First Congregational Church of Berkeley Committed to the Gulf Region

Reflextion

2007-06-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

It has almost been an entire week since I have been back in California. I will say that I am missing New Orleans and everything and everyone associated with the magnolia Project. Was it perfect? Of course not. Did it have its flaws? Of course it did. Would I go back with the same group of people? In a heart beat. Just thinking back at the whole experience, it is something that I would never give up. I was pushed in every direction, I had many challenges confront me, I was tired all of the time, I was conflicted, I was dumbfounded, I was amazed, I sweated so much and many other things. I know that for the most part, I did earned the respect of my peers and that to me is all I need. Also, I had so much fun getting to know them, hang out with them and just spend time with them. It is interesting how these types of things bring individuals together who other wise would never met. I am sure I have passed many of these individuals at school and not even noticed them but now that I know them, I will make sure to stop and talk to them. With myself included, there was 87 students that went. Eighty seven students that went down to New Orleans to try to make a difference, 87 students who went down to try to make a name for Cal in the south, 87 students who not only represented Cal with prestige and dignity but who represented themselves with prestige and dignity, and 86 students who are potential friends that I know have.
I think for the most part I have grown up a lot during this experience. I have taken a lot of responsibilities that I normally would never take. I have developed a huge appreciation for everything and everyone I have in my life because anything can happen and I could lose it all in an instant; just like many locals of New Orleans have. ninety some percent of black homeowners had homes, some of which were re-modeling their homes and in an instant, it was all gone. Many of these individuals will probably not return to New Orleans because of the fear of something like a flood happening again. New Orleans has been flooded 2 times before Katrina and many are afraid it will continue to happen again. There were some residents that regretted returning to New Orleans. I have so much respect for these individuals because it seems that no matter how hard life can get, they seem to always look on the bright side. Many are just trying to get their lives back in order. The one thing I just wish never happened was the kids having to go through all of this. I worked at first graders my final week in New Orleans and it broke my heart that these kids had to go through all of this. Many of those kids had to grow up so fast and have to deal with the problems of the world. There was this one kid JaShane who we were told that he would always talk about cocaine and crack but when we worked with him, he was one of the sweetest kids. He was one of the top readers in the class and he just had this smile that could stop a room. It worries me what will happen to these kids. Are they going to be alright? What was tough was one of the girls in the class would asked Kristine if she could go with her to California because these kids just got so attached to us. It was pretty hard saying good bye to these kids. I know one of them was upset at us the Monday before we left. He kept saying that he was not going to give us High Fives because we kept messing with him. By the end of the day, was warmed up to us again and wanted us to give him a piggy back ride and was high fiving us. It was an awesome feeling. It is weird being back at home after going through that experience. I know that I will continue to go back to New Orleans. I know many of my new friends want to continue to go back. Anyways, take care.

Sincerely,
Ebelio Mondragon

Something quick/updates

2007-06-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

These past couple of days have been very intense and I have been pretty busy. Today we are going to a have a potluck/banquet type of event. I have been helping out with that. I am just amaze what has been accomplished and how much stuff we have gotten donated. I congratulate Nirman, Krystine, Agnes and who ever else went out into the community to get donations. The type of donations they got are gift cards for the organizations we worked with, food, money and other stuff. They are very amazing people. I have been working on the slide show with some music to go alone with it. I will say Windows movie maker is horrible to use because it keeps crashing and it take a long time to load. But I think I got a good slide show. We will be leaving on Tuesday and yesterday was our official workday. I will write more later on.

Ebelio

6/5/07 - questioning the role of a volunteer

2007-06-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Anisa. I'm a sophomore at Cal and this is the beginning of my third week here in NOLA.

Today I received the answer to a persistent question I've had since I got here. The question is, basically, "What can I offer here - as an outsider first of all, and as a white upper middle class female in a predominantly poor and working class black community?" The fact that I do not represent this community, either as a local or as someone who shares a similar experience, causes inescapable tensions in the volunteer process. These tensions have to be addressed in order for me to move forward in this experience with vital clarity that lets my energy go to the most productive areas, rather than just toward conquering personal confusion.

The first obstacle caused by confusion about my role here actually came from within our volunteer group. During a discussion, some group members who were minorities expressed their opinion that white people could not help fight racism because they had never experienced it and thus lacked an essential understanding that would forever separate them from minorities. As a person who is white and would like to fight racism, this was difficult to hear, especially from the people with whom I am working toward this cause right now. I disagree with this sentiment; I believe that I do have a role in this effort. However, realizing that other people felt this way made me question how my role as a volunteer might differ from the roles of others, like that of a New Orleans resident or of an African American from another community.

So, what can I offer? The beginning of the answer to this question came from Saket, one of our orientation leaders from the New Orleans Survivors' Council. As we are now preparing for outreach work, Saket stressed our role as listeners. None of us, whether minorities or not, knows from experience what the residents of New Orleans have been through. Therefore, we cannot offer them solutions to their problems. What we can do is listen to the residents and connect to this community. The desire of the volunteer to understand and the desire of the resident to be understood are the first steps toward bridging the gap of ignorance that breeds apathy towards the suffering of others. Our own understanding then becomes an asset to the people and communities we share it with.

That is a short answer to a complex question, and it doesn't end there, but it's a good start. I definitely feel that it is not intrusive or presumptuous for me to come to New Orleans and simply make effort to learn what the people here would like to teach me. If I am willing to do that, I don't feel that it matters what my race or socioeconomic status is.

SJ Green Charter Elementary school

2007-06-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

Something quick. As of yesterday I started to upload some pictures on to this blog. I finally figured it out and I thank my friends form this trip for that. So if you want to look at the individuals who have been blogging, just scroll down.
As of yesterday, I started working at SJ Green charter school. The individuals I am working with are people from different groups. This group consists of Kristine (different from the krystine in my original group) Waffa, Constance, Alysse, Jessica and myself. For this most of us work with the children. Right now the school is having a sort of summer school for kids who are behind. Yesterday 3 of us (myself, Kristine, Waffa) worked with the first graders, and I believe Constance is working with the kinder gardeners. I will say these kids are very smart but they just need some attention. I did not really notice but the teacher told me that the males tended to gravitate towards me because they need that male interaction. For the most part, we just helped them read some stories and were just there to guide them. It seemed to me that they really enjoyed reading to us and were learning. The thing that got me though was that most of these kids would get frustrated and would give up. One of the kids just got so frustrated that he even told me that he hated me but I know he did not mean it. During lunch time there were all of these announcements and all of this stuff going on. During this time we interacted with the kids and just tried to get them to open to us even more. The the enrichment classes happened. These classes are things such as Yoga, Karate, Beautiful You, Dance, art, sports and theater. As the kids went to these classes we had our lunch, which consisted of a salad, white rice and beans. After that we just waited around to be assigned to do something but for the most part we ended up just siting around doing nothing. I think the most we did was go around collecting the attendance sheets. As you can imaging we were pretty displeased because we felt that we were not utilized to our full potential. We got home and just hung out at the church. Later that night, my original group and I blind folded Christa and took her to Baskin Robins because it was her last night with us. After that we went to the Mississippi river and just talked.

Today we went back to the school, with one less person. Yesterday we had 7 people but one individuals thought he was not being utilized and decided to to work with his original group. Today we again worked with the first graders and had a new addition. For the most part I was working with him and I was really impressed by him because he is a very smart guy. He read these sentences on the board and he sounded out the words and eventually got them. One the words he sounded out and got was "Discover", which when he got it, he was very happy. Later in the day I found out that he never smiled during the school year and the teacher was extremely happy to see him smile. There was this one student that is the son of the kindergarten teacher and he was just unhappy and decided that he quit because he could not do anything. They took him to his mother and she told him that if he does not quit she would give him a treat but he told her that he did not want a treat. I found out later that he is living in a FEMA trailer with his mom, father and brother. I just cannot imagine what this kid goes through. He does not have any place to play because last I remember, those trailers are so small and no one should live in them, especially little kids. That is wrong. I remember yesterday he asked us if he could come with us because he did not want to go home. Words cannot describe how I felt hearing that. Constance is helping her out with the kindergarten children and she tells us that the teacher does not utilizes her. However, that teacher to us, obviously need her help because Constance told us that she only focuses on two kids at a time and does not play attention to the others and just needs that extra hand to help the other kids while she works with the other kids. We also found out that the second grade class have so much anger and really do not respect the teacher. They argue with the teacher, they hit them, and tell them to not touch them. Also, some of these students did not even have a kindergarten class because of the hurricane and missed an entire year of school. Also, many of these kids are behind and the school does not emphasis trying to get these student to the level they need to be at. They think that the children can catch up later and do not worry. However, what happens when the children are in fourth grade and can only read at a kindergarten level and need to talk the LEAP test in order to go on to the next grade, will waiting for the kids to catch up later really work? Right now I am just thinking that these kids are starting to get attached to us and what I am worried about now is that they will think that they have done something wrong when we leave next Tuesday. As we were talking to the teacher we are assisting, she brought that up. The kids have had teachers who only stay for a bit and then leave and the children blame themselves for it and I am afraid that they might feel the same way when we leave. I wish I could stay for the remainder of that program since they the first day was only yesterday but unfortunately the 3 weeks are up next tuesday. As much as it will pain me, I have to try to make an attempt to not allow the kids to fully get attached to us and remind them that we are only there for this week. I really have no idea how that is going to happen because I am the type of person that tries to become close to people and to try to distance myself will be very hard. I know something more has to be done to help out. There has to be various organizations made up of volunteers to focus on different things, some to focus on gutting, painting, rebuilding, others to volunteer with the elementary schools, helping the kids with their reading and writing skills, and so on. I guess this would be giving back to the "community". I wish there as a way to help these kids with learning how to read at the level they are supposed to be at if not at a higher level. Until Next time.

Ebelio

Do Not Demolish. I’m REBUILDING!

2007-06-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

Ever since Hurricane Katrina hit I wanted to come down to New Orleans to volunteer and to bear witness to what I considered one of the greatest disasters and tragedies of our times. After the hurricane each day I watched the television, growing steadily infuriated, as people remained on their roofs without water, without food, and without any sign of the most powerful government in the world. As each day passed, I continuously said to myself, “the government has to do something today.” Unfortunately, I find myself uttering the same exact statement in my mind today…at least in part. What is probably most frightening about this experience is the inability, and/or unwillingness, of our government (by which I mean both state and local) to be able to handle a disaster of this sort and the disparity of both the impact and rebuilding effort.

The first week of the trip I volunteered at Just the Right Attitude (JTRA) located in East New Orleans, one of the hardest hit areas in the storm. Several people blogged about their experiences there (see below) but what really stuck out to me was the comparison between where we are staying and areas such as East New Orleans. We are in the South Carrollton neighborhood which was hit but a significant portion of the neighborhood is back in their homes. Driving through the neighborhood you see multiple construction workers hired by the homeowners to rebuild their homes. One day I saw a woman sitting in front of the infamous X mark on the house (containing search date, number of bodies found, agency, and chemicals present) and she was having a drink while working on her laptop. Cafes and restaurants are packed on Friday and Saturday nights and you can almost momentarily forget the storm. Driving around the area of JTRA, entire roofs of houses were removed by the storm and buildings lay in heaps, their former purpose unidentifiable. Entire neighborhoods are totally vacant like a scene from 28 Days Later. There is no rebuilding, only bulldozers tearing apart what used to be a home but is missing any human element required to be labeled as such. The impact of the storm and focus on rebuilding inevitably fell based on class and racial lines, with poor blacks bearing the brunt of the storm and facing the most resistance in attempts to rebuild. This paradigm is most prevalent in the Ninth Ward.

We had a chance to go on a Levee Tour, conducted by the People’s Organizing Committee (POC). The levee that was supposed to protect the Ninth Ward, a community with one of the highest areas of homeownership for blacks, was nothing more than a slab of concrete approximately 10 feet tall pre-Katrina. It’s important to note that most of the levees in other neighborhoods (particularly more white middle class neighborhoods) are triangular shapes and include more of a hill like formation. When the Ninth Ward levee was breeched it annihilated houses directly next to the wall leaving behind only a field and swept a significant portion of other houses in the Ninth Ward off of their foundations, leaving behind only concrete steps and remnants of where a home used to be.

Two years later most homes are still evacuated and the Ninth Ward is looking more like an old abandoned ghost town. Residents are offered “Free Demolition” and are encouraged to sell their property to the plethora of bidders. Developers are attempting to buy up the property at cheap costs with hopes of selling to potential buyers such as Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the residents of the Ninth Ward are being told the area is unsafe to live in because the new levee (several feet higher) is no safer than the previously breeched one. The question that this situation raises is if the area is so unsafe why are developers so eager to move in? The only answer I have been able to come to is that the developers know if they are able to build a mass casino on land previously occupied by poorer black people, the levees will be fixed. The people who lived in that community before did not have the political might to get the levees fixed (although it was known this particular levee was inadequate). In New Orleans, those people looked a certain way.

Hurricane Katrina, and what has unfolded since, is a story of have and have nots. Initially watching the events of the hurricane unfold on my television screen thousands of miles away I needed to come to New Orleans because I didn’t want to believe that this was happening in America. I didn’t want to believe we let our fellow citizens sit on roofs for three days without water or food. That we weren’t doing everything in our power to get people back in their homes and improve, not just patch, the levees. Unfortunately, what I saw on that television screen and what I initially thought has been confirmed. Almost two years later and there is still no overarching plan to rebuild Louisiana. Though what I’ve seen and heard here in terms of government involvement in rebuilding has been disappointing, the work of organizations, non-profits, volunteers, and individuals has been inspiring. Looking around at the other eighty plus people of the Magnolia Project and hearing why they became involved gives me hope. But most of all, the courage of those who faced Hurricane Katrina and refuse to give up on the only place they call home, posting signs such as “Do Not Demolish. I’m REBUILDING!” on the front of their homes, give me hope and inspire a commitment from me to continue to support the community of New Orleans in rebuilding the city that residents envision.

Past Days

2007-06-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days have been insane. On Friday we gutted again and went to talk to the residents again. I paired up with Christa and it was a pretty interesting experience. We talked to this one individuals who was very bitter about New Orleans and wanted to move away as soon as possible. He just told us everything that was going wrong with him and how he has had a bad experience in New Orleans. A couple of individuals later we talked to a teacher who is working on some board and told us she wanted to move out of New Orleans as well of everything that is going on. She just told us about the education in New Orleans and how awful it was and how the private schools are so much better. She was also telling us that there need to be some from of Revolution in order to make changes. We also meet a former UC Berkeley professor of African American studies and some thing else. He gave us a lot of Positive criticism. He told us how there needs to be block organizing instead of trying to organize everyone. The reason for it is because block organizing allows for common interests to be brought up. Also he criticized the name of the meeting we were advertising. The title of the meeting was The Survivals Council and stated that a Survivor can be seen as a particular individual and some individuals may not see themselves as survivors.

After we finished with talking to the locals, we came back to the church and decided to go out and eat as a group. As we ate, we would have our reflexion. I will say that that reflexion was the most intense, most personal, and one of the greatest conversations I have ever been involved in. Our group just opened up and just shared some deep, personal stuff with one another. Some cried. After we were done we went left and walked around. We saw that every store was closed and decided to go back to the church. On the way we found out that one of our members was leaving the following day, which was kind of sad. What bugs me is that my group just keeps dwindling down. On Tuesday, Christa will be leaving so there will only be 4 individuals left in Group 6. Christa is such an awesome person and I will admit that I will miss her as well as everyone else. She just brings this different from of energy to the group. Also, I wish luck to the member that left yesterday.

Yesterday, we attended the Survivals Council meeting. What I ended up doing, along with some others, was playing with these little 3 boys. I had so much fun but they wore me out. I had not idea how I was going to be able to gut for 5 hours. The meeting ended and we went to get lunch at Cajun Seafood. After that we went to gut and it was so hot. I only took about 2 breaks and just worked to do my best to do as much as I could do. By the end of the day I was drenched in sweat. After that we came back to the church were we rushed to gather our dirty clothes and go to the laundry mat to wash them. After that we went back to the church to relax.

As for today, I went to church with a group of people at Loyola and I will say that the Priest just seemed to be detached. There was this one individual that sang and that guy could really sing. After that we came back to relax. Then we went to the French quarter where we visited the French Market. There was so much good stuff there. I bought some stuff for some people back at home. I hope they like the gifts I got them. Anyways, until next time.

Ebelio

Thoughts from Christa

2007-06-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

So! For me, there are only a few days left until I have to leave New Orleans for my sister's graduation at home in L.A. I have to sincerely say that I am really bummed out about it-- I mean, of course, I'm excited to see my sister graduate, but I am so sad to leave such a fantastic trip. I LOVE the people that I have met so far: the Berkeley kids that are part of the Magnolia Project, some of the community that I have met through the organizations that we've been working with. Anyway, it has been extremely busy here, since our group six has joined forces with People Organizing Committee/Survivors' Council, which are locally organized groups working to improve the quality of life for the New Orleans community by helping residents gut their homes post-Katrina, reaching out and discussing with everyone the big issues, concerns, and problems.

Gutting and rebuilding homes has been an extremely physically strenuous challenge. We have to wear respirators to defend against inhaling mold and mildew; goggles to protect our eyes when we are tearing off the sheet rock (wall and ceiling plaster), white suits, construction gloves, and athletic shoes or steel toed boots. From what we wear alone, you can tell that gutting is intense! We have been working on a house in east New Orleans, by Slidell, that is two stories. It was pretty torn up by Katrina, as the master bedroom's ceiling is collapsing in on itself; everything, including everyone's clothing, toys, photos are still in the house too, which makes gutting even more difficult. It's not like tearing down a completely anonymous building-- because I see all the former residents' faces in the pictures and the clothes that they have worn, the toys they gave their kids, etc, the house is given a personality, and I kind of feel like an intruder. But I also get that there is still so much to be done for the house. There are roaches, mosquitoes, and frogs all over the place. I think especially because the house is in front of a bayou of sorts, there are definitely a lot more insects. This also, I think, made the house more likely to get the brunt of the wind and rain, and the busted levees. I will try to post photos of the house, and let everyone know. Anyway, the master bedroom is by far the worst off. I can hardly be in there for five minutes straight-- it is so bad.. or at least compared to what I have experienced and seen. The smell of mold, mildew, rotting wood, rotten clothes, etc. is overwhelming, and the floor, which has beared Katrina, consistent rain, and virtually two years of abandonment, is caving in, and it is pretty scary to walk on it, for fear that it will collapse with you standing on it. In addition, one of the rooms downstairs had a dead animal in it... it was already decomposed sort of, but you could still see the fur/hair, spinal cord, and skull. It's half intriguing, half sad. In general, this house was in pretty bad shape when we got there. We've been working a couple days, though, and I'm really impressed with how much work we have gotten done. We have torn off virtually all the sheet rock, picked up a lot of the possessions that they had to leave, and removed carpeting. Everyone has been working really well as a team, so I'm really happy about that.

In the afternoons, we go out to do community outreach, and invite people to get involved with POC/Survivor Council and do something about the problems in the community post-katrina. I've met some really amazing residents, such as a little old lady with a great sense of humor and a strong opinion named Mona Lisa, to a man named Lou who is quite bitter about the state of mind of residents even pre-Katrina. It seems like the prevalent problems include increased crime rates, misallocation of police forces (about half spend the majority of their work days on traffic violations, a job for only a few officers-- while their time could be better spent on preventing intraracial violence); other concerns include exorbitant utility bills, corrupt politicians, and the witholding of federal dollars from the people who need it most. I also heard from one of the community members that I talked to that celebrities that are trying to help are being misdirected by the mayor to help rebuild houses for citizens who really don't need the help. Hence "poor black folk" are being overlooked. The racial tension here has been greatly magnified; when we attended a meeting last Saturday by a group called Eracism, we got a better look at the interracial problems around here. I have never dealt with so much concern for racism and social justice work in my life-- so generally it has been an amazing experience. The problems that the residents we talked to mentioned were also brought up at the Survivor Council meeting that we had been publicizing. It was good to see that some residents came out to voice what everybody is thinking, but were either too bitter, had lost hope, or apathetic to do something.

Oh! Joshua, one of the leaders of POC, took us on a tour of the levees in New Orleans on our first day working with his organization. The worst levee by far is in the ninth ward, where the Old Pathway church, the POC meeting place-- the only protection the citizens of the ninth ward had was a solid concrete wall, and in terms of engineering, it was, and still is, extremely inefficient. There was no way people were going to survive there. The houses directly beside the levee were completely washed away-- where they used to be, you can still see the foundations. Compared to the levees placed for higher-income communities, the state of the ninth ward levees is appalling and shocking.

So... I should probably be ending soon because there are a lot of people waiting for the computer.. haha.. but I want to end with some funny things about what's happened, mostly for my own amusement: the POC groups altogether lifted one of our minivans out of a ditch (yeah teamwork!!); one of the group six members is TERRIFIED of cockroaches and her reaction to even the slightest hint of the presence of a roach is hilarious; doing laundry at the local laundromat and seeing the radio station reverend with a wooden arm from Eracism there and eating low fat yogurt with fresh strawberries at Cherry on Top... doing puzzles in the foyer and stressing over Passion Flower Angel; long long reflection talks about our experiences that turn into amazing conversations about life and who we really are and why; battling hairballs and hair monsters in the six showers for about fifty to sixty girls; stinky cars that have absorbed our sweat, blood, and bug bite juice; bonding with great people; practicing and singing Stand By Me and harmonizing "Ebelio!"; going out for ice cream post-dinner and not quite understanding the significance of the SnoBall; the marvelous contributions of the PoBoy to Southern culture; the beauty and horse poop in French Quarter! Fourteen hour workdays, six hours of sleep, a week gutting and outreaching that I hope I'll never forget! This is probably my last blog since I'm leaving on Tuesday, about a week before everyone else (sad!!!)... so that is a short recount of everything that is fabulous about NOLA. I hope I will get to work on the Magnolia Project again, or at least get a chance to come back down here to help perhaps next summer. Make levees, not war!!

Recap

2007-05-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I will say that right now I am very tired because working with POC is pretty tough. Yesterday myself and 6 other individuals went to start gutting a this one house located in New Orleans East. One group went to go paint a church and two groups went to finish gutting a house that was started last week. I will say Gutting a home is very tough work. I just takes a toll on one's body, both physically and at times emotionally. Just seeing all the stuff that is in these homes and just thinking that someone actually lived there is just a disturbing thought. Almost every single picture I find, I put it up on the door. Doing this and actually seeing whose home I am gutting and what it means to actually work one someone home, really does motivate me. I look at those pictures and just think that I have to give this my all because I have individuals who are relying on me to help them out. For me, it just has become something kind of personal. Just to add something more, the neighbors came by and said thank you for helping out but asked us to bag some of the stuff because she has children and does not want them to be exposed to all of the mold and whatever is on the stuff. Today we went back to the location and had more people and I believe we got stuff done. We started to taking down the drywall and what was kind of disturbing was that the homes only had a layer of drywall between their homes, so the neighbors can and probably still are being exposed to all of the junk from the homes that have not been touched. There is this one room on the second floor of the home, that is located in the back and that room is just haunting. As one of my friends from the trip stated, it is the most dead room in the home but at the same time it is the room that is most full of life because everything is in that room. There are pictures, magazines, clothes, stuff animals, beds, a drawer, and other stuff. It is pretty bad and it smells horrible. We have masks one with filters but that is still not enough because that smell is just so strong. For the most part it is somewhat better but it is still pretty bad. Also, there is this one closet in that room that just has this huge whole in the roof.

After we finish this, we go back to the location we are staying at, get something to eat and debrief. During debriefing we just talk about what we experienced,what we thought and so on. After we finish there, we go out to the community and talk to the locals. During this we talk about this meeting that is happening this saturday called the Survivals Council, where locals talk about the problems the face and they look for solutions to those problems. Such problems consist of education, housing, public housing, rent, employment and so on. So we try to promote this. The whole idea of this is to try to organize bottom up or let the locals decide what they want, what are their needs, and trying to fulfill those needs. We try to promote this but the most important thing is to try to just talk to the locals and just hear their stories. Just hear how they are, what they went through and just let them know that there are people out there trying to help them. There are some stories that are just so horrible and I will never forget them. So locals do not talk about their experience with the flood because they just do not want to think about it anymore. One local told me and my friend Krystine "Please do not make me talk about that horrible experience, I beg you". This individual main issue was her landlady, who has not fixed the home she is living in. The land lady hires this one guy who charges cheap but does not know what he is doing. Also, the land lady kept all of the money that was supposed to go to her tenants and she had made her millions already. What is insane is that some homes are abandoned, others, individuals are living there but are suffering, some homes were individuals worked on themselves and are nice, and some home are just so nice and the owners of those home immediately got their money to rebuild their homes. These individuals cannot relate to those who are having trouble because they got taken care of. There was this one woman who told us that she used to work for the Univerisity of New Orleans but her father got sick and had to tend to her father. The flood came, her house ruined and she had to take care of her father. She has become ill herself and has been working on cleaning up her own her and that is very dangerous because she is ill and there is a lot of stuff in the air that is harmful. She also told us that she has a 6th grade granddaughter how is in texas getting counsellings because of everything she went through.

Today we had a guest speaker called Jane who talked us about the education in New Orleans. Pretty much New Orleans is trying to experimenting with Charter schools. So it will have the most charter schools in the US. Joshua told us that Charter schools are not a bad thing but there just be some form of Public education. Jane told us that children from New Orleans were two grades behind other student in the US. If these students tried to go to another school, they would be arrested because that was not permitted. She is working with middle school students to try to get them to think about what they want in their schools since they have seen what other schools in other states look like and how they function. So she is working to prompt that. There is more to that but right now it is not coming to mind. She also told us that she meet a student that went to high school in one of the public schools and told us that that student never carried a backpack because that student was never assigned a textbook. I wonder how is a student supposed to learn and do homework with out textbooks. She also told us before the floods, there were some schools that were very good schools, which for the most part were only white. These schools allowed for students to go to good colleges and had computers in biology labs that allowed student to bisect an animal using a laptop. To get accepted to these high schools, individuals had to pass a test and how are poor black students supposed to get to this school if they are two years behind. What got me was when Jane told us that she just seeing how New Orleans students were doing in these schools in other states and a teacher told her, with tears in her eyes, "how can you do this to these poor New Orleans students?". That just think that that is powerful because a teacher just broke down and cried for the New Orleans students who are not given a chance to make something of themselves because their education in New Orleans was just so bad. Anyways, I better go to bed. Until next time.

Ebelio

POC

2007-05-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today we switched groups and this week my group along with 3 other groups will be working with POC or People's Organizing Committee. We went to the location, which was a church in the lower ninth ward. There we talked with Joshua and some two other individuals. We talked and then went on a levee tour. The first levee we visited was the on at the Lower ninth ward. That levee was just made of concrete and is flat. The rumors that are going around was that an unknown Barge was not entirely tied and it banged against the levee and that caused the breach in the levee, which lead to the flooding. Joshua told us that locals said that they heard explosions and thus believe that the levees were blown up again. In addition, he told us that investors are constantly driving through the lower ninth ward, looking to see what they can do with the property and who loved in that property. When the find out who lives on the property, the investors tell the landowners that the property is not worth it and that they should sell the land to them. Many of those individuals do not have much, are in a deep depression and need money. Most likely, they are so disparate that they would accept that offer. In addition, we were told that the lower ninth ward was the first areas that allowed freed slaves to purchase and own homes. Thus it had the largest black homeowner ship in the US. He also told us that plans for that party was to make it into some sort of casino place or a place were people can go walk their dogs. As we drove to the next location, we saw how there levee before the floods looked like and that was very low to be a levee.

The next location was the levee at the Holy Cross district and that was a much better levee. It was a not made of concrete but a large mound of sold with grass and at the top, people can run on top. It also has at the bottom of it some rocks that break the waves and slows down the water. Next we visited the levee at New Orleans University and that was insane. I had stair that were 30 feet in the water. It had a park near it and on top of that it had another barrier, or levee to stop the water. As you can imagine, this is near were the wealthy reside. On top of that there were these poles or stands that Joshua stated that cost $1500 each. These were used to help the trees get back into place and there were many of them.

Next we visited the Housing Projects or public housing near the French Quarter. Joshua stated that HANO have wanted that property for a very long time and have been looking for excuses to take that valuable property. Well, the flooding of New Orleans was a golden opportunity for them. Joshua told us that when the flood happen, people were calling their relatives who lived in the public housing if they can stay with them because they were the safest buildings during the flood. This is so because they are made of brick and they are raised 3 feet high. When the flood happened, some water entered the building but when the water settled, it did not harm those buildings. However, HANO are claiming that they are unsafe and that there is a lot of damage. They put huge steel gates on the doors and windows of these buildings to not allow the individuals who lived there to return. They have been sued but we were told that Hano will try to drag it out in court until the locals run out of money or give up. Many of these individuals are not being listened to and are not wanted back in New Orleans. Most likely, this property will be turned into a mixed income neighborhood. What was interesting was that a police officer from HANO came by and asked us what we were doing and that we could not enter those buildings. How can we if they are boarded up with steel? We were also told that they plan to demolish those public houses in early June.

After that we went to have lunch, and went back to the POC headquarters. There we were informed about what we will be doing for the rest of the days we work with POC. We will be talking with the locals and just try to invite them to come to the Survivors committee meets that are held on Saturdays from 11 to when ever. The Survivors Committee is made up of locals and they fight for the issues that are important to them. This committee is mode up of 5 or six other organizations. What was interesting was that we were told that POC has been the grassroots organization that is the most vilified for with it does. The reason why is because they get the job done and are challenging the structure or system. They have worked on gutting a school that was supposed to be demolished but is now going to be turned into a charter school because of them. Anyways, good night and I will talk tomorrow about my first day on actually working with POC. Until tomorrow.

Ebelio

Last Day with Just the right Attitude

2007-05-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hello again,
Today was our last day with the organization Just the Right Attitude. I will say, for the most part, I enjoyed my time with them. They were very welcoming, open, and just down to earth. I am just happy I got to work in such a great environment. It is our last day with them and another group from the many groups we have, will be working with them this week. This week, we will be working with POC or People's Organizing Committee. This week will be intense because through POC, we will be gutting homes, which will be interesting. The team captain's meet and traded information and so we found out that we will be working on the roof of a church if I am not mistaken.
One things that come up was this idea that if one is a true New Orleansian is not racist because they have relatives that look completely different than them. It was stated that one can be black and have white skinned relatives and that family reunions are very diverse. The person who told us this told us that his mother is fluent in French or Creole as it is called, but has never visited france or anything. Also, New Orleans is a very diverse city and a lot is accepted. They have gay parades, native American parades and this yesterday, there was Super Sunday, which is a huge celebration. He also said, New Orleans has a lot of history. It was made up of Pirates, prostitutes and so on. Of course a lot of New Orleans culture is being lost because many individuals have left the city and I do not know if they will be returning. It was just incredible to see just how much this individual loves this city. Also, New Orleans has the largest catholic Black population in the US. Which is pretty interesting.
One last thing, today we had reflection. Today, the three groups that worked with just the right attitude got together and we just talked about our experience there, what we thought about it, and so on. Before that we played a game called Chicken and Weasel, in which the objective was to try to communicate with one another. It was fun because people were just getting very confused and people were trying to stay involved but could not because information was coming from both sides. The objective was to show how communication is very important when working with other because a lot of things will be going on and there must be communication. Over all the conversation of the JTRA was very deep conversation and I just enjoyed it. After that, we continued the Eracism conversation and that was very powerful and meaningful. Anyways until next time, take care.

Ebelio Mondragon

Past Couple of days

2007-05-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days have been pretty busy around the church. Yesterday, my group and 2 other groups went to a meeting that is on Racism. The organization, I believe they are an organization, is called Eracism. The topic for the meeting was I New Orleans a Racist City? It was very interesting just hearing what people had to say. There was this one individuals who talked about how Africans feel like they are better than Blacks or African Americans. This individual also talked about how she has to always has to be second guessing her actions and how she would for at least one day, be white, particularly a while male. In just hearing these things I could see things that I was learning in my social theory course come into play. W.E.B DuBois talks about this idea that blacks have this double consciousness to them and alway have to be second guessing their actions. They have to try to think about if others are looking at them or treat them they way they do because they are black or because of something else. In addition, Fanon's idea of White masks/ Black skin comes into play as well in the sense that Africans have the need to try to conform to the American dream, or rather what is acceptable in the society they are trying to be apart of. In this case, they try to adopt the values and norms of the white society, even though they are still black. In doing so, they feel they are superior to the "African Americans" and put them out. After that meeting/discussion, we came back to the church and to clean up the church. That was pretty interesting because there was a wedding that took place in the church, so we could not use half of the church. We had to wait until the ceremony was finished to complete our task. I ended up taking out the trash and cleaning the trash containers with two friends that I have made Nerman (who is a female) and Danial. That was a pretty interesting experience because we could not find a hose, so we got water from the showers and when I came back Nerman found a hose. We cleaned the trash containers and we discovered that the hose was connected to a white hose and we tried to put them back together but we unsuccessful. Lets just say I got another shower that day. Finally, we put our Berkeley brains into gear and bended the hose, put the two hoses back together and solved the problem. After my group gathered to go to the Bayou Bigalloo (That is probably spelled wrong). It was pretty cool event. They all a lot of food stands and a huge stage. The musicians were awesome. We just hung out there, just enjoying each others presence. We left and tried to catch Pirates 3, but we could not because of curfew. I ended up watching the first Pirates movie, which was my present to a friend of mine.
Today was our free day and we visited the French Quarters. We walked around and ate lunch there. I got to eat alligator again and I will say, it was much chewier than the first time I ate it. After that we walked around for a bit and then went to the Famous Cafe Du Monde and had Beniers (that is probably spelled wrong as well). We got that and there was some confusion after that because we switched people because some of use wanted to go to the Parade and others wanted to go see Pirates. We went to go see pirates and as we waited in the theater, some went to get popcorn and drinks. As they waited, they saw the Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nigan. They got to take a picture with him and came back. The film was pretty good. Anyways, I have to get up early tomorrow. Until Next time.

Ebelio Mondragon

second day

2007-05-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

Today we continued working at the Food kitchen with Just the Right Attitude and I will say it is very fun working with these individuals. Today we continued packing and for us guys, taking bags and at times boxes to individuals cars. Of course we automatically helped out the women. It was awesome talking to the locals because when ever they seem to be so upbeat, even though they are going through a lot. I guess they have to keep a positive attitude in a time when everything else seems to be going bad. Also, the locals are very grateful. There was this one woman that kept telling me "I hope you enjoy New Orleans because that is important". Also, many of us played this one game called Mad Gab. The whole objective of the game is to try to get the phrase, name, movie or whatever from this sentence that makes no sense. An example is Hire Or Myth. The actual word is supposed to be Aerosmith. It is a pretty fun game. Things I forgot to mentioned yesterday are we are staying at the Carrollton Christan Methodist Church, which is located on South Carrollton. In addition, yesterday we had reflections and I did this one activity called I am From..... The whole point of this activity was for my group to get to know each other and kind of where we come from. I will say it was pretty successful, however, I tried to get the group to reflect about the day and that was not as successful. More stuff I forgot to mentioned, the four individuals that are in charge of this whole project are Alice, Valerie, Sidney, and Fatima. They are all pretty cool individuals and it seems they are on top of things. I do applauded them for everything that they have done. I know there are some things that are working and while other things are not working but they still do not give up. I do admire them.
The individuals on this trip are all pretty cool. I got to meet a lot of them and I am working on their names. Some individuals I talk to more than others and some I got their names down, while others I have to continue to ask them for their name. Everyone brings a different experience, everyone brings a different type of energy and everyone is making this trip work some how. I think there will be times when some of us will have to step up to the plate and take charge of something because the 4 organizers are always busy. So far I am having a lot of fun and I hope that will continues. Until tomorrow.

Ebelio

"No good deed goes unpunished."

2007-05-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

That quote is printed on my high school Key Club sweater. I know, what a cliche; but I'll admit, I was the one that found the quote and posted it on the 150 sweaters that we distributed. I thought I knew what that statement meant, but now, after being immersed within a totally different culture and situation, I realize the extent of my ignorance. New Orleans, is fundamentally different from my home and the hardest part of this trip is just becoming one with the community. You really don't understand the roots of the problems until you are able to see through the eyes of the people that lived through the disaster, and have chosen to stick around for the long haul to rebuild the beautiful city. And when I say beautiful, I must say, it is GORGEOUS. The architecture is just mystifying and I'm in awe of the historical sites that nonchalantly stand admist the churches and houses. But back to my point, I realize that I need to bring myself out of my own little bubble and try not to asses New Orleans with my perspective.

For example, my group has for the past two days helped with logistics, running errands, sweeping, things of that sort, and at first it was really hard to be satisfied with these tasks. Not because I was upset with the work, but because I felt that it wasn't really helping with the whole "Katrina Relief." That is the problem. The preconceived notion of what help is, and the context of help within New Orleans. I realized after much discussion and Q&A sessions that everything we do is for a reason. Every little bit helps. And sometimes, more than just the actions, the mentality, spirit, and intentions are what help drive the efforts. Don't question the worth of your task but instead, ask yourself why you are doing that task. You are doing it for a reason, the meaning may take a little bit longer than you may realize, but I promise there is a bigger idea behind everything we do.

This blog is utterly uncohesive, but it is pretty late, I am tired, and I have given up my dreams of being an English major, so with that these are all my personal opinions and thoughts that have been spilling over the past few days. I'm still unsure of how I feel, how I fit in, and how much I can help but I'm completely sure of one thing: with the compilation of little actions, good intentions, and insuppressible spirit, the 87 students, leaders, and associates will help change New Orleans. No doubt.

Natasha Hwangpo

2007-05-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

So! It is the end of two work days here in New Orleans, Louisiana, and so far it has been pretty interesting. I have been working with Ebelio, Genna, Krystine, Amanda, and Angela, and I think we are a great group-- everyone seems really cool and I am excited to get to know them some more over the remainder of the trip. We have been working in conjunction with groups five and seven at a food bank / mobile kitchen called Just the Right Attitude. So far, we have helped put together food packages containing mostly non-perishable items such as pasta, canned soup, canned vegetables, peanut butter, etc. for the local displaced community. We have also helped to prepare lunch (yesterday was spaghetti and meatballs, today was rice with sausage and beans!) for those in need of a warm meal. It is fascinating (and rather sad) to see the families who come to get them, especially ones with young children and especially since so many of them are senior citizens. The people who run JTRA are very friendly and have wonderful attitudes towards their job-- apparently some of the food that the kitchen runs on is provided out of pocket by the people, according to one of the women we worked with today. I think that is pretty admirable, and I am impressed with the self-sacrifice and enthusiasm with which they serve.

I am looking forward to the rest of the trip, especially the gutting portion, and meeting the affected community members-- that is, working with POC and at the historical home. At the team leader meeting, the other team leaders shared their safety concerns, and it has made me feel a bit worried about the future activities. As much as I want us to get a first hand look at the situation here, I want us all to be able to get home safely too!

Hope I will get a chance to blog again!

-Christa

Empathy

2007-05-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

It's strange how much significance the work we are doing here in New Orleans has taken for me, personally, just days into the trip. At first, that doesn't seem surprising. After all, it seems to be a fairly common experience. People oftentimes report that only when they embark on particular service projects do they begin to appreciate the seriousness of their work. Normal as it seems, though, I began to think about it a lot more today. Why does the condition of the people in New Orleans matter so much to me now? After all, I was well aware of their plight prior to the trip, in fact, even before my decision to do anything Magnolia Project-related. The conclusion I came to was this - In order to empathize with people, we have to be able to put ourselves in their position. Once we can imagine ourselves undergoing the same harsh experiences that they have had to encounter, we understand that their treatment is unjust and thus are mobilized to do what we can to ensure that it does not occur again in the future. This is why two particular experiences - the man discussing how he was kicked out of the projects in which he was living, and the talk given to me by two restaurant owners who were left with nothing following the storm - were the most meaningful for me personally. I came to appreciate the extent of their suffering because they personally relayed their thoughts and stories to me.

Upon coming to this conclusion I realized that (in my mind, at least) it highlighted why our work here was so important. Even if the physical work we do here doesn't do an incredible amount towards eradicating the horrific experiences of New Orleans residents over the past year and a half (a conclusion which is obviously, far from given) the impact that our immersion in the area will have on our consciousness, that is, our awareness, makes the experience well worth it. We will return home not only ourselves appreciating the extent of the damage done in New Orleans (as opposed to the way it is commonly portrayed in the news media), but we will be motivated to inform others of the situation. We will also be better equipped to combat our complacency towards other conditions of human suffering. Armed with the knowledge that we don't care (or care not nearly enough) only because our contact with those events is not immediate, we will surely, be cognizant of the fact that we can put ourselves in the position to care.

Simply put, we can make it matter to us. That is, ultimately, the most comforting thing of all.

Hirsh Jain

Today- Thursday

2007-05-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hi!!!

I'm Breeanna and the Magnolia Project has been amazing so far. Today was the first day we did our work with POC. We started by gutting a house. This was a whole experience in itself. You get a hammer, a shovel, or a pole- basically any thing and you need to take down all what is inside the house. It was actually really fun. What I enjoyed the most was how our team worked together; we supported each other all the way. It is an amazing thing to see people grow together when working for a common goal. You guys are great! There are many little stories that each of us has. Hersh fell through the floor, got up, rested, and then went back to work. People found sentimental items in the house that made the time even more touching- it felt as though we were destroying memories- a family lived here. What did they have to go through? Where were they now? How did this happen? This trip has changed the way I view the situation. The leavy tour yesterday thought me so much. The biggest question in my mind now is where do we go from here? It seems so hard and confusing. There are so many points of views and failed plans; there are not enough resources- people or funds and those resources that there are are not organized.
Along with the service and learning there are many fun experiences. Our van got caught in the mud this afternoon driving around the 9th ward. We had to get out and push. Just walking around and talking to the local residents was not only informational, but fun. We got to hear people's stories. One guy was a drug dealer- there was nothing left for him he said and this was the only alternative. Another man was visiting the green plot of land where his house had been. He is not coming back- "what is there to come back for" he asked. His family is scattered with no way to return and they have no house to retun to. Some people were out cleaning up their yard because if they didn't then they were going to be fined. The state has offered many people 40 to 50 thousand $ to buy their land, but this is their home- many many generations grew up here. I personally love simply walking around and talking to people. It has blown my mind to think that the leavy breaking could have been a conspiracy.
Everyone on this trip is very inspirational and nice. I am building friendships and growing with a dedicated, fun group of people. If anyone is reading this and thinking about going on this trip I say- GO! It will blow your mind! :):) sorry this was so scattered. Have a great evening- I have to go try to cover the exit sign that is too bright to go to sleep under.

Genevieve's thoughts

2007-05-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hi – I’m Genevieve, designated driver for my small group. Yesterday was pretty tiring – I made the sketchy choice of walking to BART at 4:30 am and taking that to SFO rather than taking Bayport or some other shuttle. Luckily, Berkeley was kind to me and I made it safely to BART after an actually very pleasant walk along a heavily policed and thus deserted Telegraph. Made it to the airport, met with the group, boarded the plane! Read a book for both flights, met some of the people in the group, adjusted my sitting position a million times, etc. At this point I was still a little unsure about what we were actually going to do -- I guess I just knew I was going to do it.

We were delayed a bit in Houston, but it wasn’t a horrible wait. The woman on the plane next to me on the flight to New Orleans was far more wiped out than I was, so I felt better about my own tiredness. I craned my neck to get a glimpse of the city as we landed – we came down over Lake Pontchartrain (go me for knowing!) all marshy at the edges, with a long bridge going across. Wasn’t able to get much of a view of the city until later. We spent some time renting a bunch of vans at the New Orleans, and I got geared up to drive the van. The weather was very balmy and cloudy. It reminded me of Hawaii, the only other tropical place I’ve been.

---break in writing: dinner---

WELL! The weather was very balmy and cloudy, and so it remained for the rest of the night. I got us only a little lost on the way to the church that has kindly put us up, but another van in the caravan had a better idea of where to go so we were soon on track again. As we drove I could see some damage on some homes, and a lot of deserted buildings and boarded up restaurants, but otherwise nothing too drastic. The church is near the Mississippi, but I haven’t seen the actual river yet. Hopefully I’ll get to walk down there one of these evenings or at least on Sunday (free day!). Anyways the street the church is on is very pretty and the smell seriously reminded me of the smell at the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride – I kid you not – they got it right. Ha! Gnarly (in both senses of the word) trees just span across the street and the architecture of the houses is distinctly New Orleans, as far as my stereotype of what it should be tells me – all porches and pillars and rod iron. It’s not absolutely gorgeous or pristine, but it is very lovely and old and overgrown.

This is getting long.

I had my first taste of the accent when we got some food down the street (walked) at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen (LPK, guys!), and it was like awwwwwwww they’re all southernnnnn. The food was good, too, though not much different from anything in California : )

No fireflies…

Or old men playing the banjo on their porches.

Or pirates.

Yet.

There are 87 of us, but some still only made it to the church by 11pm, when the rest of us were getting ready for bed (floor of the large room upstairs in the rec hall). Others who took a red eye only got in this morning. Fun fact: there is an interesting adjoining room to the sleeping hall that is full of all kinds of chairs. Full as in a floor to ceiling jungle of old fashioned wooden and metal chairs. I thought it was cool, anyways.

The four girls who are putting this entire trip on are absolutely amazing – I cannot imagine the amount of work they have put into getting us all here, the lack of sleep they are dealing with, the constant questions from everyone, etc. Everyone is pretty compliant and ready to go, though, so I’d say we’re on a good track, for so large a group.

This morning my group and two others drove to a food bank, Just The Right Attitude. To get there we drove on a highway that gave us a better view of the city – the Superdome, some skyscrapers, a pretty church, etc. I didn’t really know what to expect given the name of the place, except that it would be a positive environment. I expected a sort of soup kitchen near other businesses, but it was actually housed in a small building in a more remote part of the city. At this time it was still balmy but the sun was out.

The folks at JTRA were very friendly from the start – introducing themselves and getting us right to work. A couple of us got hairnets and started making the lunch that they give away (spaghetti and meatballs – I had never seen a pot so large in a place so small – it was a CAULDRON full of a THOUSAND meatballs!!!) The rest of us got to work in a massive assembly line stuffing paper bags and boxes with canned and dry foods. I am now an expert double-bagger. Others are expert fit-the-spaghetti-in-the-box-ers. People lined up outside and started picking up their allotted foodstuffs. Later in the day another line sprang up for the lunches. A bus full of senior citizens came, and they all got a second meal as well for dinner.

I didn’t have much contact with the folks picking up the food, me being more on the assembly line inside, and I didn’t have a lot of chance to really talk to the JTRA workers. We will be working there until next Tuesday, when my group of seven will start working with a different organization. I assume in this time we’ll get to know everyone a lot better!

I still haven’t seen any real flood damage, though one of the groups today went on a tour of the levees in the city – the saw levees in the lower, middle, and upper class areas, and said the differences were just astounding. Other groups worked at an elementary school, and others worked cleaning up a historical home. I could write more but I think this is enough for now : )

Later

---Genna

First Day

2007-05-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day at working. My group and two other group are working with this one group called Just the Right Attitude or JTRA and they are pretty much a grassroots organization that feeds the locals. In addition to that they put together can foods in other stuff in paper bags or boxes and distribute it to the locals as well. All they have to do is show their ID and sign in to receive the stuff. I also was able to talk to my peers. They all are pretty down to earth and it seems like everyone have a positive attitude. The other groups went to other sites. I believe two groups are working in a school playground, 4 groups are working with POC, and I am not certain where the other groups are working at. I will say the people who are in charge of JTRA are very nice individuals. One of them gave us some Chunck Monkey milk shakes and those were so good. Anyways, that is what happened our first day of working.

Ebelio

Pre-Trip toughts

2007-05-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well at the moment I am at my roommates home. I will be staying here until Tuesday and then he will drive me to the San Francisco Airport early in the morning. From there I will depart to go to New Orleans. This will be my second time going to New Orleans and I am very excited about it. I look forward to working with my group, which is made up of Genevieve Klein, Amanda McNair, Krytine Yu, FatimaMohsin (she is one of the organizers of the Magnolia Project), Crista Lim, Angela Wang. Crista and I will be taking up some leadership positions for our group. For the first week she will be the team captain, and I will be the reflection leader. My responsibilities will be to facilitate discussions, and faciliate icebreakers which I have been doing some research on and have found some interesting ones. Also, with he help of Shelly, I will be be doing some exercises that will hopefully bring my group closer together. I will admit that I am nervous about faciliating discussions and doing those activities because what if they do not work, what if I mess up somehow. However, I am confident that once I start to do activities, those butterflies will go away. I am looking forward to just going down there and listeneing to more stories from the locals and helping them in whatever way I can. We will be staying in New Orleans for 3 weeks, which is a long time. It will be interesting to see what happens in that time span. I am sure some problems will arise but there will always be a way to fix them. I also hope that I can get my peers to write blogs, so that you can get a different perspective. Take care everyone and expect to hear more from me in the weeks to come.

Ebelio Mondragon

We're home Reflection!

2007-04-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

We all arrived at the Oakland airport yesterday (Sunday) around 11 a.m. and it was very sweet to be home. But for me there were so many emotions and reactions to the re-entry.

My 1300 sq. feet is SOOOOO big! So sunny. So clean. No mud. No trash heap in front. No pieces of wood hanging off the sides.

I am exhausted but have the luxury of relaxing, resting, and rejuvenating my body and soul - New Oleander's don't have the time to do those things.

I asked a number of people in our group - "Why isn't there more rage in the people here?" The answer came to me in Oakland. I worked for 1 week then came home exhausted. But St. Bernard residents work all week - go home at night to either their FEMA trailer or a rented residence in or outside of New Orleans. Then go back to the Katrina wrecked house on the weekend to work at rehabbing their lives and their homes. They don't have time or enough physical or psychic energy to rage. There are groups like St. Bernard's Project, organized by Elizabeth and Zach, and those folks working with them earning subsistence wages, who give all they have to the project and the people they are working with. And the PICO affiliate ACT who organize to make the government respond and be responsible to the citizens. Let us give thanks for them, to the spirit of New Orleans, and for the love the that each of us felt from people who were strangers a week ago and to those we only met briefly - the shop owners, the restaurant workers, the neighborhood kids.

We closed our week in worship with Paige leading us in singing Amazing Grace - "When we've been there 10 thousand years, bright shining as a star. We've no less days to sing God's praise then when we've first begun." The praise for me are the church groups laboring for their sisters and brothers and for the faith of a battered community - those are qualities to praise.

- Jane

Good Bye New Orleans

2007-04-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry we did not post the last couple of days. Internet access was a problem, and we were busy getting our last chance in seeing the area and finishing up things.

The attached photo was taken on Friday. Included with the group is Christina (our house captain) Dave (her boy friend). Some of us ended coming back to this house on Saturday to Finnish up some things before heading off to the St Bernard Crawfish festival. This was the first time it was held since Katrina.

Many of us ate our fill of Crawfish, Alligator, Shrimp, and other local favorites while at the festival.

Even though we had quite an adventure, and made new friends, we are glad to be back home.

-Paul H

Emotions

2007-03-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well today we continued to work on Mr/Mrs. Ruossel's home and we discovered that Christina and Dave spoke to them and told us that they were in tears while they talked to them. That is just something that makes this worth it. They are appreciated what we are doing and that means a lot. Also, Melanie bought us more drinks today and I believe that she is just so awesome. She does not have to buy us drinks, offer her small trailer to us but she does and I believe that is awesome. I also went on a solo mission with Dave today. We went to Ms Martha's home to finish up some stuff. Ms. Martha is Dave's favorite person down here and told me that when the flood came she had to stand on the roof of her home and had 3 feet of water covering her body. We arrived to the home and I got to look at the inside and I was just amazed of how it looked. The Kitchen is beautiful and Ms. Martha is just a sweet person. It was good for me to see a home that is almost complete. When I got back, I helped with the painting of the Ruossel home. For lunch we ate at this restaurant that surved Po Boys, onion rings, oysters and other things. It was very good but I was kind of bummed out because I wanted to play some Marvel Super heros, which was an arcade game they had. Oh well. Right now I am just so grateful for this oppurtunity because I am in the company with some very amazing individuals. I talked to Paul Hoyt before posting this blog and it was awesome hearing his word. He said that these individuals appreciate what we are doing, and appreciate that we take pictures and pick up a hammer. This is so because we are showing them that we truely do care about them and we can share this with others. They us working hard and to them that is a sign of hope and that people do care about them. They are not in this world alone and people do care. That is why individuals like Melanie open up their trailers to us. Volunteers are building these communites and it is good to know that I am apart of that. This is becoming very personal and I feel like these individuals are shaping me and I do truly do care about them; even though I have never met them before this.

Ebelio

Weaving the Web Across the Country

2007-03-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

Our group is fabulous AND I so enjoy meeting the volunteers who have come as an individual commitment. Last year we had Craig and his daughter Emily work with us at Beecher Memorial, and this year we have Ron and Marty, two talented and inspiring guys. Ron has been here since mid January and will likely last through April. The heat is getting to him (he’s from Wisconsin). Marty is a wonder with the floor installation. This morning he called each of us by name and said he practiced all last night! He’s actually joining us for dinner tonight. I really appreciate the way the organizations assign individuals to work with groups.
Shelly D.

It’s a Crime!

2007-03-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

It’s a crime that almost every Katrina victim that I have encountered says that their only sign of hope are the volunteers! They see no hope from the local, state or federal government about promised funding, recovery programs and future planning. It took 18 months for NO to appoint and “Recovery Czar” and it turns out to be the former head of the Urban Planning Department at UC. Meanwhile the war goes on and the billions of dollars it costs each day. Let’s declare war on NO. It’s a crime!

Don S.

Four Days on the Job

2007-03-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

It’s Thursday evening, and we on the dinner crew are back to St. Paul’s a bit early to get dinner going. Today we saw real progress. As we pulled up to 2106 Stander Place, caution orange road signs were out on the block “No Thru Traffic.” Down at the house we could see a big dump truck, and a front-loader cleaning up the huge pile of debris that had taken up the front yard. Then all morning and all day the outside paint went on, maroon trim, and tan outside walls – a bright spot of color for a street which can only get brighter and brighter. Later we saw a Bell South truck on the block. They were not there to disconnect anybody’s phone. They were there to install. This is how St. Bernard Parish is coming back. Four days on the job for Katrina Work Team 2007, and we’re good.

Randy S.

From Paul T

2007-03-29T18:58:00.000-07:00

It’s a great scene from the passenger seat of one of the minivans, where I’m finally getting to my blog entry: four of our team are on the front porch of “our” house, rolling a coat of tan onto the wood siding or a second layer of burgundy trim onto the pillar. Jane [Stalhut] is making everyone laugh, and conversations cover a variety of topics, both serious and casual. A beautiful breeze tempers the heat and mild humidity. The weather has been beautiful on this trip.

I’m enjoying watching everyone learning about Southern culture, food and hospitality, and I’m learning a lot as well. Some of the team had to take pictures of the plates of food at the restaurant where we ate lunch today—plates of all-fried food, side orders of lasagna, and a trio of senior ladies, each of whom had four pieces of fried chicken on the side of whatever was on their main plate. One of our vegetarians managed to sneak in some baby carrots in a plastic baggie. I thought they were going to be confiscated and fried. The accents, which are stronger in this parish, are not like any Southern accents I’ve heard. Some sound like Boston transplants who have lived in the South for many years. And there were plenty of “God Bless You”s today from residents who aren’t too proud to let us know they sincerely appreciate our being here.

Midweek is a great part of the trip. At this point everyone is getting to know each other on a personal level, the work-site activities have gained momentum. [Olfactory note: someone just clapped and exclaimed, “I smell sewage!”] It’s great to hear from locals and community organizers that churches and volunteer groups are driving the recovery effort, and that the number of volunteer groups has been strong and steady. As it was last year, endless questions remain unanswered, but we try to focus on our service during the day and talk to each other about how to comprehend the situation here over an evening jog or coffee.

Thanks to everyone for participating with us by reading the blog and keeping our team and the Gulf Coast in your thoughts and prayers.

-Paul T

Observations on my second trip

2007-03-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Paul T wanted me to relate a statement I made....

I had this impression durring my first trip, and not it is even more emphisized. I have never been more proud to be an American, and I have never been more ashamed of my government.

The outpouring of support from all over the United States is amazing. People continue to show up and do amazing work. But where is the government? The people here are desperate to get the funding needed to rebuild and get on with their life. Those with money often are taken advantage of by unscrupulous contractors that take the downpayment, then disapear.

Their is a federal program "the Road Home" but very few people have seen the money. Their is just a everlasting pile of red tape.

The four of us that were here last year made our own trip while the new people when on a tour. We visited Renetta's house, Beacher Church, and Jean's house. Their were a few more people around, and the roads were not filled with debris. Other than that, nothing has changed. It was a bit depressing.

We have had some trouble with internet access this trip. Their is none at the church. We have found a coffee shop with a hot spot a few blocks away. And the St Bernard Project office has been very helpfull with internet access.

Paul

The Trip So Far

2007-03-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

We’re halfway through the week – what an experience. The first time I saw St. Bernard’s parish, the word that came to me was “heartbreak.” Seeing the houses first-hand is seeing them as homes, many of them damaged beyond repair, half-gutted and slumping off their foundations. At times, it’s hard not to cry. At the same time, people are returning to the neighborhoods where everyone looked out for each other and generations of families lived on the same block, some of them for a century or more. You ask the people why they come back and they say it’s the only home they know. It’s where their whole lives happened.
The restored houses are like little jewels. Forget the view and smell of the oil refinery three blocks away; people here, as in all the neighborhoods we’ve seen, truly care about their houses – their homes. And the land is compelling. Spring is here and the breeze is damp and soft, and along with the refinery smells and the occasional whiff of mildew comes the fragrance of clover and wild flowers and all the rest of the spring vegetation rampaging over the deserted lawns. Towering silver cumulous clouds wander through the sky.
So along with the heartbreak is hope. The neighborhoods have an eerie lonely feel – so many people can’t return, thanks to government greed and bungling on all levels. But Monday we passed a landscaping crew busy on a garden: stone walls and walkways and pink impatiens in front of a tiny, one-story bungalow. The head gardener told me (in a Cajun accent I would hardly make out) about rescuing people in his boat and losing everything in the flood, but now he had his business up and running.
We need to come back with all the statistics documenting the horrific failure of the government “at every level,” as the Pastor of Beecher Memorial Church puts it, but for now I need to get back to painting, sanding, mudding and all the rest. My co-workers are wonderful.
Love to you all,
Barbara

The Warmth

2007-03-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

I feel like “The Warmth” by the Band Incubus for me captures the feeling that I get from the people down here in New Orleans. The song goes

I’d like to close my eyes and go numb
But there’s a cold wind coming from
The top of the highest high-rise today
It’s not a breeze cause’ it blows hard
Yes, and it wants me to discard the humanity I know
Watch the Warmth blow away

Do you think I should adhere to that pressing new frontier?
And leave in my wake a trail of fear?
Or should I hold my head up high
And throw a wrench and spokes by
Leaving the air behind me clear?

Don’t let the world bring you down
Not everyone here is that F***ed up and cold
Remember why you came
And while you’re alive
Experience the warmth before you grow old

Today we went to work on the house we worked on yesterday and we pretty much finished some parts of it and are moving on to the next part, which is caulking it and hopefully we finish that by tomorrow. The New England Revolution soccer team came by and Chelsea was just so excited. It was pretty cool. We finished early because we were going to go on a tour. We came back to the church and waited for this women Mary to come. She came and we went on a tour of the city. I was filming most of it and hopefully I did a decent job. I tried to show the difference between the nicer areas and places like the ninth ward and so on. We visited places like the ninth ward and areas that have been destroyed and have not been repaired. We heard these horrible stories of the mayor not wanted to allow for a volunteer village where volunteers can stay and help out. Instead the mayor laughed and said that that was not going to happen because it would not make sense. Mary also told us that some communities are being build by volunteers not the federal government or construction companies. So why not allow for a Volunteer village where volunteers can stay and be able to help out. Instead volunteers have to rely on churches and places like Camp Hope to be generous enough to house them. By the way, we hear that Camp hope houses right now about 300 people and last week it house about 900 people. We also witness first hand a woman complaining to Mary that electricians and contractors are hired, the people make a $1,000 down payment and they usually disappear. This has happens, according to Mary, many times and it is just horrible to think that people would do this. To them it is easy money and I guess this is human nature but still, that is a horrible act. Besides this, we saw the Ninth ward and another place and it was tough to see. Some places were completely wiped off of their foundations and other places still had not been gutted. We stopped at this one location near the levies, which from what Mary said, were repaired the same way, the same height and this whole flooding can happen again. We walked up to one home and it was horrible. Mandy found a bible that was just in a horrible condition. I took pictures and saw a Barney book and a refrigerator that was on its side. The place was swept from its foundation and was such a mess. Thus I believe that the song by Incubus applies because the people down here have gone through a lot and continue to go through a lot. But they remain hopeful and find their warmth in people like us who come to volunteer out time and hope out. We could be in other places but we are not. It makes it worth it when people tell us, “Thank you for helping us out and that communities are being built by volunteers”. We went to CC coffee and I got a vanilla latte and talked with the person who was making it. He told me that he came in January to New Orleans and does not want to visit the Ninth ward because it would be too much for him. Also, he wants to tell people that New Orleans is ok and it is not too bad. I think that is sad because he, and I’m sure others do not want to face reality.

Ebelio

First Day on the Job

2007-03-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day at work. A little before 8:30 in the morning we were out the St. Bernard Project office, where we did our paperwork, an we got our orientation from the fantastic folks who started this project. We divided up into two groups working at two different houses in Chalmette. We painted, framed and hung doors, did taping and mudding, scraping, and sanding, and perhaps most important of all, met and talked with folks from the neighborhood whom Katrina has not been successful. The sight of the destruction is awful, but it is good to see the reconstruction work in the neighborhood.

Randy S.

End of the First Day

2007-03-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

First Day Experiences

2007-03-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day of working and it was very tiring work. We have 3 teams, one team went to one site and the other 2 joined forces and worked on another site. I was on the team that joined forces with the other team and worked on this shotgun home. What we mainly had to do was mudding the side, which Karen, Paul and Gloria did and the rest of us worked on the outside of the home, scraping the flakes of paint off and removing Caulk, which was awful to remove. I was on a latter for like 4 hours doing this, took a quick water break and work again. My goodness, my feet hurt. After a while we took a lunch break were we just talked and some of use took a walk around the neighborhood we are working at. Some homes are beautiful but some are just horrible. We came back and started to work again. Around 4 or so, the owner of the home came by and just started talking to us. He was just talking about how he sells vegetables and fruits on a corner and that he sells this one type of tomatoes that are very popular. He stated that people from Florida, Texas and Georgia come to get these types of tomatoes. He also said that the home we are working at belonged to his father and that the neighborhood is not the same because people used to be able to walk into ones home and just have a meal with the people in the home. However, that is not possible because many are not back. In addition, there were two homes that were not affected by the flood because one of them was high enough that the water only touched the base and that is it. The other home, he stated the owner was just sitting on his pouch and the water only reached the high step. The interior of his home had 3 feet of water while the outside of his home had 6 feet of water.

I am going to back tract a little now. Before we actually arrived to the site we went to go to the St. Bernard project headquarters where we were assigned out site. On the way over there, we drove through New Orleans and some of the homes were huge and beautiful. The further we drove, the worst the homes got. We also drove through the lower ninth ward and I will say, it was very bad how bad these homes were. All of them hand spray paint on them, indicating when the home was visited, and other stuff I did not understand. When we arrived to the destination, we met the one of the founders of the St. Bernard Project. She told us of the story the owner of the facility they are located at. She told us that the owner was this really tough man who feared nothing. However, when the flood came he saw that it started off as a trickle and then it became horrible. Some of the water was 15 feet high. He had to go to the second story of the place and was afraid that he was going to die. He made a floating device, which consisted of a lot of Styrofoam and a chair. He was going to float to safety but was not able to do so because someone came and helped him out. He was taken to the roof of a bank, which had 300 or so other people and was stranded there for six days. This community was always independent but all of that was changed with the floods because they had to rely on others to help them out.
The highlights of my day were the end of the day when we came back from working, having that sense of accomplishment, walking the supervisor’s dog, Maya, which was very friendly. She gave me this big kiss. Hehehe. Also it was awesome talking to my peers, getting to know them. Also, a group of us went for a walk in the neighborhood we are staying at and that was awesome. I got to talk to someone on the street. We found this playground and all of us got on the swings and just let loose. I took pictures and it was just so much fun. Also, this woman Cellie come by and talked with Shelly and thanked us for what we are doing. As we was leaving, I extended to shake her and instead gave me a hug and called me handsome, which was pretty cool

Ebelio

We made it!

2007-03-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today we landed in New Orleans and it was pretty cool experience coming to New Orleans. We hand to meet at the church parking lot at 4:00 am, and I only got 2 hours of sleep. On the planes, I attempted to sleep and I was somewhat successful. When we landed in New Orleans, we collected all the bags while Shelly, Don, Randy, Jane and Paul got the vans. What was weird was that Shelly’s bag got sent to Washington and so she has been trying to deal with that. Besides that, on the way to the church we are staying at, we had to see a lot of New Orleans. We got to the church, some what settled in, looked at the church. A bit later, myself, Don, Jane, Mandy and Paige went to Sav-A Market to get food supplies. It was fun and got a lot of food. We came back and I was apart of the cooking team and that was pretty fun as well. We made a salad, pasta, and baked some bread. Besides this, the neighborhood we are staying at is very beautiful and houses I have never seen before. There are some houses that are still being built on the block. We will see what happens tomorrow. I cannot wait. Also, there is this one café house that is pretty interesting looking. It is a house that is a café house. I will hopefully get to visit it some time this week.

- Ebelio

Editors note... The picture above was taken at about 5:30am a the Oakland Airport. Its amazing how awake every looks.

For FCCB Katrina Work Team Blog

2007-03-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday evening, and just a couple of more days, before we leave bright and very early Sunday morning for New Orleans. A lot of anticipation, excitement, and thinking and thinking about making sure I have all the stuff I need to take. As we were talking about in our meeting last Sunday at lunch, nothing is more important to bring than a positive outlook. I'm glad we have our Blog again this year. Last year from back at home I read the Blog every day. Knowing that we have the support of so many folks back home is great. Soon we will be seeing in person, and face to face, what we have been excited and anxious about. I am looking forward to what Team members who went last year see in comparison a year later. I know we will be a part of helping bring the people of New Orleans back. Our work is good. Soon we will find out how hard. Randy Summers

Reflections on preparing for the trip

2007-03-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

As one who went last year about this time, I am looking forward to returning. Their was a lot of work that still needed to be done there, and I am looking forward to seeing what has been done, as well as contributing another drop of work in the vast ocean of what needs to be done.

I have been doing a lot of reflecting on last years trip as a part of preparing for this trip. I have also been immersed in last year's trip from editing and completing video that was taken last March.

One of the toughest things in preparing, is trying to figure out what is most necessary, and trying to not take too much. As I will be taking a computer (to help keep the blog going) and a few cameras (still and video).

With all of this I need to fit in a sleeping bag, work cloths, and a variety of necessities. Its not going to be easy.

I am getting quite anxious for Sunday to come and for us to be on our way.

- Paul H

2007 Katrina Work Team Set to Depart

2007-03-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

A group of 17 UC Berkeley students and FCCB members are going to the New Orleans area soon to spend a week helping with post-Katrina repair. You can follow the progress of the trip and preparations leading up to it on this blog. Team members are: Rebecca Bryson, Bill Coffin, Chelsea Cohen, Shelly Dieterle, Paul Hoy, Erica Liu, Barbara McHugh, Ebelio Mondragon, Jane Stahlhut, Don Stahlhut, Randy Summers, Paul Tomasiello, Karen Tsai, Gloria Tzou, Paige Weber, Mandy Workman, Ramsey Wright.

More photos

2006-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here are photographs taken by members of the Katrina Work Team. These
and more are also available at www.fccb.org.

Submitted by Phil Porter, FCCB Communications Coordinator

Reflecting from home

2006-04-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

It is Wednesday. I have been in a concert, attended FCCB worship, and had three full days of work after returning to Berkeley from New Orleans. On the first day of work, I wore a t-shirt I'd bought in NOLA: In addition to the fleur d'lys that symbolize the French connection and the words "NEW ORLEANS", the shirt proclaims, "Laissez les bons temps roulez - again." The print is quite small, however, and there were fewer people looking closely at my bosom than I got during the trip home, when I was wearing a t-shirt that gave the three drugs used in the lethal injection cocktail, w/ the admonishment, "JUST SAY NO."

Those at my office who recalled why I was away last week have asked that I show some of the pictures from the trip, provided on CD's by Paul Hoy. (Thanks, Paul!) But the needs of New Orleans are quickly consumed by the needs of our clients on death row. If I worked in a trademark law office, I would probably be discouraged. But that my colleagues are focused on our clients on death row, and the performance of their appointed counsel, and our colleague who retired last week -- that is not inappropriate!

One of our last reflection sessions involved contemplating what we would say to those who ask, "How was your trip?" Even with that preparation, I give a different answer each time. "Enlightening" is one; "devastating" is another introduction. What I notice especially is that even in our socially-active church and my socially-conscious office, is the limited attention available for stories about this tragedy.

Now, let me remove my colleagues and friends from this philosophical hook: Attention could not be held on this one subject for long because of the ABUNDANCE of other issues challenging all of us. I am inspired to recognize the vast need in our society and world for caring people, and humbled to be among those who were able to share $$ and sweat to help even a few in just one of the many situations demanding our attention.

I wish to also share the wisdom of one of our younger team members, which travels with me beyond the expedition itself: One of our students (sorry, don't recall which) opined that the gratitude we were receiving was somewhat discomfitting:Instead, it would be better if we were simply acknowledged as doing our duty. It is simply right and proper that we would take steps to help our fellow humans, as in prior eras of barn-raisings. The need for us to recognize, at this practical level, our interconnectedness, is really powerful!!!

Thank you all for your support. The Katrina trip was a privilege for those of us available to make the trip, and Ray & I grew in our relationship as a result. We felt your support, and I am sure Jean and Reneta and the members of Good Shepherd UCC feel it as well. Keep it up -- as the AA people say, it works!

- diva dot

Reflecting...

2006-04-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

I’m back in Berkeley and finally able to sit alone in the quiet library and process my experience. “An amazing experience,” I say to all the friends, family members and classmates who have asked. And it really was.
Leaning over a cup of steaming hot coffee one day in my kitchen back home in San Diego, my mom explained to me grace. She described it as what connects people—strangers, even—in an inexplicable way. A beautiful binding force that brings us together. My name, Hannah, means “Grace of God,” and it was in New Orleans that I felt like I was consciously experiencing for the first time this beautiful force after which I am named.
When I asked Pastor Gary of Good Shepherd what he thought was going to turn the situation in New Orleans around, he pointed at me. Then he pointed at all the others in our group, milling around and talking to Church members before the service on Sunday. He told me that people in New Orleans feel like no one cares about them, and he spoke of the need for compassion from those outside of the disaster, the need for advocates for the victims of Katrina.
At some point during the trip I realized that is why we were there. The most important thing that we were able to do in New Orleans was show solidarity with those affected, and to bring back with us the commitment to see through to the finish the rebuilding effort in New Orleans. For me, our trip to New Orleans was filled with vivid images that will remain in my mind. The lower ninth ward, where homes were moved completely off their foundations, entire neighborhoods completely decimated. The black water line on my cousin’s home indicating the 8.9 feet of water that her lake view neighborhood had soaked in for days. The image of Jean’s friend leaning against the doorframe uncomfortably telling Jonell and I of the three days she spent trapped in her home in waist-high water without food or drink until a boat finally came to rescue her. And then there’s the picture I have in my mind of Jean, sitting on the stoop of her porch next to the thorny, dead remnants of her beautiful red and white rose bushes and telling us of days when her now silent neighborhood was a vibrant community full of life.
These images and experiences were too powerful to forget. Going to New Orleans was an amazing experience, one in which I experienced the grace of God through connections with others. It’s an experience that is not yet over, because it was one that implanted in me the resolve to continue in the fight for New Orleans, for as long as it takes.

--Hannah Reed

2006-03-31T23:23:00.000-08:00

Their are a lot of loose ends you may be wondering about.

First, we were able to finnish the "down to the studs" cleanup work on Renetta's house befor the end of the day on Thursday.

Renetta joined us for dinner and reflection that evening. She even stayed while the church's music director was rehearsing for a Friday evening Karaoke fundraiser. We all had fun listening and singing old songs. Renetta even joined in for one of them.

People have asked "what is next for Renetta?" I don't think she is even sure of the answer to that. Their are many more steps to take. And it will require resources she does not have at the moment, if she rebuilds. But she has been able to take the first step of many.

During our reflection Renetta was asked, "What would you like us to tell the people we are returning to?" She asked that we pray that New Orleans gets good people in office during the up coming elections.

If you don't know their are 22 candidates on the ballot, and the area has quite a history of corrupt officials.

Second, the church is virtually finnished, and ready for mold abatement before rebuilding. Pat De Jong helped with the church, and also went with Shelly to take a look at the scope of damage in New Orleans.

We worked hard on Joan's house, but their is still a lot of work to be done. The concensus of our group is her house is probably too far gone to be saved, but it is still important to go through this process with her.

We also had a group go off to a forth house in a middle class neighborhood (the flooding was a equal oportunity destroyer, and did not stop at even uper class neiborhoods). Some work had been done on the home before, and the group helped get a little farther on the process.

I think I can speak for the group when I say that we all feel blessed haveing met both Renetta and Joan. And we wish them the best as they struggle to rebuild their lives.

Now that we have returned home, their is a lot for us to refect on and share with everyone over the next few months. -- Paul Hoy

Prepairing to leave

2006-03-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

After finally getting used to our schedule, with its early morning wake-up calls, fixed meals times and succession of activities, it's time to wrap things up and go home. Like at our work sites, we make sure all of the "tools" (our air mattresses, cups and bowls, etc.) are clean and accounted for and ready for the next group like ourselves to arrive and get started. After a relaxing last evening of fellowship that included kareoke, we had a closing worship session puntuated by a cappela renderings of "Sanctuary" and "Stand by Me", a prayer circle (using Shelly's "squeezing the hand" method), and a sharing of visual images that teams of three created to represent what the trip has meant to us. Some of the themes: "Stand by New Orleans" (with the image of a hammer); "Listen.Tell.Act."; and "Who is your Neighbor?" (from the Good Samaritan parable).

Many of us are praying that we hold onto what we have felt this week---the empathy, the learning, the empowering, also the anxiety, the confusion, the frustration, unprecendented event that has splintered a community, left miles of neighborhoods empty and quiet, and overwhelmed us all. We all hope to tell more of the stories we've seen and heard here, so that our committment to this work is sustained and our greater community (we are all New Orleans' neighbors) will continue to extend its hands and its resources for this need. -- Paul T

It's been marvelous and overwhelming to be here. I remember the words "O God the sea is so big,my boat so small." Did we make a difference in the vast suffering and need? Perhaps the difference is in us. We've worked together, prayed together, eaten together and struggled together. We'll return home with gratitude for this time and with hope that we will be able to come back in a year? someday, and see a city rebuilt on hope, determination and faith in God and each other. -- Pat dJ

Lunch with Joan

2006-03-29T22:16:00.000-08:00

This is actually from yesterday, but I did not have a chance to write it in the blog until now.

Yesterday morning another house was added to our list because a elderly neigbor of te church finally was given the keys to her FEMA trailer and was going into her house with out proper protection and a mask. So Jonel, Paul T, Hannah and Chau were asked to start working with her and hopefully make the place safer for her to be there.

The people working at the church were to carry the cooler and water to Joan's (pronounced Jon) house and have lunch with the people working there.

When we got to Joan's house we learned that Joan was so grateful for us helping her that she made, not only the people working on her house, but all of us, a fried chicken lunch with a salad bread and vegitables. She insisted on being able to feed us. She apologized for only feeding us fried chicken, and said that if she had more than a day's notice, she would have made us a real New Orleans meal.

Some of her belongings had been in plastic tubs and were still water logged (and rotting) from the flood after Katrina. Her home was filled with mildew from the months of being sealed up since the flood. You can not believe the stench.

We all were all invited into her FEMA trailer, but knowing we would not all fit in there, we went, a few at a time and helped out selves to the food she prepaired. I don't think we were able to take even half of all the food she offered.

We then went out and sat on the ground in front of the neighbor's FEMA trailer and had lunch while Joan intertained us with stories of her life growing up in the neighborhood and about her take on the politics of New Orleans. What a treat.

Their are so many stories to tell and so much we have learned while being here. -- Paul Hoy

Morning, day 3

2006-03-29T05:18:00.000-08:00

Good morning, blog-ees! I woke up this morning with a new awareness of some old(er) muscles and joints. Yesterday was devoted to nail pulling: I am the BADDEST nail puller on the planet!!! These nails were all below the 4-foot (or so) level that had been de-sheetrocked by Monday's team, at Renetta's house. While I was pulling, others were continuing the de-sheetrocking in other rooms. It is messy, noisy work, but satisfying when that last piece of sheetrock, lathe and plaster comes down, or when that particularly stubborn nail finally gives way!

Renetta was there all day, outside most of the time. Occasionally, I tried to put myself in her position: How would I feel to have a crew of strangers inside MY house, beating at the walls with mini-sledge hammers, ripping out the baseboards with crowbars, hauling out the kitchen counter (okay - truthfully, if anyone has a desire to haul out my current kitchen counter, I'll let you know when!), and pulling nails out with great creaks and groans. And this on top of the trauma of (1) the initial flooding, (2) being kept out of the house by officials for a month, (3) the shock of finally returning to find mold crawling up the walls, and (4) the financial straits she's facing. No wonder she's watching carefully, but from a distance. And multiply this by many, many, many New Orleanians and others in the Katrina/Rita swath. Send positive, supportive thoughts this way by the truckload: They desperately need the emotional boost!

I'm off to a new site today, for new adventures and insights, and maybe to discover yet other previously unknown muscles and joints!

Diva Dot

Beecher Memorial United Church of Christ

2006-03-28T05:36:00.000-08:00

On our first work day half the group continued the gutting efforts at Beecher Memorial UCC. We were left with the difficult tasks of removing moldy panels and sheetrock from the "high" places. Ladders, short and tall, were a high commodity. On the church sign out front a sheet of paper had been inserted that said, "We are coming back." These statements offer evidence to the community commitment to rebuild. Without these signs you might never know this hope. The neighborhood feels desolate and the only signs of life are cars speeding by on the road.

My highlight was making the connection between a black couple, the Alexanders, who had worshipped with us at Good Shepherd on Sunday morning, and this church. Throughout the work day I could envision their community bringing life to the space that was now only studs and a roof. At the start of our work day, Alan told us this story. Right before the flood, the women's fellowship had prepared a luncheon. THe tables were set in the Fellowship Hall, plates, silverware and plastic cups. When the first work crew entered the building post flood, they found the pews in the sanctuary turned over and spewed everywhere. But in the Fellowship Hall, the tables were still set! Six feet of water held the floating tables and after the water receded the tables resettled to their previous stated, including plastic cups standing up! One table had floated away but the cloth and settings landed perfectly on the floor. Simply amazing! The table has been set...in the past, right now and forever more. Amen!

I was also in awe when I came across the huge baptismal font right below the cross and smack in the middle of the chancel- full immersion baptism!
Submitted by Shelly Dieterle

Renetta's House

2006-03-27T19:36:00.000-08:00

We went to Renetta's house today. There were two groups of us, the other group worked on the Beecher Memorial Church UCC, also in the Gentilly Neighborhood that had various amounts of flooding. Renetta's house is an old (1900 ish), New Orleans style "shotgun" house whose floor is about four feet above ground. The water came up around a foot above her floor, and stayed for quite awhile.
She greeted us in tears, which I don't think were were from gratefullness as much as from uncertainty and concern about what was going to happen next. She is a member of the Beecher Church, and had requested help from the UCC. Alan Coe, our UCC Disaster Coordinator, had briefly told us that we we would be cleaning out her house and removing the plaster on her interior walls up four feet from the floor (for new sheetrock). The mold extended up only a foot or so in the living room, but then in the closets the mold behind the hanging clothes extended the heighth of the closet, and was really thick and dark on the plaster. Renetta had already had help in removing most of the furniture in the house, but there were many personal articles and books, etc., from her life there with her mother since moving in 1995 (her mother died a few years ago).
We split in half, and my bunch of Cal students and I started on destructing the lathe and plaster with 1/2 inch sheetrock over it in the living room. We wear "paper" disposable coveralls and masks and work with crowbars, hammers, and small sledge hammers. Our crew had great spirit, limited "skill" to begin with, but in the tradition of UC Berkeley rapidly came up to speed and tore into the task at hand.
The other bunch had the more difficult task of taking out Renetta's personal belongings to the curb. She really didn't want to look at them, but as the pile at the curb started to grow, she took a more active interest in what was piling up! Renetta also started to trust us and the process. She had been layed off from the hospital where she had worked, had used the little money she got from her insurance to pay off the mortgage, and really doesn't know how her life is going to go. (She was also worried about squatters coming to live in her house, even with no utilities available, and how she could evict them).
By the end of the day, the house was mostly cleared out (except the kitchen), the walls were bared four feet up in the living and dining room and Renetta was smiling! We are going back tomorrow to hopefully finish the work of cleanout. We don't know how the process will continue after we move on to some other task but we plan to encourage Alan Coe to continue with Renetta's house so she can move back in or whatever to get on with her life. -- Terry Jackson

Good mornin' from No'leans!

2006-03-27T05:05:00.000-08:00

What a Sunday it was! We started the day (after breakfast) with a tour of the sanctuary and Pastor Gary's enlightening, delightful description of the effects of the flood, and the surprising way in which the congregation's prayers were answered: We were thinking of making some little changes, but God thought maybe BIG changes were in order!

As the community gathered, Ray and I took a walk around the neighborhood. Although the houses in this neighborhood do not seem structurally unsound, at least 60 % of the houses have a FEMA trailer in the driveway.

I have more to say, but Team Kokua (Hawaiian word for "care") is on for setting up the lunch stuff, so I have to run. For now I will just emphasize how thorough the hurricane was. Individual still shots and even video footage cannot, CANNOT convey the extent of the damage, the number of destroyed and damaged houses in the 9th Ward, St. Bernard's Parish, near Tulane and Loyola, and all over. Astounding. Amazing.

Team's calling. There's a lot to share, from all of us.

Aloha & shalom --

Diva Dot

Sunday at Church

2006-03-26T11:19:00.000-08:00

This morning we got our first chance to meet the warm and generous congregation who’s church we have set up home for the week. It has helped us to start to see the emotional damage the storm did to this community.

There is a lot of blame and feeling like the government at all levels have failed them, and continues to fail them. They are very grateful we are hear to witness and help.

The church is relatively small, about 120 people, were at worship. We were told that about a quarter of the congregation has left, and may not return.

Shelly spoke and gave greetings from Berkeley to the congregation. We were all asked to come forward for the children’s time.

Part of the children’s time was performing the song “In the Garden” on hand bells. We were asked to participate. Each of us was handed different colors and asked to play our bell when shown a card with our bell’s color on it (see photos).

We will soon be leaving to tour the city, then spend the afternoon and evening in the French quarter. -- Paul Hoy

logging the little things

2006-03-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

2AM, Saturday March 24, 2006. My friends instant messaged me on the computer wondering why I was still up. Listening to the rain pitter-patter outside my windowsill, my hands busily packed sunscreen, towels, a toothbrush, soap, socks, a tape reorder to record stories, sunglasses, and countless other items I thought would be essential for the trip, I even brought reading from class. Shuffling through all of the items I wondered, did I forget anything? I replied to my friends, “I’m going with a 21 person workgroup to New Orleans. We are going to help with the rebuilding efforts there.” T-minus two hours before departure, I was processing the interaction with my friends via Internet, I thought about what was really needed and what I could do without.

4:15AM, Terry, one of the FCCB members picked up four students including myself from the Berkeley campus and we all went to Oakland Airport and flew to Los Angeles International Airport.

8:50AM. I used my cell phone to call my mom and told her, “Guess what?” She says, “You’re in New Orleans.” I said, “Not yet, but I’m in the same county as you.” She laughs and goes into her mother mode and lists all of everything I should be careful of. As I made my five minute exchange with my mom I thought about the luxury I had to go where I needed to go and get to where I needed to be and get in touch with my mom to tell her where I was.

5:00PM. The pilot just announced we are 81miles outside of Baton Rouge, LA and highlighted the Mississippi River. My two new acquaintances Joel and Aubrey from UCLA Campus Crusade for Christ are on a similar trip to volunteer in New Orleans. It seems that many students from California are taking time from their Spring Break to visit and help our neighbors rebuild their homes in Louisiana.

Along the journey from airport to airport, site to site, each person who heard about the group going to New Orleans said, “Thank you.” Our intention to help our neighbors was needed. We are not sure what we will encounter, but I am reminded from this trip of what I can be thankful for. I hope that as all of these perfect strangers come together as a community, we can help restore the access to conveniences that make up aspects of our everyday lives.
-Chau Nguyen

Thank You to All Drivers

2006-03-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

Starting our travels before 4:00am was exciting, very wet and blustry and filled with anticipation. We all want to thank those great friends who were willing to drive us to the airport--Susan Billings, John Wadman, Carmelle Knudsen, Nick Kukulan, Lisa Chilton and Bernice Brisette.
It's 7:30 and we are about to enjoy our first meal togeher. Thinking of all of you -- Jonell

In LAX

2006-03-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

It’s 9:48 am and we have just arrived at LAX and are now waiting for our next flight to take us to New Orleans. Most of the students are dead-eyed and tired from staying up all night so as not to miss our 4:30 am meeting time, while the adults look fresh and energized. By coincidence, we’ve bumped into another Berkeley group sent by Campus Crusade on the same mission. It is heartening to see all these students and adults come together with a common goal to have a different kind of spring break than the one that is publicized on MTV. As my eyes scan over our little group, I am struck by how different our backgrounds are and how little we know about each other. And I see, little by little, as we converse and discover more about each other, that we are becoming more synchronized, still different but more unified. I know that we are building bonds that will last much longer than this one week. -- Laurene Cheung

The Picture is at the gate at OAK getting ready to go -- Paul Hoy

FCCB Katrina Work Team Members

2006-03-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

These are the members of the FCCB Katrina Work Team (asterisks identify
UC Berkeley students): Carson Baucher*, Manuel Buenrostro*, Chau
Nguyen*, Laurene Cheung*, Liza Cirolia*, Karen Costello*, Pat de Jong,
Shelly Dieterle, Andrea Ford*, Paul Hoy, Terry Jackson, Peter Kim*,
Annis Kukulan, Jonell Lucas, Mitsie McKenna, Pamela O'Leary*, Hannah
Reed*, Jane Stahlhut, Dorothy Streutker, Paul Tomasiello, Helen B.
Wadman, and Ray Wichmann*.

Final Group Meeting

2006-03-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Sunday we all got together to for our last of four group meetings. These meetings have allowed us to start to get to know each other and prepare ourselves for our week in the New Orleans area.

To organize ourselves for the work that needs to be done, we have divided up into four teams. Shown here is the "Kokua" team in the process of deciding on a name and a group leader.

Work Team to Leave This Week

2006-03-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

The FCCB Katrina Work Team will be leaving for the New Orleans area this week to begin a week of relief efforts in the area affected by the hurricanes. The team, made up of members of First Congregational Church of Berkeley and students from the University of California at Berkeley, will be commissioned in worship this morning at 10 a.m. FCCB is a 2345 Channing Way in Berkeley (at Dana and Durant).
We look forward to hearing stories about this trip!
Phil Porter, FCCB Communications Coordinator