Week 15

Working in the lumberyard at The Green Project.

How many hours are in the day? Not enough. My time here in NOLA is flying by, and I can’t seem to slow it down. Things are going really well on my project, but it’s difficult to find time to do the things I usually do, like posting this blog for instance. Thanks for your patience.

Last week I started working on a duplex for a lady who is going to be living in one side with her invalid aunt that she cares for, and the other side she plans to rent to another relative. She’s a really nice lady and because she is currently renting a place across the street, I get to see her every day. We had some volunteers from an Episcopal church in Virginia come help us do some painting. They also donated a large sum of money to PNOLA, and it was nice getting to know them, and getting to show them what sorts of things their money goes towards and who exactly they’re helping.

Quarter round
completed.

Quite a lot of this project so far has involved painting, but I got to spend an afternoon last week installing quarter round in the house. I absolutely love doing this sort of finish work, and it was nice to be given this task and trusted to do it without anyone breathing down my neck and second guessing my methods. All of the molding came out great, and I got several compliments on it, being told it’s a very professional looking job. Hurray for gaining new skills!

Friday was dedicated to preparing for a Kaboom! build, which for me meant priming a bunch of little squares of plywood. Then Saturday my team was on the Kaboom! site from 6:15am until around 5pm. It was a very long day, but it was also one of the most rewarding days I’ve ever had. If you’re not familiar with Kaboom!, they’re a non-profit that builds playgrounds nationwide with volunteer labor. Their mission statement is “to create great playspaces through the participation and leadership of communities. Ultimately, [they] envision a place to play within walking distance of every child in America.” They are an incredibly organized group, and they set it up so that with the help of between 100 and 200 volunteers, an entire playground/park can be built in a single day. (Kaboom.org)

For this project, I got to be a team captain, and I led a group of 11 young adults in building 3 wooden Mendocino Benches. I have to say, it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but at the end of the day, I had a group of kids who couldn’t believe they had built a sturdy bench with their own two hands. There was one group of high school guys in my group that were there for some sort of correctional community service hours. You could tell that when we started, they thought they’d sit back, not lift a finger, and get some easy hours. Of course, I wasn’t going to let that slide, so I had them working on a bench together. Over the course of the day, they went from being standoffish kids that didn’t know how to use a drill to confident, organized young men that took great pride in their finished product. It took a LOT of encouragement and instruction on my part, but it really paid off. When they finished, I had them all sit on their bench and Mac took a picture of them. Those “too cool for school” attitude kids are absolutely beaming in the photo. I don’t have the pictures yet from this event, but I’ll try and post them next week.

I then worked at the New Orleans Museum of Art on Sunday, which brought my ISP total to 21 hours for the weekend. I’m up to almost 50 hours now, and my overall goal is 100 before the end of the program in May, so I’m pretty much on track.

Cris & Ellie

In other news, I get to go home for Thanksgiving next week, so I’ll be floating in joyful anticipation until then. I can’t wait to see my family and to cover my nieces in kisses. Cris sent me the cutest picture of him and Ellie last week, and I’d like to think that the reason she looks so big is that the camera adds ten pounds, but I suppose it’s because she’s grown a ton since I last saw her. Soon I’ll be able to cuddle with her and Allison though. Hurray!!

Week 14

Jacquie, me, Ashlyn, and Ruth - downtown.
Jacquie almost got beatup for wearing a Redskins jersey.

Sunday morning, and I’m so thankful for the quiet. I love every single member of my team dearly, but it can become a little wearing when you sleep, eat, work, and hangout with the same 10 people every single day of every single week. It’s difficult to find a moment to yourself, because no room goes unoccupied, and we’re not allowed to leave the house unless we have at least one buddy. Because I crave and cannot function without a little alone time each day, I’ve discovered that my best option is waking up earlier than need be. Our work days don’t begin until 9am and no one else wakes up before 8am, so if I’m up by 7am, I have an entire hour to myself to drink my coffee and read my book in peace. I guess the functionality of difficult living situations depends on adaptability.

My temporary home.

This is one of those weeks with no days off due to ISPs (Independent Service Projects), but I don’t really mind. Yesterday we worked with a non-profit called The Green Project. It’s a really neat program that recycles building materials. They take in and resell anything from wood to bathtubs, to paint. I spent most of the day in the “lumberyard” where I helped organize by moving hundreds of pounds of wood and metal from one rack to another. I’m sore as all get out today, but we got a lot accomplished, and it was such beautiful, cool weather yesterday, I was thrilled to be working outside.

I’m writing this later in the day, having just gotten back from the New Orleans Museum of Art Sculpture garden, where I worked picking up trash, weeding, and sweeping pathways. Another beautiful day here in NOLA, and working in the sculpture garden was a joy. We have to clean the house today, and then this evening we’re going to eat free vegan Indian food at Hare Krishna, so I’m looking forward to that.

One of the many doors I stripped and sanded.

Me and Jacquie on the "disaster tour." You can see a flood
wall in the background if you squint.

Things I did earlier in the week involve stripping and sanding old doors, peeling old wallpaper, priming walls and ceilings, de-nailing a bunch of boards, knocking in wire protection wall plates, reinforcing floors, and rebuilding large holes in wood floors with old floor boards. 




As you can see, I’m doing a little bit of everything here, and getting a good feel for how to rebuild old houses out of old parts. There’s not much money to go around, but what this organization lacks in funds it makes up for in creativity. That’s one of the cool things about NOLA in general. Reusing old things is more fashionable than buying new ones, so everything has a very creative feel to it.

On Friday, the director of PNOLA took us on a “Disaster Tour”, showing us how different parts of the city were affected by Katrina, and educating us on the city in general. It was very interesting, and I feel like I have a much better notion of why the culture is what it is down here.

That’s all for now.

Love from NOLA,

 k

Taylor, Sarah, Cain, Ashlyn, me, Jacquie,
and Ruth at the zoo in Jackson.