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!
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