Another day spent atop a ladder

Today, I did a lot of bracing-type work for the ceiling of the house, which again, meant I had to be up on a ladder all day. Good thing I’ve gotten used to it. I did get to use a power drill today! Awesome! I find the noise of the nail being drilled in correctly to be extremely gratifying. It’s also really satisfying to successfully hammer things. No lie, every time there’s a tough spot that takes a little longer to finish, I feel incredibly victorious when I’ve finally defeated that trouble area. I’ve also discovered I’ve come a pretty long way in my hammering skills since Tuesday. My best streak of hitting the nail on the head and not missing was 25, which was what took me to nail that specific nail into the wall from start to finish. Much better than when it took me forever (as in, most of the afternoon) to do one column down a wall. Huzzah!

I was thinking about how many little things go into making a house, especially all the things you can’t see. Eventually, all the braces reinforcing various parts of the house’s structure will be covered up, but that doesn’t defeat their purpose or lessen their significance. So many of the little tasks we’ve all been doing are actually pretty darn important for the longevity of the house. NO TASK IS TOO SMALL!

After work, we went to a museum. We had the choice of the Historical Society or a special Hurricane Katrina visit. Naturally, I chose the historical one. I learned some interesting facts. Napoleon was only up to selling New Orleans/Louisiana to the US because of the successful slave revolt in modern day Haiti (can’t remember the French colonial name…), so I guess we kinda owe a lot to Haiti. Also, here, “creole” isn’t so much a racial term as a nationality (?) term. If you were born in New Orleans, regardless of skin color, you were Creole. If you were an immigrant to New Orleans, you were not Creole. A lot of the culture/style/etc. was distinguished as French (European) vs. Creole (colony). Also, we were told that “Dixie” as the name for the South comes from the fact that New Orleans has flown many flags in her lifetime (French, Spanish, Napoleonic Empire, US), which led to a lot of transition, so they had this bank note worth 10 USD (I believe) that said “dix” on the back (French for 10 for my non-French speaking friends), and these notes reached the rest of the US, where they started to call New Orleans, and later, the South “Dixie” as it was the land of the “dix” banknote. I like having the historical background the supplement what we’ve been experiencing in post-Katrina/Rita NOLA.

And, since we were in the French Quarter for the museums, we made a stop at Cafe du Monde for beignets as cafe au lait. A clown caught a group of us at the corner of the street after crossing, and made us all silly balloon hats. It was a ridiculous moment in my life, and a good end to the day. Tomorrow, we have a free night after work, so a couple of us are going to have dinner in the French Quarter, and do the typical NOLA stroll down Bourbon Street (named for the house of Bourbon which ruled Spain back in the 1800s and is now ruling in its 3rd restoration to the Spanish throne today, not the drink)!

I made a Walgreen’s run last night, and picked up a couple of disposable cameras (thanks to my love of carrying around my digital camera everywhere, using it ALL. THE. TIME., and its most recent decision to have a lens error and not work anymore). I forgot how quickly film goes. I kept taking pictures, and was like, “I need to make 54 pictures last me the next three days, so I actually have to THINK before I snap a picture (which is difficult for shutter happy people like myself). Thank goodness for my camera phone (and other people’s digital cameras)!

It's so amazing to see the vibrant community with people who returned and rebuilt after the hurricanes who still have such a great outlook on life. Despite all of this death, destruction, and disaster, they've managed to be so optimistic about the world. This pride in rebuilding the city and moving back to normalcy just creates a wonderful vibe, and I kind of don't want to leave. I think I could be happy living here for a couple of years (though, I want to end up back in California at the end of the day).

I spent most of my day on top of a ladder

[Wednesday, January 19, 2011]

Day 2 of our build for the indoor crew was spent nailing pieces of 2x4 to the top of the walls to provide dead wood that will later be in use for the ceiling (or something), which meant I was pretty much on one of the top two rungs of a ladder for the greater part of the day. It was a little freaky. I’m afraid of falling backwards, and with nothing behind me for support, the height was a little unnerving (especially when the ladder would shift and feel a little unsturdy…). But, you get used to it, and become quite comfortable moving yourself around, shifting, and whatnot approximately 6-8 feet above the ground. This trip is a lot about pushing your personal limits (to a certain extent), which has been really amazing.

I also found hammering, while a solitary job for the most part, to be nice. While it was pretty much the same mechanical motion over and over and over again, it created a nice pattern that allowed me to muse over my life (although, I still paid attention to the quality of my work). I thought about all the other things I could have been doing instead of this service trip. I could have been in Morocco, which while totally awesome, would have meant less time at home with my family (and cost me money, versus having a service grant cover my expenses). I could have been in the Albright Program (if I had known about my eligibility for this year/applied/been accepted), but that would have been about 8 hours of lectures 5 days a week during my break freezing my bum off in New England. Instead, I’m enjoying comfortable 65-70 degree weather in New Orleans helping build someone their home. That’s pretty freaking cool. I’ve been learning so much about people, society, and myself in the past couple of days that I can’t believe it’s only really been 2 days. It's also amazing just how much I've learned from experience instead of a classroom.

All in all, I’ve decided that the experiences denied to me (well, programs I was rejected from) were a good thing because there are so many great experiences that I had instead that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Had I been an RA sophomore year, I couldn’t have gone to the DNC nor would I have gotten to know my fabulous roommate. Had I gotten the stipend/DC program, I wouldn’t have been able to go to Sweden/the rest of my post-abroad trip with Dad and Nana. Had I been an Albright fellow last year, I wouldn’t have been able to go on my post-abroad trip, and I would have been away from home from January to November (instead of February to November). Had I been an Albright fellow this year, I wouldn’t be on this trip right now. As cool as that program may be (don’t really want to hate on the program since a couple of my friends are doing it), I like Habitat for Humanity better. It’s really cool to watch the difference happen in front of your very eyes. To see a partially sided house with very basic inside construction go to a mostly sided house with a door and inside walls (just the dry wall we did yesterday) in two days is pretty amazing. Plus, I’m losing interest in working in foreign affairs and gaining a huge interest in local and state politics/government and more domestic/local groups. Maybe we should focus on perfecting our domestic affairs before we start meddling in other people’s business I know that’s a huge debate, but there is some merit to the US paying attention to its own domestic problems in housing, government, education, etc. before trying to fix another country’s education system, government, etc.

Anyway, after work, we took a driving tour of the city. I saw the lower 9th ward, which was hit the hardest by the floods. There was a giant field where an entire elementary school once stood. What used to be a neighborhood where houses stood close together now looks like a more rural area instead of an urban neighborhood. There are still spray paint marks of the rescue workers marking when they came, the number of injured, the number dead, if the gas was turned off, etc. This is the poorer area of New Orleans, this is the area least recovered since the hurricanes, this is probably the least white area, and no one talks about it anymore. The media don’t really cover New Orleans’s recovery anymore, but the tourist areas (French Quarter), downtown, the Garden District (the oldest biggest houses, more on that in a second) are all fixed, so I guess, in the media’s eyes, the city is completely recovered. I can tell you it’s not. There are houses where vegetation has completely taken over because the owners couldn’t afford to move back in, and have since abandoned this property. There are so many potholes, and you can never really tell how deep they are (we had a little run in with one this morning in front of the construction site). There is just so much more that needs to be done, but there are still multiple organizations working in different neighborhoods rebuilding the city. At least New Orleans hasn’t escaped their attention. For me, it’s been eye-opening. I didn’t realize the extent of the recovery still needed in this city. I thought the city was doing well. And, it is. But, not as well as it could be (or should be?). We (well, just the van I was in - the Adventure Van as we like to call it) also went to THE levee that broke in the lower 9th ward. Instead of a pile of dirt (made with the wrong dirt and too short steel pipes), there is now a more clay (non-porous) mud along with giant slabs of concrete that look like they’ve been pretty solidly built into the ground. After that, we took a quick drive through downtown and the French Quarter. They’re pretty cool, and what everyone knows as New Orleans. On the way back to the church place, we drove though the Garden District. These are the big old Southern homes, and the swanky rich area of the city. They are also above water level (because they were built back before we could build things at water level in New Orleans), so they weren’t really all that damaged. Besides, the people living in the Garden District can probably afford the expensive flood insurance as well as the homeowner’s insurance (which only protects against a hurricane’s wind damage, and not the aftermath’s flooding). There was a huge problem with homeowner's versus flood insurance since homeowner's insurance (which most people in all of NOLA had) DOES NOT cover flooding, and that's what destroyed the city. A lot people, especially in the lower income areas were unaware of that, and despite all mortgaged homes requiring flood insurance, it didn't really help since most homes were passed on through generations into full ownership. It was very interesting to get a glimpse at the two very different neighborhoods in the city that can create two very different impressions of post-Katrina/Rita NOLA.

After that, there was some yummy mac and cheese, cornbread with maple butter, black eyed peas, and some mixture of zucchini and other vegetables for dinner. DELICIOUS! A group of us played a fabulous game of Apples to Apples, which always leads to some great laughs! Now, off to day 3!

The Politics of Race and Hurricane Katrina

[Tuesday, January 18, 2011]

Tonight, we had a discussion before dinner with a group that works on discussing race in regards to Hurricane Katrina. How much does race play into it? How much of it is just poor infrastructure? Was the poor infrastructure a reflection of the politics of race? New Orleans is not a financial capital of the country (unlike NYC or LA) - is that why it was ignored? If New Orleans were a city with the importance to our capitalist society as NYC (Wall Street) or LA (Hollywood), would the levees have been built better? Would we have spent the extra money to make better stronger levees if New Orleans were more than a cultural center of our country? How does race play into all of these questions?

We also discussed the racial politics of post-Katrina New Orleans. Many wealthier white citizens were able to move back and rebuild, but many less wealthy minority citizens have been unable to do so. The media claim New Orleans as rebuilt and coming a long way, and it has, but there is still so much more to do. 5 years later, and we still have large groups coming to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity to rebuild homes in areas that have been ignored. 5 years later, and you can still see the scars.

Today, I helped build a wall

[Tuesday, January 18, 2011]

Literally. Not in the metaphorical sense.

As a part of volunteering this week with Habitat for Humanity, I (along with 3 other students) put up a wall in the interior of the house. My left arm (all the way from my fingertips to my shoulders) is a little sore from all the hammering. I’m looking forward to our tasks for the rest of the week!

One thing that has been great about this trip is that a group of 20 young women from a really competitive school where you tend to always look out for your best interests can come together, and aren’t afraid to ask for help and work together to build a house. We understand the importance of working together and building a community, not just amongst ourselves, but with the other volunteers and staff members. It’s so wonderful to be a part of something that requires so much team effort that you forget about the competition that usually exists amongst us, and go for a common goal. It is not WOMAN who will make a difference in the world, but WOMEN who will make a difference in the world. It isn’t up to one of us to change the world; it’s up to all of us. It’s by working together, recognizing each other’s strengths and weaknesses (and knowing how to address both), asking for help when we need it, and putting a common goal/good before the individual that makes us the strong women that rock the world.

No task is too small. No task is insignificant. Every little bit matters.

Entering food coma...

Operation: Thanksgiving Potluck - SUCCESS!

Everyone had a great time, there was more than enough food, and it's so great to just have a night to relax with friends. :)

I'm so thankful for all of you!

And ze bird is out of ze oven!

Checking on the bird...

Aaaaand, it's DONE!!!!!

This is the first time I've ever cooked a turkey with someone who also has little experience. The ultimate test will be taste. I can tell you all that it smells and looks good!

Nom nom nom nom

So close...2nd round of basting! It's looking really good. The whole dorm smells like Thanksgiving. :)