dream.

so i force myself to remember, but it requires a conscious effort. though going back and reading what i wrote helps (as i knew it would). but i also think part of the problem is that i haven't been able to keep in touch with the one brickers who where such a huge part of my life for a week. Janet and I IMd a few days ago, and it helped knowing she's going through the same process as me. and Bill and I managed to talk for a few minutes yesterday. that helped as well, but it was very strange hearing his voice while standing in the middle of a park in the Richmond Marina on a COLD, WINDY, FOGGY bay area summer day. i associate Bill's voice with the hot, humid Louisiana weather, so there was that disconnect to process as well.

I was reading Ebony's latest post at the one brick blog many reactions to it: the same "beyond sad" feeling that i got while i was there. and the same anger that drove me to sign up for the trip and that kept me going when the sadness became too overwhelming. also, a sense of pride in her, and not a little bit of jealousy, i wish i had been able to stay. and, finally, a sense of longing for Camp Hope, and St Bernard Parish, and, essentially, for that one magic week where I knew what i did mattered at the most basic level that i was making a very tangible difference in somebody else's lives.

i need to go back.

i will.

thursday and friday - work days 4 and 5

i'm gonna left the one brick celebration/happy hour/mixer/social event for later. or just mention a few things:
-bourbon, 7up and a splash of coke... not bad, not bad at all.
-breaking into a new orleans cemetery at night ;) thanks Bill for showing us the way.
-watching Neal's primetime debut with him! woohoo!!! go Neal.
-bumblef*ck!

thursday:

no hangover... strange. i'm wide awake and functional at 630!!!! not only that, i'm actually perky?!?!?! bourbon seems to agree with me.

Bill left on thursday. no amount of begging convinced him to go back to the house and keep on sanding drywall. he claimed that he'd already plans to go to florida and meet friends. i don't buy it. i'm still convinced he made that excuse up just to avoid plastering one more day.

the cast and crew at the sharfenstein's house keeps shrinking.

textured all day (once we got the shutters open, that is. actually, it only took us 45min to get all of them up). mostly ceilings for me.

Les came by, he brought us beignets from cafe du monde!!!!!!!
I don't remember what we did after his visit. textured some more i assume.

we stopped at the St Bernard Project office because i wanted to talk to Zach about grant proposals. while we were there we got to hear more heartbreaking stories... it just never ends. a family came by to see if anyone could help them with an eviction notice they had just received. they were being evicted because their landlord found out the husband had gotten laid off. he got fired a few days after returning to work after having a work related injury and being out for two weeks. so let's recap, he gets injured on the job on a work related incident. he takes time off to heal (didn't get disability), he returns to work and gets promptly fired. then he's served with an eviction notice. an eviction notice that had been back dated by almost 60 days. so they have 3 days to get the hell out. did i mention they have a kid and the wife is 8 months pregnant? they're renters so there's not much Zach can do for them, he got them the address for Legal Aide in New Orleans. but you just feel like screaming. i mean, can't the St Bernard people catch a break?

one happy discovery: the St Bernard Project office has fast internet (probably average cable or DSL), but compared to Camp Hope, it's AMAZINGLY fast.

on Bill and Mitch's recommendation, we decided to go to Casanova's for crawfish. but they were out of food when we got there. big bummer. so back to camp for dinner. and then we started working on the One Brick mural. there's pictures of our masterpiece posted at the one brick blog. so go there and check them out.

Friday:

we didn't finish working on it until around 1am. which is why i wasn't too happy to wake up on friday morning. not at the sound of luggage being dragged back and forth. did i mention i'm not a morning person? and i didn't have any magic bourbon on thursday evening. friday morning was hard.

get up. get dressed. wash face. brush teeth. find food. pack food. back to the house.
Mikal and I arrive to find there's a delivery truck with the brand new windows Christina ordered. WOOHOO. i sign for them after counting against the invoice, and measuring everything. must make sure they are all there. i'm afraid of Christina's wrath. afterall she was a hard ass engineer in boston who would chew up contractors for breakfast. don't want to get on her bad side.


2 new cast members: americorps was kind enough to send us Heather and Amy. (i think those were their names. did i mention i'm not good with names?)

we tried opening the shutters. we failed. i gave up. so we concentrated on rooms with enough natural light to be able to work. we textured "my" room. and started priming. don't remember how much we got done. not nearly as much as we'd planned for on monday. but we did what we could. and, around 4, we called it quits. we cleaned up and locked the house one last time. on the plus side for the team that followed us, once they get the windows installed, there won't be any need to lower the storm shutters, so things will be easier (have been easier? i keep forgetting that time doesn't stand still, and it's been almost 2 weeks since i left).

Mikal agreed to give us all rides, to drop Emily at the office, make a quick stop so i could some pics and then drive back to camp.

we were just turning into Judge Perez Dr. when i saw the smoke. half a heartbeat later we heard the sirens. Emily demanded we follow the fire engine to the fire. so we did.

they put it out in maybe 5 minutes. and it didn't look as if it had jumped to any of the other nearby structures. again we ask: can't these people catch a break? a part of me keeps hoping that maybe they had fire insurance.

we left. dropped emily, i took the pics i wanted and we went back to camp.

i kinda figured before the trip that by friday i would need some solitude. so i made a reservation at the olde town inn. it's good to know myself so well :)

packed, didn't bother showering, but did change. the cargo pants i was wearing were covered in plaster and even i have standards. got a ride into new orleans with Janet, it was nice to hear Tiff the gps again. it was almost like talking to an old friend i hadn't seen in a while. hadn't "talked" to her since sunday. in many ways, it was a very long time. for all of us. except Tiffany, i don't think 'she' cared.

the olde town inn. VERY CUTE!!! my room was lovely, and if i had had a functioning brain i would've taken pics. suffice to say, i highly recommend it. i think i spent about 1 hour in the shower. i needed it, and it felt great not having to wear flip-flops to shower. i was planning on going out to dinner with the gang. but after getting dressed and ready i made the mistake of sitting down on the bed. and that's the last i remember. i totally passed out. woke up a couple of hours later all curled up in a corner sourounded by my stuff. thought about getting up and going out, decided against it. thought "at least get up and change to a pj and get into bed", decided against it. in the end i compromised on turning off the light and stretching. woke up i don't know how many hours later (light was off, couldn't tell anymore) by then it was chilly enough that i agreed to get under the covers (yes, i do argue with myself from time to time. i hardly ever win those arguments).

woke up at 7am on sat morning. about 12 hours after i passed out. i so needed that.

breakfast was included so i made my way to the breakfast garden room. LOVELY. i decided there and then that i want a garden. and that in my garden i'll have a swing. swings are great. everybody should have a swing.

i met an older Spanish couple and we talked for a couple of hours. they were on a tour of the US. she spoke very little english. he didn't at all. so they were happy to find someone to talk to. very interesting conversation.

then i headed out. some shopping still to be done. and some time to kill before my flight. went to the american aquatic gardens. awesome place. reinforced my desicion of having a garden. and i decided i also want a fountain. then i walked down charters st. went into the idea factory. really cool store, so many very neat wood things. walked some more made it to Jackson Square. cool art. one painting reminded me of my own "winter sky". then i saw advertising for the vatican mosaic studio exhibit. i'd walked by the Ursuline Convent earlier without noticing. so i walked back because, well, i had to. humbling experience to say the least. and then back down? up? Charters to the Lousiana Music Factory for some cds by local artists. and then to cafe du mond where i Janet was going to pick me up to go to the airport. in there i ran into more one brickers!!!! yeh!!! got to say goodbye in person to Albert, Emannuel, Sherry, Jen and Beth? was Beth there? i kinda remember her being there, but i'm not sure, i may have imagined it.

had my last 3 beignets. sigh.

our flight was delayed, but since we had a REALLY long connection at chicago anyway, it didn't matter, i mean, wait in new orleans or wait at midway. no big difference. ran into Neal at the airport, he said goodbye. he's such a great guy. he really is. did i mention he is gorgeous? i may have left that part out. Neal, should you ever read this, hope to see your documentary on the children's stories soon, though i know it'll make me cry.

i was wearing a pair of bermudas, a tank top and sandals that day. in new orleans it felt like perfectly acceptable attire, but i started to feel self conscious as soon as we got to chicago. way too much skin. of course that was nothing compared to when we got to oakland. too much skin, and it was COLD and FOGGY. home sweet home.

and there you have it.

wedsnesday - work day 3

Mikal and i arrive at te house and there's no one else there. Bill shows up a bit later. George and Adam have abandoned us. they've been lured away by the power tools at another house, Rachel's spending the day at the Habitat build she worked at the previous week and Katie's gone to an H.O.P.E. project. Emily is running late.

After we get the sutters open Mikal and I start texturing while poor Bill goes back to fixing all the previous plastering mistakes. we hear howls of anguish every now and then from the back of the house...

i can't believe i haven't mentioned the shutters before. maybe because i'm writing this in chronological order and this is my first time trying to open them.

storm shutters: (my deffinition) outside metal shutters taht home owners in hurrucan prone areas may chose to install on their windows to avoid having to nail plywood to the ouside of their homes every time there's a storm threat.

or, as we came to call them pain in the a** f-ing shutters. rolling them down: piece of cake. getting them to come up, an entirely different matter. the sutters are raised by a crank mechanism. fairly simpe. that is, fairly simple once you get the stupid rod to go intot the stupid nut? bolt? at the other end. in the dark. through the wall. up a ladder. f-ing shutters!!!!!!!!

allow me to explain: there's a hole in the wall next to either of the top corners of each window inside the house. the shutter is installed on the outside and the gear mechanism that raises or lowers the shutter is INSIDE the wall. So... your mission, if you want to have enough light to work today is to take the turning rod metal thingie, insert it into the stupid hole in the wall and then fish your way around until you manage to find the stupid nut. it took us on average an hour to raise 4 shutters. 3 of which were in rooms where the only source of light came through a single window. did i mention there was no electricity in the house?

now, why, you may ask, do you have to do this every day? why can't you just leave the sutters up? well, that'd be because there's no glass in the windows. and a) it may rain, and b) there's tools and materials inside the house that we don't want walking away (you never know, right?). so that's why we spend 1 hour every day fishing for the stupid nut in the dark through a wall on top of a ladder.

so as i was saying, Mikal and i textured and Bill spent his last day in the parish exercising his patience and fixing the worst drywall taping job in the history of bad taping jobs. all in all, a very frustrating morning all around. which is why, when lunch time rolled around we all felt like a daquiri was in order. i mean, seriously, when in rome, and, don't judge until you've tried to open a storm shutter or tried to fix an entire house's worth of bad taping all by yourself.

the afternoon went by much easier. and i became the self apointed ceiling texturer. i still don't know how it happened, but my neck never hurt, not after spending that afternoon looking up. not after spending all day thursday doing the same thing. not after the same on friday. very strange, but very welcome. in fact, i was very surprised that nothing really hurt ever.

and then it was time to go back to camp and shower and get ready for the one brick celebration, writing about which i'll have to save for later.

tuesday

tuesday - 2nd work day
woke up before 630, wich was really 430. surprised at how it easy it was to be up so early. must be something in the FEMA water.
get dressed, brush teeth, wash face... mostly in autopilot, but functional. sorta. as long as i don't have to talk. communication center not quite functional this early. have breakfast, make lunch. getting used to this new life style.

head out to Les' house with Mikal and Rachel. confession time: Rachel sounds exactly like Jennifer F. same pitch, same tone, same inflections, it takes me a while to not to call her Jennifer (inside my head).

there's 2 new cast members today:
Emily: our americorps site coordinator (it was her bday that tuesday, "the big 2-0" she said. i'm old, and i was never that young)
Katie: a very cool vintage store owner from NY. this was her 2nd volunteer trip to St Bernard Parish. she's very familiar with the ways of Camp Hope from her previous stay.

and we met Les. He brought us donuts (ok, so i'm covered in drywall dust from head to toe and yet, i eat my donut carefully so the powder sugar won't fall on my clothes... sometimes i wonder about that supposedly smart brain of mine). He also showed us a DVD created by the St Bernard school board about Katrina, the flood and the aftermath. Beyond sad. i know i keep saying that, but really there are no other words. He had to leave the room at some point, he can't watch anymore.

i'm trying to find a copy of that video, it needs a wider distribution, and my words can't do the story justice, so i won't try. beyond sad.

more sanding. more fixing previous plastering mistakes. sigh.

i got a ride back to camp with Katie instead of Mikal, and as a result i missed out on the unique experience of the Daiquiri Drive-Thru!!!!!! 'nuff said.

Get to camp. shower, and i believe eat something (i think that was the rubber chicken day). it must be said, the vegetarian choices at camp are much superior. then a whole bunch of us (2 cars) headed to NO to go shopping.

the shopping expedition turned into a lazy stroll once we realized the shops at Magazine St were already closed for the day. we walked, drank a bit, introduced Sebastian (and later Lloyd) to the most awesome deliciousness of Cafe Du Monde's Beignets.

We picked up a other one brickers along the way, Emannuel, Lloyd and Christina, and somehow lost Sebastian at some point. We meandered our way to Bourbon St. where i was promptly smacked on the face with Mardi Gras beads tossed from a balcony by a bunch of drunken frat boys (ok, i do not know for a fact they were frat boys, but i believe i'm allowed a bit of poetic licence here, it hurt!)

eventually we wound up at Bourbon Cowboy? (i think that's what it's called) where everybody got to ride the mechanical bull, everybody except yours truly because i had the foresight of wearing an A line skirt :) no bull riding for me, thank you very much! but way, way more power to : Gail, Sandra, Lloyd, Janet, Mikal, Emannuel, Christina and Jill. Lloyd!!!! and Gail!!!! very impressive you two.

Then there was the "dancing" episode. we were hanging at another club, dancing to some mild hip hop, just chillin' ya know? then this older gent (60's? 70's?) joined us. at first i thought he was probably a bit smashed and dazzled by Gail (most men are) but no (well, he wa probably dazzled by Gail, but he wasn't smashed). not at all, he proceeded to give us a demosntration on how to do Travolta's moves from Pulp Fiction and he knew the words to the song. after the song ended he took a bow and thanked us kindly. funny!!!!!!! come to think about it, i still owe Christina a drink...

back to camp. we made curfew by a few minutes. There's always a line of cars heading into Camp Hope at 10:55pm on weekdays, i'm convinced.

at the time it's only been 3 days since Janet and I arrived, but it feels like i've been living there and doing that much much longer. like i belong. like that is my life. i think most of us started feeling that way at some point.

more recollections

monday. work day 1

since we already knew which group we were going to be working with (habitat or the st bernard project) we pretty much split up in teams by car. by this i mean, that by and large thae people riding together wound up working together. all of Janet's and my plans of carpooling and sharing expenses became irrelevant once i went to the st bernard project and she to habitat.
i asked Mikal (i hope that's how she spells her name), for a ride. and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, or rather, two, Rachel rode with us that morning too.


we went to the st bernard project office for our assignments, there we met Zach. Zach is a former public defense lawyer from DC. his girlfriend Liz and him were getting ready to move to the bay area when Katrina happened, not sure how but somehow instead of coming to california they moved to st bernard parish and founded a non profit to help the residents rebuild.
Zach's orientation speech was very powerful. he talked to us about life in st bernard before the storms, a speech i find myself borrowing liberally from whenever i talk about what i did there.

Zach's speech, the still prevalent destruction, the emptiness, the silence and all the tears shed and the ones i managed to hold inside in those 2 days somehow mixed together and crystalized into a resolution: i'll get the bank to give out grant money to the st bernard project. one way or another. and to help me do so, i recruited? enlisted? drafted? Michael's help. Michael i'll owe you big when we get that money.

then we got our house assignment and we split. Mikal, Rachel, Bill, Adam, George and I got the Sharfenstein house.
so, allow me to introduce the monday cast:

Mikal, awesomely cool woman, works at the Smithsonian in DC. originally from philly. totally awesome and really great to be around.

Rachel, a future architect who will desing me a house in 10 years or so. she's from canada, but is studying in england.

Bill, a private investor from chicago with a twisted sense of humor. we truly bonded over sanding drywall

George, a sales exec for intel, he's spending 3 weeks in the area working on diverse projects, he abandoned us as soon as he got a chance of using power tools, can't really blame him.

Adam, an aerospace engineer from chicago. he has the biggest moustache i've seen live. he's a freak, and i know he'll take that as the compliment it was meant to be.

ages ranged from late 20's to maybe late 40's.

we sanded like there was no tomorrow. i hate sanding drwall plaster. i hate it. as those of you who have seen my house know, i've been avoiding it for a while. over a year to be precise. the irony didn't escape me. but this was not my house, it was the Sharfensteins' house, so i did the best sanding and plastering i've ever done. Tato would have been impressed. I picked one room and went to town on it. it became my room. 3 days later, when Christina (the project manager) did an inspection of our sanding/plastering efforts, she said my room was ready to go, it didn't need any more touch ups or anything else to be done, it was ready for texture. WOOHOO!!!

so we sanded, and sanded and sanded. one thing i was thankful for the whole week: NO MIRRORS!

after work we all headed back to camp to shower (no evil shower for me today!). and then Bill and I persuaded another 3 souls to join us on a jaunt to new orleans for diner and music.

a coworker of mine insisted, nay, demanded! (yes Daryl, that's how it came across over the phone) that i go to this jazz club in frenchmen st. called Snug Harbor and listen to a certain performer by the name of Charmaine Neville. having zero experience with the new orleans music scene, jazz and blues the name didn't ring a bell.

Bill's reaction once he saw the name on the poster outside the club was "She's a NEVILLE!!!" and he said it like it meant something. the let's call him "bouncer" outside the club replied that yes, indeed she is a Neville, she's Charles' daugther and i don't remember who's niece. so we went inside and enjoyed the show. she's amazing, and we were all very glad we went. and a big thanks to Daryl from the 5 of us.

after the show we got some pralines and other candy. YUMM. and then headed back to camp to make curfew. i called Irene and talked for a while, about the irony of the drywall sanding, and the sadness of the parish. i don't remember if i did anything afterwards... probably not.

and that was work day 1.

home sweet home

before reading my post, go to the one one brick blog, and read what everybody else has posted. there's some really great stuff there.

don't know where to begin to re-cap. it's all just too much. last week was, by far, the most eventful one of my life. maybe if i just take it one day at a time...

Sunday, may 6
Woken up at 3:45am by the sound of 35 pairs of flip-flops heading for the door. Our 1 night roomies from I don’t remember which school left for Michigan at the ungodly hour of 3:45. All I heard was the shuffling of 70 flip-flops. They were good kids, if a bit strange on their schedules.
Woke up again around 730.
My first shower experience at camp hope was not a good one. By and large showers at camp hope work as advertised, water of varying temperatures comes out of the showerhead at a reasonable pressure. However, there are a few EVIL showers. I got to meet one on Sunday. It had two temperatures: HOT and BOILING. The only thing good out of it is that by the time you’re done, the outside air feels pleasantly cool.
After showering came a donut for breakfast. (Janet was saving her appetite for the famed beignets from cafe du monde). One of the camp volunteers suggested that the most interesting way to get to Jazzfest would be to drive to the French quarter, park in a parking lot and take the streetcar to the festival grounds. A most excellent suggestion.
We strolled around the quarter looked at some of the cute shops, then found café du monde and sat down for coffee and beignets. YUMMY. Problem was, the lid to the sugar container was not properly secured, and when Janet tried pouring some into her café au lait, it resulted on a major splash of coffee on her pants. Not a good way to start the day. And so began our mission of finding a cute dress for Janet (i mean, seriously, what's a girl do do?). She found it, and after waiting for a the correct street car (no, neither of us felt compelled to yell "Stella!!!") we were on our way.
Jazzfest was packed. And HOT. And sunny. And muggy. With very few sources of shade around. Other than that, it was lovely. Our first stop was at the gospel tent. Great music. And some people were definitely feeling the spirit. Either that or they were already smashed by 1pm. Aside from the music, the biggest attraction of the gospel tent is that there was always some seating to be had. After that we wandered a bit, but got put off by some of the crowds at some of the pavilions. Lunch was pretty good. I had a crawfish puff. Very delicious. Had some mandarin orange iced tea. Twice. Did I mention it was HOT and HUMID and heat stroke and dehydration were very real possibilities?
We tried to get into the jazz tent but the crowd was just too big, and the heat inside was almost as bad as it was outside. So back to the gospel tent to recharge. After we had some more food (desert), and talked to one of the locals, he was very, very nice. And recommended we stop by the Soul tent to catch Marva Wright's performance. So glad we did. Interesting side comment, Ray Nagin was in da house! At Marva’s show. Only a handful of people clapped when she mentioned his name.
I kinda wanted to catch Harry Conick Jr's performance, but the stage he was at was the most crowded and it had no shade at all. So we called it quits and headed back to camp.
We got in early enough to meet a few other fellow one brick gals, go to family dollar, get water and other supplies, and still make it to orientation with plenty of time.
I’ve already written about orientation, so I’ll skip that. Went to bed at about 130. And that was the end of my first full day in the NOLA region.

thursday

covered in plaster. i do believe i'm making a fashion statement! i've been going for the 'construction worker chic' look this last 4 days. monday was a very classic 'sanding drywall look'. tuesday brought a 'plastering' spin to the previous outfit. yesterday the new 'texturing' collection made it's debut. that look will definitely peak on friday.

the house we've been re-habing belongs to Les and Joyce Scharfenstein. Les is a retired elementary school principal. A sweet man who probably thought retirement would be easy.

I volunteered to work with the St Bernard Project because rumor had it they needed drywall work. originally we thought we were going to be working on a school. that turned out not to be the case. but that's ok. instead of a school One Brick is helping re-hab 5or 6 houses this week. that is in adition to the building the other half of our group are doing with habitat for humanity.

the st bernard project rehabs houses that weren't thorn downs so their owners can move back home. the homeownership rate in St Bernard parish before the storms was over 70%. unemployment rate was only 4%. median household income for the parish was $36,000. and they were (are) a very strong, deep rooted community. after the levies broke, the entire parish was flooded and their entire infrastructure destroyed. almost 2 years after katrina, the sewage system is still not operational. going by a very unscientific sample (driving to-from camp), only about 10% of the commercial establishments have re-opened. walmart is still not back; but the family dollar stores are filling that need. there are fema trailer parks, and there are fema trailers next to houses. a few of us wonder, what would be worst: living in a cramped trailer park with other people who have also lost everything? or living in a trailer next to your destroyed/currently un-inhabitable house? can't say we've come up with an answer.

"rebuild da parish or leave" was a question the people of st bernard asked themselves after the water went down. they chose the former. leaving home is not an option.

so we rebuild. and hope and pray that there isn't another big hurricane before a proper levee system is built.

st bernard parish managed to re-open their schools 2-3 months after the storms. the school superintendant vowed that when the first children came back, the schools would be ready to receive them. and she kept that promise. they joke that it took them less time to open a school than it took the federal government to re-open the post office.

everybody is grateful to us. we get fed by our homeowners, we get smiles, and compliments on our construction chic looks. and you can't help but be in awe of the unbreakable spirit of the locals. except that not everybody is faring that well, i get a sense that the younger generation's roots weren't as developed as their parents and grandparents, and they seem to be drifting (not all, of course, but at a higher rate than their predecesors).

one quick amusing detail about louisiana: drinking and driving is not illegal. there are drive-thru daquiri places... we all shake our heads. it's just so weird.

cafe dumonde's bignets really are as delicious as you've heard. very addictive. so yummy. actually, the local food is delicious. we're going out for crawfish tonight :)

ok, time to go. i've monopolized this computer long enough.

see y'all soon.

day 2

Sunday. Day 2.
Arrived last night. No need to dwell on the long flight from OAK, or tell the world I barely made the flight, and was seriously afraid my luggage wouldn’t make it (something about luggage checked less than 30 min prior to take off is not guaranteed to arrive with you… I love Southwest) or mention the happy doctor we met on the leg from Albuquerque to Dallas. Or how uneasy we felt driving to the camp in the dark. And how happy we were to get here at 9:30 and find that the office was still open, and Dave was willing and eager to get us checked in and oriented. Dave is a good man.

In fact, I’m gonna go ahead and say that all the people we’ve met here are good people.

Who is “we”? you may wonder. We is Janet and me. Janet is another one brick volunteer from the bay area, we knew we were going to be on the same flights, so we decided to share car rental expenses and hang out.

The lady at the car rental place was nice to us. She’s probably nice to everybody, but we believe she was nicer to us because we told her why we were here, she gave us the gps at about half price, and she didn’t charge us for the upgrade to a bigger car (incidentally, we decided today to call the gps system voice “Tiffany”, she sounds kinda high maintenance and we both felt the name suited that kind of personality).

I’m gonna skip past the jazzfest and get to the important parts first. If my battery and I are still up to it by the time I’m done with the important stuff, I'll report all about our “fun, free day in NOLA”.

Also, the internet connection here is extremely slow so until I figure out a better way to post, I won’t be able to link or post pics. BUT, that shouldn’t mean you can’t google anything in bold italics.

Orientation today was: touching, informative, encouraging, discouraging, angering, depressing, empowering and a few more powerful things I can’t find the words for. It started with a short video of St. Bernard Parish after the storm and before the water recessed. The cameramen (firefighters) had to duck under the horizontal part of light posts, the water was that high. The only thing visible at the local Walmart, KFC, Walgreen’s and other places was the roof with the brand logos. Then there were the shots of the people. And the children. Do I need to tell you I was in tears by then?

After that came another short video on the brief history of Camp Hope. It was opened on June 1, 2006 (more on that later). In those short 11.25 months, it’s provided shelter, food, showers and somr amenities for over 20,000 volunteers from all over. (there’s a very nice lady from Newfoundland here with her daughter and 2 of her daughter’s friends, they’ll be working on the musician’s village in NOLA the next 2 weeks)

By the way, in case you’re as confused as most of us were until tonight, the term “parish” in Louisiana means the same thing as county in the other 49 states. Canada has counties too, I think, In Mexico, we know them as “municipios”.

St Bernard Parish is one of the neighboring parishes to Orleans Parish (of New Orleans fame). It was also the most damaged after the levies broke. it was, from what I understand, completely covered by at least 14 ft of water.

The problem with St Bernard from what I’ve understood so far, was that once the levies broke, there was nowhere for them to pump the water to. They had very good pumps, but, the river was way bigger, and there was nothing to hold it back. Eventually the water receded and/or was pumped out. Then FEMA left, and the people were left to fend for themselves. The State of Louisiana has been as helpful as the federal government. Which, word has it around here, pretty much means they both suck (I’m being very, very generous).

St Bernard Parish will be rebuilt. But only because of volunteers. There isn't anyone else helping the people of the Parish to get back on their feet. just us.

Camp Hope was originally a gutting camp. From June 1 through the end of December, volunteers staying at the camp gutted 2600+ houses. There was a scene in the second video about how meaningful every recovered item becomes to someone who’s lost everything. More tears.

Once the gutting was done, the camp shifted to building with Habitat for Humanity(Jan 07). Habitat plans on building 1,500 houses in the next 5 years in the entire New Orleans area. Do the math, that’s 300 houses a year, almost one a day. I don’t know the numbers for structures that were deemed “salvageable” compared to total losses and who‘s leading the effort to do the salvaging (there‘s the St Bernard Project here in this parish, but I‘m not sure yet what kind of resources they‘re able to tap into).

We met a very nice guy (whose name we both forgot to ask) today at jazzfest. The water at his mom‘s house only came up to the floorboards. She was very lucky. A friend of his’ was totally flooded. He went in to try to recover something after the water had receded. He made it plenty clear it was not a good experience. I try to imagine something a bit more extreme than that, where not only are you trying to recover whatever you can, but you also need to gut everything but the exterior walls, then I try to imagine that taking place times 2600 and I just can’t. My imagination is not that good, and I’ve always thought I had a pretty good one. Guess I don’t want to imagine. It’s painful enough as it is.

After orientation some of us met Steve. Steve’s a local. He lost everything with Katrina, just like everybody else in the parish. But then he lost more when his wife died last year.

Steve and his wife were married for 42 years. She didn’t want to leave her house when the warnings about Katrina started to come in. She was wheelchair bound and had a heart condition. Steve thought they were doing ok when he saw that the water had only come up about a foot and a half above their floor. Then he looked outside the patio door and saw the water was reaching the top and still raising. He carried his wife upstairs and to the attic. Rumor had it, that attic was filled with enough Christmas decorations to outfit half the state of Louisiana, somehow he managed to get his wife through all that. The problem, however, was that, like most attics, there was no access to the roof, so he made a hole and got her out. They were evacuated. And then Rita hit. Remember, the water didn’t really get into his house post Katrina. But now there’s a hole in the roof. A hole Steve made. State Farm offered him $800 to fix the damage to the roof. For everything else he’s on his own. His house was not required to have flood insurance because it was outside the flood plain. He later learned that the “flood zone” ended 2 houses down the street from him. His wife’s heart was never the same. Her blood pressure jumped to critical levels and despite all attempts to bring it down with several different kinds of blood pressure drugs, it never made it below 180. She passed away in Steve’s arms after telling him that if she went he had to take care of her cat, her dog, and her flowers, or she’d come back and haunt him. She then said she wasn’t feeling too good and they should go to the doctor tomorrow. She leaned on his ahoulder and passed away. Her death certificate states that she died of Katrina related causes. He hangs around the camp a lot. He’s here by 5am and doesn’t go home until late at night, he can’t stand being there. It’s too sad. It was their home for 38 years. He hopes to build a new one. Can’t bear the pain of restoring their home now that he’s lost her.

There were 17? (I think) schools in St Bernard parish before the storms. There’s only 3 left now. One single elementary school for over 2000 children. And we think California schools are overcrowded?

One Brick is the largest non Americorps group here, there’s 46 of us, most from the San Francisco Chapter. But we have people from all 4 chapters(Chicago, DC, New York). We’ll come back, for sure, we‘re already thinking and talking about it. And next time, with more time to plan and spread the word, we’ll have more people. Way more. Remember, most of us just heard about this for the first time 3 weeks ago.

We finally got our assignments. The address I posted earlier no longer applies. But if you want to know where we are, go to google maps (use the satellite maps), and search for Violet, LA. We’re going to be working on 2 projects, both here in St Bernard parish, one is restoring an elementary school 4 miles away from camp (Camp Hope was an elementary school) the other is starting construction on one or more of those 1500 houses Habitat has planned.

I volunteered for the school because they’re going to be dry walling, and/or roofing, and I have done both. I feel more confident with the dry walling option though. I know I can do it. I have done it, and I had a very good teacher. I also know I can plaster. My uncle (and most excellent teacher of all construction and wood working related activities) Tato may think my plastering skill level is not up to par, but I can only get better. And I may be the 2nd most experienced person in the group. Woohoo!!!! I can dry wall!!! And plaster. We’ll probably switch assignments mid-week. We all want to do everything. God! There’s so much to do.

We’re the old people group. 90% of the other volunteers are with Americorps. It’s encouraging knowing so young kids are here to help. There’s also quite a few college kids, including 5 from Annapolis.

Let me tell you about FEMA water, of which we have a few cubic meters of (all nicely packed in aluminum cans bearing the label “Drinking Filtered Water” and nothing else), it fails to meet two of the 3 basic attributes of water, you know, water should be: colorless, odorless and tasteless… well, it seems to be clear… but it definitely has a taste and a smell to it. The best description I’ve come up with (provided by a college kid from a group that left at 3:45 am sunday) is that it tastes like water hose water. Water hose water from a hose that has sat unused in the yard for a few months with just a little bit of water inside. But, one is to assume, it meats the minimum government standards for drinking water. Right?

I don’t think I’ll get to write about the jazzfest tonight afterall. Suddenly not in the mood. Gee. I wonder why?

Remember I said something about Camp Hope beginning operations on June 1, 2006? Well, some of you may remember there’s a certain blog writer of your acquaintance (who just so happens to be in Violet, LA this week) whose b-day is June 1. To those of you who were thinking of buying said blog writer a present, she humbly requests that you please make a donation to Camp Hope instead (if possible, I‘m not sure if they can take donations directly and the office is closed so I can‘t ask). Or Habitat for Humanity New Orleans, or to the St Bernard Project. God knows I don’t need anything anymore, and people around here do more than I ever have. So please, open you wallets if you can.

Ok, I’m off to bed. It’s past 1:30 am here and the day starts early tomorrow.

this is it! (t-11 hours, 7 minutes)

11 hours and 7 min to takeoff.

sometimes i do things that don't make sense to the rest of the world. hell a lot of times i do things that don't make any sense to me, but i've learned that such is part of the price of being me.

take today for example.

i worked until 10:30pm because i had a few things to finish (and i just got sucked into a bit of analysis that grabed me and held me for a couple of hours longer than i'd hoped) but also because i figured spending 2 hours waiting in line at borders to get my copy of "when the levees broke" signed by spike lee himself was a good use of my limited time.

and so i waited (borders being borders, there were plenty of books to read nearby, so it wasn't a chore) and when my time came, i said something along the lines of "i just wanted to thank you and let you know that because of (here i pointed to the dvds) i'm going to new orleans tomorrow to help rebuild" he did a bit of a double take and said "you're going?" "yes" then he extended his hand and i took it. then he said "thank you". and i said something like "nah, thank you for bringing it up"... and my 10 seconds were up. but i have a signed copy of a very meaningful documentary, and spike lee thanked me and shook my hand, so what if those two hours will have to be deduced from my beauty sleep? ;)

ok, i better get moving. need to reduce the size of the pile of stuff i'm taking with me so it'll fit in my luggage.

woohooo!!!!!!!!!!

i'm going to new orleans!!!!!!!!


check this post from Dave at the one brick blog, i'll be posting there as well once i arrive.

t-2 update

we have an address

looks either empty or pretty bad still. will let you know on monday which is it.

t-2!!!!!!!!!!!!

almost there. almost there.

went bandana shopping. according to some previous volunteers, you gotta have some bandanas to be used in combination with: sweat, dust, and/or hard hats. also bought (they were on the list) bug repellant (at costco, 4 different kinds), a flash light (that i hope i won't forget to pack), and, in case the 4 bottles of bug repellant don't do their thing, i got some benadryl gel.

also checked the weather for NO... no good, scattered t-storms predicted for the next week or so. us norcal people don't really know much about thunderstorms. i do know, from a previous life, that thunderstorms, cool as they are, usually come with rain... not sure i like the idea of rain and construction work happening at the same time. not that i've ever tried it, but it just doesn't sound right to me. guess we'll find out.

picasso... i'm just gonna state the obvious: he belongs in the same category as elvis, the sopranos and citizen kane. there was art/music/tv/film before, and then there's after. and once we got to the "after" part, there's just no way of going back. not that anyone would ever want to.

t-4

holy cow!

almost there. almost there.

so, a few people have asked recently how it all happened. the short answer is "it's Laura's fault" :)

the long answer goes something like this:

katrina... 'nuff said

fema, brownie, the current administration... 'nuff said

then last year i got to see Spike Lee's when the levees broke. it was a powerful reminder of what thousands of people were still going through. a few months later came comic relief. i did get the tee and the sweatshirt but it didn't feel like i was doing enough. there were a few other reminders around, but those two were the critical ones.

somewhere around then the idea of me actually going to New Orleans and helping rebuild began to coalesce. it must have crystalized at some point, because i remember telling Laura about it (i just don't remember when i told her, and if there was any alcohol involved at the time).

and, in true diana fashion, i thought that was the end of that (execution is not one of my strengths, we all know that). realistically speaking, i didn't think it was at all possible.

then Laura got an email from one brick on apr 9 about their upcoming trip to new orleans. she sent it my way, i read it on apr 12. it floored me. i spent that night (minus the 8 or so hours dedicated to sleeping) trying to come up with reasons why i couldn't do it (there weren't any why i shouldn't). the only thing that might have been issue was an upcoming training session at work. i talked to my manager the next day and she said to go for it.

the rest is history. rsvp'd. bought plane tix. faxed release forms. went shoe shopping online (you knew that was coming). and that was that.

and then i felt something i don't think i've felt before. not with that intensity. i felt HAPPY. the phrase i kept using was that my soul was happy, dancing, singing. and it still does.

t-5!!!!!!!!!

home again.

it was good to hang with bro. we should definitely do it more often. hopefully we will now that he's only a 2.5 hr flight and 300km drive away.

i got to meet the crowd at elhart's and denisse at dq. and claudia and jaime, to whom i'll forever be indebted to for their friendship to my brother.

i've lived in california for over 10 years. i'm used to a smoke free environment. medicine hat is anything but. however, they'll have to become one on june 1. can't imagine it'll be easy. i also can't imagine it'll be pleasant to have to step outside to smoke when it's -35 celsius outside.

on the home front, still having difficulty wrapping my brain around the collapse of the maze. that's just mindblowing. the traffic mess everybody expected failed to materialize today. i expect that's bound to change soon.

going to see this exhibit with a friend soon. we've been talking about it for a while, looks like it's finally gonna happen. woohoo.

oh yes, my shoes arrived today. not the kodiaks i'd originally ordered, but a very cool looking pair of terras. they don't look like steel toe shoes. but they are :) stylin' i tell ya!

stormy's sleeping next to me. on his back. this cat has no concept of self protection. and he loves me. and missed me.

and, last but not least, here's the one brick blog about our upcoming trip.

t minus 8

reporting live from the hat!

as advertised, the plains are... well, plains. i have been on some boring roads (slc to cheyenne and juarez to chihuahua come to mind) before, but this one pretty much is topping the list right now, farms on both sides of the highway, smaller roads that disappear into the distance, 3 different (or 4, i lost count) ways to get to the royal tyrell museum of paleotology...

i stopped trying to find ways of amusing myself after maybe 2 hours.

anyhow, i am glad i came.

i forget how much i miss my family when i'm home in the bay area. it's only after i see them (seldom as that is), and the void i normally carry inside me gets filled with them that i notice it was there at all.

maria decided to marry hector 38 years ago. they had 4 lovely children together, 2 boys, 2 girls. the children grew up and fate handed them out their cards (the boys got married and started families of their own; the girls have, so far, had other priorities)... fast forward to today when they are scattered throughout north america. 2 in mexico, one in the states, and, now, one in canada. but there was a bond created through pain and loss and there is always a void in each of them where the other 3 used to be. it´s been more than 4 years since they were all together.

so, here is the oldest of those 4 kids, happy to be with one of her brothers, but missing her other 2 siblings all that much more.

maybe there is something to that theory that distance makes the heart grow fonder after all...

and on that note, i bid y'all a good day.

t-11

my clothes dryer died a couple of days ago. this was most unexpected; and the timing is not good at all. so now i'm drying my clothes the way god intended: hanging them on a clothes line. i'll get a new dryer eventually... got a few things to figure out first. and a couple of trips to take.

i'm talking to a friend i hadn't chatted with in a while, and he asked about my other cat. had to tell him he died. and now i'm all sad again. i miss my squishy, lovely, soft, sweet baby al.

t-12 days almost t-11

my shoes have been mailed!!!!!!!! yeah. and i got my very own pink toolbelt :) i'm so gonna be stylin'

i'm so vain. tres pathetique! (no, i don't speak french, but i've seen a few words written somewhere)


stormy's grooming himself next to me. i'm gonna miss my baby boy while in the plains of alberta. oh yeah, forgot to mention, going to go visit bro on weds. haven't seen him in a year. looking forward. also, i've been given the mission of spying for his kids, they want to get the real scoop on Medicine Hat, and who can blame them, they're the ones who may spend the rest of their formative years there. i'm flattered that they trust me enough to spy for them.

and on unrelated tv news. the sopranos last night, uncle junior's letter to dick cheney was PRICELESS. the best bit of tv i've seen in a while.

oops it's past midnight already, guess the title for this post is wrong. oh well, somehow, i don't think my non-existing audience will care.

t-13 days

starting to panic.

the steel toe shoes i ordered are back ordered!!!!!!!! (yes, i am a woman, ergo, it's all about the shoes)

on unrelated news, had moroccan food last night. the food was delicious, the belly dancer inspiring (i want to balance a sword in my head like that), and the company lovely.

welcome to the land of happy sox

greetings all,

bienvenidos a mi blog (yes, i still remember my spanish... most of it).

some of you may wonder: "why is she writing a blog now?"

let's break down that question into its two main components:

fist part: why is she writing a blog?
answer: why not?

second part: why now?
answer: well.... there's this upcoming trip i'm taking soon, and i want to document it, mostly for me (so if i ever need a quick pick me up i can always re-read what i wrote then and remember: i was there!), but also for the few of you who may be interested in seing a bit of it through my eyes. so, in an effort to be proactive, i'm getting started now, a full 2 weeks before the event!!! (woohoo!!! progress!)

"so, what's up with that mysterious trip you've just mentioned diana?"
funny you should ask dear reader.
i'm going here to do this!

I can't wait to go.