February 21, 2011 - The work really Begins

It's Deja Vu all over again as Jay, Greg & I arise before the rest of camp.  Some coffee and some wondering what the next 5 days will bring.

I reflected that I was a bit disappointed that it took at least an hour for M.S. or M.S. to respond to my L.S. FB post yesterday!  Lisa Friedman is very nice btw.

We have groups from Canada, Jersey, SUNY Albany, Batavia NY, Pittsfield MA, Weston Ma and I am sure that I missed some - about 140 people in all , 23 in our party.

Looks like this trip will bring the group a variety of tasks.  Today we split into 2 groups.  1 Group went to the horse farm (More on that in a bit).  The second group, which I was a part of, went to a home being rebuilt in the Lower Ninth Ward - nearby to where we were yesterday.  This group included myself, Andy, Lance, Ali, Robin, Josh, Sid and Gary from DFLC.  We thought we were in for sheet-rocking, but instead, it was mudding (applying joint compound) to fill all nail holes and seams and then to sand out.  12 foot ceilings presented some complication, so we eventually put together a scaffold.  But tomorrow should be much quicker as we have more materials and are better prepared.  This was a house destroyed by Katrina.  The owner has been trying to get back into the home and there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.

So now - what the first group did today - a very different thing from out past trips - they went to a Horse Farm.  Not just any horse farm of course - and what does this have to do w/ Katrina one might ask.  Well that's the interesting thing about Katrina's aftermath.  Things have changed in so many ways.  There are the obvious pieces - homes destroyed - you still see plenty of homes (plenty!) boarded up - or just slabs.  And we have done our share of demolition and construction over the years.  But there are many more sides to this disaster.  Public services that are not recovered and desperately in need of assistance.  Stories that still must be told.  We are here for these things as well, and we will be doing a lot of this over the course of week.

Oh - the horse farm.  Now talking w/ Mark K., Greg L. and Pastor Scott - the horse farm has horses that were rescued from the flooding waters (they have other horses also).  This is a farm that existed before the hurricane that has been turned to to help.  The owner lost her house in Katrina and lived in a FEMA trailer for 2 years.  The farm can't operate without volunteers.  So today, we had a crew of 15 do some much needed mucking!  Lunch was very peaceful by the sides of Mississippi (see FB photos on temple web site).

Evening activities included traditional Monday meal of Rice and Beans.  This was followed by many to a drive to the Creole Creamery.  Excellent ice cream enjoyed by all!  Nice to get to one of the local sites.

A return to camp, has 8 of us surrounding a puzzle - the same one that Andy, Andrea & myself worked until midnight on last night.  Puzzles should go faster as you near the end, but this one seems to be grinding to a halt!

Tomorrow is another full day of activities.  My group returns to the house we were at for more mudding and sanding.  The other 15 will split into 2 and go to new projects - more on this tomorrow....