Big Easy Dinner

Thursday, November 18^th (Evening)

Tonight was the final planned event of the week:  a Big Easy dinner at the local Knights of Columbus Hall for Americorps workers and the Nuns' Build volunteers. 

The dinner is prepared by local families to show their appreciation for the efforts of the volunteers. 

We were treated to a delicious dinner of:

• Sweet tea
• Devilled Eggs
• Salad
• Jambalaya
• Macaroni & Cheese
• Carrot Coins (More like a cold salad – a Paula Dean recipe)
• Garlic bread
• Pralines
• King Cake

King Cake is a New Orleans tradition.  It’s sort of a frosted yeast bread, baked in a ring.  Inside each cake is baked a small plastic doll.  Custom is that whomever gets the doll, has to host the next party.  Sister Mary Ellen got the doll.  St. Paul here we come!

It goes without saying that the food was delicious.  After the meal, there were speeches of thanks.

That's Liz McCartney, one of the founders of SBP, wearing the blue scarf.  She can also be seen serving food in the food line picture.   Several folks received awards of hammers, recognizing their efforts on behalf of SBP and Nuns’ Build. 

The final event was a showing a video made by Paul Perez.  (He's standing to the Liz' right.)  His home was damaged by Katrina and he made the video for his family showing how Katrina completed upended his family’s lives and how the efforts of the many “angels” who descended on the area after the storm, helped them get back on their feet and return to some sense of normalcy. 

One of the background songs during the video was the Catholic hymn Come Follow Me.  Spontaneously, the Sisters (& others) present began to sing along to the song.  It was quite moving.

It is truly hard to comprehend the havoc that was wrecked upon this place five + years ago.  I think that almost everyplace we’ve been, excepting downtown New Orleans, was under anywhere from three to twenty feet of water at that time.

Besides the Nuns’ Build volunteers, there were about 40 volunteers from the Church of the Brethren.  CotB is a Christian denomination that originated in Germany in 1708.  They hold the New Testament as their only creed.  As part of their mission, they send teams all over the US and the world to help rebuild disaster sites. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_brethren

1609 Heights Drive

The neighborhood we are working basically consists of one street that is about four blocks long.  About 1/4 of the lots are just slabs of former houses, another 1/4 are abandoned houses and the remaining 1/2 are apparently occupied in various stages of repair/disrepair.

This house sits two doors south of the house we’re working on, adjoining the empty lot next to our house. 

At about 9:00AM we noticed a flurry of activity and heard the rumbling of heavy equipment and trucks.  It turned out that the house was scheduled for demolition.  Talking to one of the workers, we found out that the home was abandoned and the city ordered that it be torn down.

No matter what shape a house is in, it's depressing to see one torn down.  (I always think of the families that lived there.)  You can see 1613 in the far left side of the picture.

This was the view from the kitchen door.

Less than three hours later...

The next step is to have the slab painted brick red to seal in any asbestos fibers (from the flooring, I’m assuming).  Apparently the lot will be offered to the neighbors for purchase, but realistically, none have the money to buy it.  So eventually, even the slab will be removed and the lot will revert to green space.

The circle of life in St. Bernard, LA.

Day Four

Thursday, November 18^th (Morning)

After a quick breakfast, we were asked by Sister Frances to stop by the main house to help her get Sister Jan into the car for a trip to the clinic to have her ankle examined.  (She still couldn’t put weight on her foot.)  When we got there, there was an ambulance in the driveway.  Turns out the doctor suggested that she go to Tulane University to have it x-rayed.  So Sisters Frances and Mary Ellen both accompanied her to the hospital and we proceeded to 1613 Heights.

We were greeted by our new Site Supervisor, Neiko, who hails from Santa Rosa, CA.  He’s also an Americorps worker, but in the NCCC division.  Unlike Devon, who is assigned to one place for ten month, a NCCC worker only stays in one place for about three months, before moving to another location.  For example, Nieko mentioned that he had already done stints in West Virginia and Virginia.  Another difference, NCCC’s work in teams of ten, living, cooking and traveling together. 

We are very impressed with all the Americorps workers we’ve worked with;  their dedication and values are inspiring.

Another small crew,  just the two of us and Neiko.  Joe and Zach returned for a few hours of cabinet hanging, but were then called away to another site.  We continued with our taping of trim, caulking, scraping and painting.

At about lunchtime Sisters Frances and Mary Ellen returned to 1613 to give us he update on Sister Jan.  Fortunately it was just a bad sprain.  As this was the first day that we were on our own for lunch, the five of us decided to patronize a local establishment.  We pass the Gold Star Diner on the way to work each day and decided to try it. 

As we walked in we were immediately greeted by the stares of the six of so diners.  All refinery and construction worker types – Testosterone City.  I don’t know who was more shocked, us or the diners.  The waitress, a young girl, also seem confused to see us.

Regardless, we plopped down and ordered:  Colleen loved her Red Beans and Rice.  Sister Frances and I ordered the special:  Stuffed Pepper.  Instead of meat and rice, it was filled with shrimp and bread stuffing.  (We were not overly impressed.)  Nieko was happy with his breakfast and Sister Mary Ellen loved her baked potato.

After lunch, Sister Mary Ellen joined our merry band for the rest of the day.  I had a break from my routine as Nieko and I moved outside and started on replacing the soffits of the house.  Most importantly, I was promoted to limited power tool use.  (Only under adult supervision, of course.)

A Moveable Feast

Wednesday, November 17th (Evening)

Nothing planned for the evening, thank God. (No pun intended.) 

So Colleen and I decided to invite Sisters Frances, Jan & Mary Ellen for a cheese and wine party.  We had some wine we bought at Breaux Mart and supplanted it with provisions from Dollar General.  (I’m telling you, it’s a most amazing place.)  We also had some extra pralines from yesterday’s lunch.  Our original intention was to host the party at the cottage, but as luck would have it, Sister Jan twisted her ankle leaving their house.  So we just traipsed over to their place and had the party there, with Sister Jan ensconced in the Lazy Boy with her leg propped up. 

Another great time, listening to Sister Frances’ color commentary about the New Orleans’ Hornets’ basket ball game, following by some political discussions and ending up with me channeling Larry King and grilling the sisters about the nitty gritty of religious life. 

La Casa Flotante

We are in love with the cottage we are staying in.

Why not come for a tour?

As you can see it was an A-1 rehab, while retaining and restoring all of the orginal woodwork.  (Thank goodness it was originally built out of cypress.)

We decided that we would could easily downsize to such a house.  (After we got rid of around 60% of our stuff.)

Hump Day

Wednesday, November 17th  (Morning)

So the five of us basically did our own thing.   I changed tasks, now promoted to taping of the woodwork in preparation for Colleen coming in and putting another coat of paint on the trim.

Lunch was a special event as all volunteers traveled to the home of Mr. Roosevelt Houston in the Lower 9^th Ward.  He lives on the part that is not being developed by the Make It Right Foundation.

Mr. Houston’s has lived his whole life in New Orleans. The house he owns was built in 1984 by his grandfather, whom he later purchased the home from.  During the storm, Mr. Houston stayed in New Orleans and weathered the storm with his sister who lives next door.  His house was rehabbed by SPG and he graciously offered it as location for a Welcome Home Party for the Nuns' Build volunteers. 

After the obligatory speeches,

Here we are with the CSJ's who were involved with Nuns' Build:  Sisters Frances, Lenora, Mary Ellen, Jackie and Jan.

Then it was back to 1613 Heights.  I was chagrined to find out that the bag of the tools that I brought from home were taken away by a SBP team that visited the house to remove any unneeded tools and supplies.  Devon called the Project Manager to see if they could be retrieved, but when we called it a day 4:30PM, they were still MIA.

and a quick tour of the home, we were served a lunch of jambalaya, salad and cake provided by Café Reconcile.  http://reconcileneworleans.org/  Café Reconcile is a non-profit organization and restaurant located in the Central City area of New Orleans. It was founded in 1996 and provides culinary and life skills training for at risk youth, allowing them to enter the hospitality and entertainment industry of New Orleans.

No further sign of roommate #4.   Today we were joined by two more Americorps volunteers:  Joe from Texas and Zach from New York.  They were there specifically to hang the kitchen cabinets.

"So three nuns walk into a bar..."

Tuesday, November 16th (Evening)

Actually it was more like fifty nuns, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

After washing up, we met up with Sisters Frances and Mary Ellen and finally met Sister Frances’ roommate, Sister Jan.  She's another CSJ who just moved in October to St. Bernard from Cleveland.  Sister Jan, like Sister Frances, works at SBP.  We all packed into our rented Toyota Corolla and headed off to the French Quarter.  This would be Sister Jan’s first visit to the French Quarter.  Never did we imagine how memorable it would be!

We started off with a quick dinner at Café Poblana, located on Jackson Square.  The Po Boys were delicious.

As we were eating, we noticed a commotion right in front of the door, right next to St. Louis Cathedral.  We were about to be treated to an impromptu outdoor concert by the kids from Roots of Music. http://www.therootsofmusic.com/  It’s a music education program, focusing on marching bands, since many middle schools no longer offer such programs.  This marching band performs throughout New Orleans;  in fact, we were told that the kids played at President Obama’s inauguration.  Again, amazing timing on our part. 

Then off to our primary destination: Tropical Isle, a bar on Bourbon Street. There was a free cocktail reception for the Nuns’ Build participants on the second floor party room with its own private balcony overlooking the street.  By the time we arrived, there were about fifty nuns reconnecting with fellow sisters and knocking back beers, daiquiris and Hand Grenades (“New Orleans Most Powerful Drink”)  I swear to God, I'm not making this up.

Here are Sister Jan, Sister Frances and Colleen nursing their drinks. 

It turns out that Pam Fortner, one of the owners of the bar, is a long-time supporter of SPG.  In fact, she has personally sponsored three SPG houses.  She just happened to see a story on the local news about SPG and decided to get involved.  She now hosts a cocktail party for every Nuns’ Build.  While making the rounds, she stopped by our table and regaled us with stories about how she ended up in New Orleans (from Nashville) and got started in the bar business. 

It turns out she has a special connection with Chicago.  A very friendly and down-to-earth lady.

I had texted Stephanie about our debauchery in the Quarter and she responded that I should order a Nasty Schoolgirl.  Turns out the bartendress didn’t know how to make one.  Then Steph suggested a Buttery Nipple. That she knew how to make. It was actually very good.  (1 oz Butterscotch Schnapps and 1/2 oz Bailey’s Irish cream)

Finishing our drinks we left the Tropical Isle and set course for the Café du Monde.  After a “nightcap” of Café au Lait and Beignets, we decided to call it a night and return home.