Rolling with the kids

Today a lucky nine of us got the chance to help out as counselors with a local "youth sacred space and summer program" called Camp Ubuntu . The program is basically a day camp for kids from age 6-18 who's parents can't care for them during the summer. Their leader Helen informed us that most of the children's parents were either sick, deceased, or in jail. Helen told us that at the end of the summer session she'd be taking some of the younger girls to go visit their mothers in prison, many of which were only there for something as innocent as self-defense. We started the day off at Tulane's recreational sports facility with swimming which is the way the kids begin every day. The hope is that, because not many of them can swim and are terrified of water (because of Katrina), at the end of the session they will have a greater chance at surviving another flood. After swimming we played games in the facility: racket ball, basketball, pool, and ping pong. Then we all ate lunch together outside, just in time for a huge down pour.

I found it really interesting that as we passed out the lunches most kids would only eat the chips and cookies. At first I just figured they only wanted the junk food, but apparently when people died while staying in the Super Dome they would put the bodies in empty freezers to keep the from rotting. After that I totally understood where they were coming from! We then went to the Airline Skating Rink, which was so much. Unfortunately they didn't have inline skates so us Cali girls spent most of the time on our butts while these little kids zoomed around like they were born doing it. Even if you weren't on the rink there was still plenty of stuff to do, from arcade games and food to dance offs (which I won, by the way!) In all the day was so amazing. I had so much fun playing with the kids! It was amazing seeing the huge smiles on their faces after they've been through much, and it felt so good to know that our help, as easy and fun as it was, got them through yet another day.

Holly Williams

Shafts of Light

Today's work was possibly the most fulfilling I have ever done, leaving me with high hopes for the rest of the trip. My group worked at a house in uptown New Orleans that was nearly completely gutted. The man who owned it had lived there for since the 1940's. During the hurricane his neighborhood did not flood but suffered from severe wind damage that led to a roofless house and severe rain damage. He evacuated to Los Angeles where his sister lives and only recently returned. Since coming home he had single-handedly gutted all of his house except the kitchen area. Our job was to pull of the plaster and wood paneling that made up the walls and ceiling, to peel off the linoleum, and to remove all of the debris. It was an easy enough task but somewhat slow and repetitive.

When all was done you could look through his house from front door to back. His family was living in the house while it was being repaired. I could never imagine spending all my time in that condition. The walls let in shafts of light between the boarding but the house was still dim because of the lack of lighting, the winds caused drafts, the roof leaked during a thunderstorm during our day, and the inside of the house framework was covered in an inch of dust. It made me so thankful for where we are staying and all we have.

Samantha Haycock

Getting Started

In the past, GODsquad has always rested a day or so before getting into the tedious work. This year, we dove in, getting to work the day after we arrived, having traveled for twelve hours. We woke at around six o' clock, which in California is chronologically equivalent to three in the morning. You can imagine that we felt pretty pooped; it was only too fitting that a line from the morning worship said:

Sleeper awake! Rise from the dead...

That morning, as we left in the minivans, I anticipated a slogging day. The day found me dripping in sweat as the humidity assaulted my mood. When we arrived at the warehouse, we received assignments from the director. Not registering what I was doing, I slinked into the nearest departing group. We arrived at a house we needed to paint and met the owner, a kindly old woman who had lost everything in the storm. Her son had had to be evacuated from her house at gunpoint, because he was agoraphobic, and was currently hospitalized. She was lonely and needed help, and was thrilled to be getting it from the Episcopal diocese in the area. They had practically rebuilt her house, and when we arrived, she was taping plastic to her windows for painting. She welcomed us with open arms and made us feel great. That day, we heard stories of the people's struggles from a neighbor across the street, and it hit me again that I was truly glad to be doing this. Also, the company of Greg, Shanna, Sam F., Sam V., Kyle, and the college kids who were also helping made the day all the more enjoyable. I feel ready to drive forward on tomorrow's work.

Adrian Guerrero

Beating The Bulldozer: Workday #1 - Gutting Houses

I guess it was a lot different than what I expected. New Orleans is cleaner and brighter, certainly, than when I saw it last, nearly a year ago. But it has been two years since Katrina, and houses still stand with boarded up windows and the telltale spray-painted X's that show FEMA has come to call.

We were working in the Ninth Ward. It's home to some of the lowest-lying real estate in the entire city, and before the hurricane it was (not coincidentally, as Phil pointed out) home to some of New Orleans' poorest residents as well. It has been two years since Katrina, and there are still houses that stand while they literally rot away, with stagnant water in the pipes and termites in the walls. Our 'gutting crew', as we were called, had to wear masks the whole time we were in the house, and sweated up a storm while we wrenched off doorways with crowbars, literally punched through dry wall so damp that it reminded me of cardboard, and carried out junk by the wheelbarrowful.

In that junk, I saw glimpses of how the house had been, before the hurricane rendered virtually everything useless and moldy. The man who owned the house wasn't sure whether or not he could even have kept working on it if it wasn't for our help. You see, he had been struggling on his own with gutting the house, and was engaged in a battle with the government, which has begun knocking down houses if they can't find proof that a person is really trying to rebuild. The meeting in court to decide this is tomorrow, Wednesday.

He declared our coming to work on his house the best birthday present he could have asked for, revealing that today was his birthday just before we packed up and left. Now, covered in sweat and first-rate New Orleans mud, I can see that our work is truly blessed.

Liz Powers

Here at Last!

After one flight to Atlanta (with at least a half hour of sleep by some), questionable breakfast in Terminal B of the Hartsfield airport, another flight, this time to New Orleans, we have arrived. We have arrived to a heat index of 100 degrees (thank God for air conditioning), and very hospitable hosts at St. George's, New Orleans on St. Charles Avenue.

We're just heading into program (a meditation), nap time (hopefully separate from the meditation), time at the pool at Tulane University, and a night at a New Orleans Zephyrs baseball game. Tomorrow we begin our work with the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana's Recovery efforts. More to come as we continue our mission in New Orleans...