Our First Day

Monday, November 15th (Morning)

We started by meeting at the headquarters of the St. Bernard Project.  It is located in a two story commercial building about 15 minutes from where we are staying.  We were funnelled into a covered patio area encircled with homemade bleachers.  It was teeming with nuns.  (Imagine!)  The room was bursting with fellowship and good cheer.  Although truth be told, the combination of the room layout and the cacaphony reminded me of a hen house.  (There were only four or five of us roosters amongst the volunteers.)  It was good to be able to finally put a face to many of the names of people I had been contacting by email.

We were given an introduction and instructions by several members of the SBP staff.

In response to my question, we were told that the building we were in (an appliance business?) had been flooded almost up to the ceiling of the first floor.  The owner’s apartment was on the second floor, so he and his pets survived.  He was rescued by boat and taken to the roof of a nearby bank.  He and several others stayed on that roof for six days before they were rescued.  It really is impossible to imagine what happened here. 

He obviously survived, but apparently didn’t reopen his business.  He now lets SBP use the building, while still living "above the store".

We found out that we were assigned to one of SBP’s “opportunity” houses.  These houses have been obtained by SBP and are rehabbed for future sale or rent to a family.  We are working at 1613 Heights Drive in St. Bernard, LA. 

It is about a ten minute drive from the cottage where we are staying and is only about three blocks from the los Isleños Museum.   It’s a four-bedroom, 1-12 bathroom brick house built on a slab.  To the north is a house that is still standing, but that has been gutted to the studs.  To the south is a just a slab, evidence of a house that was washed away.  The neighborhood is a mix of occupied and unoccupied houses, with two or three FEMA trailers still in place.

The house is almost finished.  We were going though a punch list of minor stuff before the final work (appliances, kitchen cabinets and lighting is finished.   Devon, from Connecticut, is our site supervisor.  She’s a recent NYU grad who is working for SBP as an Americorp employee.  (http://www.americorps.gov/)  We were joined by three Sisters of Charity from Cinncinati:  Sisters Paula, Winnie and Joyce.

I texted Stephanie that “we are working like dogs, sweating like pigs and the sisters are making us say the rosary while we work”.  Actually, it wasn’t too bad.  My assignment was to clean up glue and paint from the kitchen/laundry room tile floors.  Colleen and the others were caulking the molding and miscellaneous painting.

 
The only snafu was that our lunch was not delivered until 1:45PM.  Turkey sandwiches on monk bread;  whatever kind of bread it was, it was delicious.  We finished up around 4:30PM.