New Orleans...second time around

I've been scolded because i haven't updated this sucker in a while so here it goes. The past month has been a whirl wind of traveling, business and saying goodbyes and hello's. We made our fourth and final trip (thank. goodness.) up I-95 from Gainesville to Maryland at the beginning of the month to head out for mid-year break. I made my appearance where necessary..Hudson and Chautauqua. It was a really relaxing week..an opportunity to clear my mind and regroup. Those 12 days flew by and before i knew it i was back in Perry Point doin' the same 'ol stuff. It was a week of very mixed emotions...not wanting to be in MD and kind of not wanting to come back to New Orleans..I took up breathing exercises and motivational reading...(what has my life come to?...yikes) After silly job fair in DC, a day of trash pick up in Baltimore and a directors brief the team found ourselves, once again, packed to the gills in trusty Mable en route to New Orleans. We stayed over in town outside of Charlotte, which was really out of the way but that's irrelevant now..The team finally made it to Chalmette, LA last Sunday not knowing what a crazy week we had ahead of us. 

Chalmette is in St. Bernard Parish which is a neighbor to New Orleans Parish. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes to get to the city. We are living in bunk rooms in a church and basically found out how spoiled we have been for the past two rounds...now we actually have to share the place with other people. geez.  Our actual project is working with the St. Bernard Parish Gov. helping rebuild Camp Hope. Camp Hope was one of the first volunteer housing sites built after Katrina. There have been two Camp Hope locations which were funded and basically run by Habitat for Humanity...this is no longer the case. Habitat is no longer funding the new Camp so the Parish stepped in and is taking over. The new location needs a lot of work which is why we are here. 

That's our main project...which we have yet to really get started...

Last week we found ourselves leading about 1,000 Lutheran youth (and there annoying parents) in trash pickup and cemetery painting. Every three years there is a ginormous conference for Lutherans ( or something) This year they packed up from all over the country (mainly the Midwest) and came down to the city and were basically a pain in the butt. Our project was painting in 4 different cemeteries and trash pick up around the Parish...

Let me explain..because of the location of New Orleans people cannot be buried underground. So, the cemeteries consist of giant above ground tombs. When Katrina hit the water level around where we were working was about 25 feet (to the top of a standard utility pole) when that happens...things tend to want to float...and they did. Coffins floated out of their tombs...tombs floated out of their cemeteries and it was really a hot mess...(In the cemetery i was working at there were coffins that were found 20 miles away.) Its basically the last thing anyone would think about when a disaster like that happens but we came in and (tried) to save to day. During the three days we worked we used about 30 gallons of latex paint (all white) and only finished painting about 20 tombs. Its going to take a lot more work to finish it but to even get the ball rolling was a big help. The high schoolers complained and so did the parents. And it seems to be the case that the sun never shines in the Midwest (i thought it was just Ohio) and bees don't exist. It was an exhausting week but everyone was very appreciative of the work we were doing. (oh, and no one got swept away when the torrential down pour occurred or when the two water spouts [tornados?] touched ground...phew)

It's crazy to be back here again...but i am pretty excited about this round. Our sponsor, Crystal, is great and the project should be fun. Cross your fingers about hurricane season...i forget my life jacket at home.