Note: you can view many of the photos from today at Robin's website and Ron's Flickr page.
We woke up this morning to thunder, lightning and lots of rain. While traveling across town, the traffic was quite a challenge. Sometimes the rain was falling so hard, the windshield wipers could not keep up. In several places the water backed up into the roadways and stopped traffic. It rained hard all day, with only an occasional break. We drove to the Uptown Station for our work assignment orientation and picked up supplies and tools.
Our assignment is a duplex with three rooms on each side. The interior walls and ceilings are stripped down to the studs, so our job is to insulate the ceiling and walls, and install drywall. Our group is split into two teams, one on each side of the duplex. We got right to work and people quickly figured out what to do, how to do it and how to help each other along. As our work rhythm picked up, the energy in the house picked up, too. Before coming on this trip, we were advised to bring our "cheerfully flexible" mindsets - we are doing this well.
It rained outside while we worked inside. Pretty soon the streets outside were filled with several inches of standing water. Many of the houses in this neighborhood are still unoccupied. Several streets are lined with huge mounds of garbage, much of it rubble from the houses being gutted. It is amazing to me that so much work is still left to do in New Orleans - it seems that our country has forgotten about the extent of the damage. I think most people would assume that the city has been restored.
It rained outside while we worked inside. Pretty soon the streets outside were filled with several inches of standing water. Many of the houses in this neighborhood are still unoccupied. Several streets are lined with huge mounds of garbage, much of it rubble from the houses being gutted. It is amazing to me that so much work is still left to do in New Orleans - it seems that our country has forgotten about the extent of the damage. I think most people would assume that the city has been restored.
At the end of our first work day, we had installed most of the insulation. There are even a couple of pieces of drywall installed on the ceiling of one room. We drove through the rain back to St Paul's church to find some excellent hot homemade chicken and vegetable soup waiting for us. We lined up for our shower shifts. (One shower for the men and one shower for the women.)As I sit at the dining tables and look around, several of the group members are writing in journals, reading books and visiting. It has been a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment