End of the First Day
It’s 10pm and the end of our very first work day!!! It’s only 8pm in California but I am pooped and ready for bed! We’re staying at St. Paul’s in the Garden District, this terribly cute area of New Orleans. It’s a very safe neighborhood and our lodgings are quite comfortable. Shelly (our trip leader for those of you who don’t know) has also planned tasty meals and scheduled our trip to run very smoothly.
After a brief orientation this morning, my work group arrived at our work site in St. Bernard Parish (parish = county) and were assigned to scraping paint off the exterior and “mudding” the drywall of a house in the process of being rebuilt. Perhaps it was ignorant of me but I never realized before how much goes into building a house! For example, I didn’t know that the walls of a house are actually made up of many, many sheets of drywall, which means that someone(s) has to cover every single stud and all the seams with this caulk-like, plaster-like substance with the consistency of fudge frosting. I was one of those people today! By the end of the day, I had actually gotten the hang of it and was even comfortable operating an electric drill (to drill in studs that were sticking out before mudding over them) while balanced on a ladder, no less! Not too shabby, eh? Especially for rather clumsy, non-handy me!
Tomorrow, we’ll probably finish sanding the first coat of mud and apply a second coat. Then we can start priming and maybe even painting! The other work group already primed the house they were working on today and will paint and perhaps even start putting in flooring, cabinets, and doors by the end of this week! Apparently last year, most of the work consisted of gutting. Although there is still a LOT to be done, around 27,000 houses needing work done in St. Bernard Parish alone, it’s a nice feeling to help finish a house that someone will be able to move back into in a couple of weeks or less.
We haven’t gotten to see a lot of N’Orleans yet but will be going on a neighborhood tour tomorrow and will visit Camp Hope, a Habitat for Humanity-affiliated volunteer camp, on Wednesday. So far, it seems like an incredible city. One gets a different feeling from the architecture, the layout, the vegetation, the weather, and the people. In some parts, there little signs of Katrina but in others, it’s very clear where hurricane damage occurred. The message that we have been getting over and over again is that one of the most important things we can do as volunteers is to share the stories we hear when we go back home. Stories that aren’t covered in the national news but need to be told. I look forward to learning these stories.
Until next time,
Karen
After a brief orientation this morning, my work group arrived at our work site in St. Bernard Parish (parish = county) and were assigned to scraping paint off the exterior and “mudding” the drywall of a house in the process of being rebuilt. Perhaps it was ignorant of me but I never realized before how much goes into building a house! For example, I didn’t know that the walls of a house are actually made up of many, many sheets of drywall, which means that someone(s) has to cover every single stud and all the seams with this caulk-like, plaster-like substance with the consistency of fudge frosting. I was one of those people today! By the end of the day, I had actually gotten the hang of it and was even comfortable operating an electric drill (to drill in studs that were sticking out before mudding over them) while balanced on a ladder, no less! Not too shabby, eh? Especially for rather clumsy, non-handy me!
Tomorrow, we’ll probably finish sanding the first coat of mud and apply a second coat. Then we can start priming and maybe even painting! The other work group already primed the house they were working on today and will paint and perhaps even start putting in flooring, cabinets, and doors by the end of this week! Apparently last year, most of the work consisted of gutting. Although there is still a LOT to be done, around 27,000 houses needing work done in St. Bernard Parish alone, it’s a nice feeling to help finish a house that someone will be able to move back into in a couple of weeks or less.
We haven’t gotten to see a lot of N’Orleans yet but will be going on a neighborhood tour tomorrow and will visit Camp Hope, a Habitat for Humanity-affiliated volunteer camp, on Wednesday. So far, it seems like an incredible city. One gets a different feeling from the architecture, the layout, the vegetation, the weather, and the people. In some parts, there little signs of Katrina but in others, it’s very clear where hurricane damage occurred. The message that we have been getting over and over again is that one of the most important things we can do as volunteers is to share the stories we hear when we go back home. Stories that aren’t covered in the national news but need to be told. I look forward to learning these stories.
Until next time,
Karen
posted by The FCCB Katrina Work Team @ 8:12 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Dear Don,
Nice looking coveralls!
Proud of you guys!
Peace!
Nick K.
You all look great in your smiles and work clothes!
Looking forward to hearing more about your great experiences.
All the best,
Steve S.
Nice rosy cheeks someone has been doing work she's not use to doing first sign of a tired worker? Good JOB proud of the effort & you can still manage a smile, sign her up for next year too?!!
Your Cheerleader,
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!
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