EP Schools Help - New Orleans Hurricane Relief

...and the beat goes on

2007-06-24T20:30:00.000-05:00

Thursday morning something very strange happened. Nate Olson, aka Nate the Cook from Hands On, called me and said that Rebirth Brass Band was in town. I couldn't believe it. The same Rebirth that Sam saw at the Maple Leaf while we were in NOLA. I was too tired to take them in while we were there, but regretted it afterwards. Sam raved about them.

So now, here it is, just a few days after coming home and Rebirth is in town. I have a second chance. So I called up the gang, and on short notice Sam, Janet, Nate, and our other friend Tom got together at the Cabooze for a little Rebirth. It was awesome! A little bit of New Orleans in our own backyard.

Highlights from Kreie Fish

2007-06-18T09:10:00.000-05:00

This is going to be my last entry for awhile. Who knows? Maybe I’ll wind up in New Orleans again sometime soon. Time will tell. Right now the idea of coming during Thanksgiving or Christmas seems attractive. Maybe flying instead of driving and maybe bringing the entire Kreie clan down. We’ll see.

I go back and forth on the idea of continuing to travel down to New Orleans. Sometimes I convince myself that this will be the last trip for a few years, but then other times I feel like I have to come back once or twice every year. This morning was one of those times that made me feel like I need to come back. We had breakfast with Reverend Lance, Miss Joanne, and Lance’s mother at the Oak Street Café. Just talking with Lance makes me want to keep these trips alive for many years to come. There is so much that still needs to be done in NOLA, and now I feel like I’ve made some lasting relationships down here. Grandma Frances was upset that no one had called her to meet us. So, now I have a reason to go back soon. I need to see Grandma.

I had many highlights on this trip. My first and foremost best memory was this fantastic group that made the trip down from Minnesota. We coexisted in this small house, bumping into each other on every turn, yet the drama was kept to a minimum. We all felt like we were living a real life episode of “The Real World.” But in all seriousness, this Minnesota group was the best – an awesome group of people whose relationships I will carry with me hopefully throughout my life. These folks took this chance to just set their sails for New Orleans and hope for the best. We all took a bit of a leap of faith. This was a courageous, caring group of folks who have left their mark on this city that needed them so much. Thanks, guys, for a trip of a lifetime!!!

I enjoyed the work. My highlight was crawling around beneath the floor of one of the Galvez houses for two days hammering in floor boards. I got extremely dirty hanging out with the roaches, but my work was needed and my nail pounding skills were honed.

We met some super awesome people on this trip! Because we stayed in our own accomodations, we didn’t meet the number of people we met on previous trips, but the people we did meet on Galvez were the best –

Rocky, our med student super worker friend from LSU; Cynthia, the cute-as-a-bug energetic Washingtonian who became Dottie’s new best friend; Rob, Kris, Roya, Jason, Katherine and the rest of the Berklee Music School staff – we’re still jealous that they each got their own rooms at a posh, French Quarter hotel!; take a look at their blog, too: http://berkleeonthebayou.wordpress.com/

the gals from Memphis; Theresa, the New Orleans native who can pound a hammer with the best of ‘em and look good doing it;

Terry - one of our very patient house leaders;

Carol, from Denver who was brave enough to come to New Orleans to work completely on her own; Fran, our friendly neighborhood professor from Detroit; and our Americorp gal pals Alex and Sarah who really knew what they were doing, thank God.

You guys were the greatest! What a gift to get to know you all!!!

Of course our evenings out rocked the house on most nights. Thanks to Kim and Sam for chairing the entertainment committee. Tops for me were Jacque Imo’s and the Rock and Bowl. Here’s to another amazing NOLA adventure. Hope you are touched by this blog in some small way and that you will keep the volunteer spirit flowing. Do your part, do your thing, and be the change!!!!

www.chriskreie.com

Highlights from Jen Beans and Rice

2007-06-18T09:09:00.001-05:00

Jen Beans n Rice Blog “Highlights”

Just wanted to drop by and share with you all some of my highlights from our trip. I think my favorite night out had to have been Thursday night at the Rock n Bowl……just getting to hangout with some of our new friends and also listening and dancing to the best Zydeco band ever!! Well I haven’t heard many other Zydeco bands but J. Paul Jr. was great. I just couldn’t stay still, it just made you want to dance, dance, dance and that is what we did. Good times, good times! Some other highlights were the big Tomato festival and seeing the French quarter filled with people and tons of live music….it was great. Ooh and some of my favorite food highlights was our dinner at 13 on Tuesday night (tons of vegetarian and vegan dishes!!!! Yay for me and sam!!), the portabella sandwich on Friday night at Angelini’s was delicious, by far the best mushroom sandwich I have ever had. Oh and the vegetarian delight at Jeaque Imo’s was so awesome…..New Orleans is definitely a great place to get a variety of great food!! Lets see, other highlights included getting a tattoo, staying in our great house, spending time in our awesome neighborhood, meeting new peeps, working our butts off, “glistening” with sweat, how good it felt to take a shower at the end of the work day, meandering through the French quarter on numerous occasions, breakfast with the rev and miss Joanne, spending the day at the animal shelter where I made fast friends with Griselda and Giselle and had the opportunity to play “kitty cat symphony” where I had all the cats attention and they were bobbing their heads and following the toy in unison…., getting to actually meet and talk with “the Jeaque” of Jeaque Imos, our numerous free deserts, meeting and speaking with some of the locals, getting to meet and talk to Ricardo Crespo…..what a great guy he was. Our new friends Cynthia, Justin and Rocky were a blast to hang out with and such great people. I hope that someday we can get together again whether its in New Orleans, The twin cities or somewhere else……that would be awesome….but we will see. I guess as I am writing this, I also have to mention my car ride with the same people for 22 hours each way……..then spending the entire week in the same living quarters. Boy do you get to know people real fast when put into a situation like that…..but it was great. We are just one big happy and dysfunctional family! J Another great trip with a little bit different perspective but great indeed! I wonder when I will be returning to my home away from home again….??? Most likely …….soon enough!

Jen Beans and Rice signing off. (for the time being)

Friday, June 15th

2007-06-18T09:03:00.000-05:00

Friday – Our last day on the job. It was a strange morning in that five of us shoved off for the Habitat site while the other five slept just a bit later and went to Animal Rescue New Orleans. (see Carla’s entry for more details on this)

Sam, Angie, Rose, Dottie and I returned to the houses on Galvez. It was more of the same – very similar to the work we’ve been doing all week. I have a few mixed feelings about Habitat now that the week is over. The experience this week has been nothing short of spectacular. We met countless great people and did work that was much needed in the area. But we discovered one hard reality about Habitat. It is unskilled volunteers doing very skilled labor under the guidance of house leaders who themselves have been working with Habitat for only a few short months. Because of this, we constantly built portions of the homes that we not up to proper code or that were flat out wrong. Much of our work during the week involved fixing things we had done on previous days.

But while the endless “fixes” were at times maddening, the overall experience of the week was fantastic. It’s easy to forgive the workers at Habitat considering they are trying to manage 400 volunteers each day, long term volunteers from Americorps, and several house leaders who are just learning to build homes themselves. It’s an awesomely huge undertaking and everyone at Habitat should feel extremely proud of the work they are doing.

One thing, one very good thing, we noticed at Habitat was the way in which they treated their volunteers. It was a very forgiving environment where volunteers where encouraged to try new things and were assured that any mistakes they made would be “ok.” There was a great deal of positive reinforcement on the jobsite that made everyone feel very good about the work we were doing. And we were constantly “forced” to take breaks to stay strong, hydrated and out of the sun.

We commented several times on site, the few of us that have been to NOLA before, that the overall attitude with Habitat was different from the attitude we experienced at Hands On. Habitat long-term volunteers and employees seemed much happier in their work than did the Hands On long-termers. Unfortunately I think we caught Hands On at a period in which many of the volunteers were suffering from some major burnout. That’s not to take anything away from Hands On. The experience with them was fantastic as well. If it wasn’t, we probably never would have wanted to come back.

On a few different occasions we compared this trip and work we did to our experiences on previous trips. Of course there were goods and bads on each trip. In my opinion the experience with Hands On was a bit more rewarding in that we could measure our progress much more easily. If 10 people went into a house to gut it, by the end of the day you could see tremendous progress. Sometimes you even finished a particular job in the course of one day. However, Habitat provided a more laid-back work site environment that was not such a drain on you physically. I liked the actual work we did at Habitat. I learned some new skills and I wasn’t draped in Tyvek all day long.

The moral of the story is that both experiences had their high points and low points, but both were experiences I will reflect on extremely positively and will take with me throughout the rest of my life. I’m grateful for everything these experiences have given me. They’ve changed my life, they’ve opened my eyes to some unfortunate realities in our country, and they’ve afforded me the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the neatest, kindest, best people I’ve ever met in my life. If you’re reading this and haven’t done a volunteer trip like the ones I’ve taken, you must. You will never be the same.

On Friday we continued to work on the floor system of the unfinished Galvez house. We worked quickly and redid some things that had been done the day before. Our crew was smaller which gave us all a bit more elbow room.

Sam and I spent most of the day working side by side. What a coup it was having Sam join us. He made the trip exponentially better just by being there. I greatly appreciate Sam’s friendship and feel lucky to have shared this experience with him. Thanks, Sam, for your hard work and your drive to get all of us out every night. You were “the best” entertainment director. More music!!! There must be a band playing somewhere!!!

Friday was capped off with another muy fun night. We broke from work a little early to make sure Sam had enough time to get ready and get to the airport. We all bid him and his PT Cruiser a tearful farewell around 4:00. Angie and Kirsten rode out with him to the airport because they needed a rental car for Saturday.

Several of us took naps around the house in the early evening before we, once again, headed to the French Quarter. We did some souvenir shopping along Decatur Street then met Cynthia and Justin at Pat O’Briens for Hurricanes. Janet didn’t order one but experienced the joy of a Hurricane anyway. Our waiter Felix dumped a couple drinks on Kirsten and Janet, giving them a syrupy, bright red shower. Those girls – they just can’t hold their drinks.

We did a bit of a death march through the French Quarter following P.O.’s. We walked and walked and walked, some of our group weaker than the others because they hadn’t eaten in a long, long time. Finally we settled on Angeli’s on Decatur for dinner. By this time it was around 12:00. Dinner at midnight – that doesn’t happen every day. But it was a very good meal and our last chance to hang out with Cynthia and Justin.

Another awesome day in NOLA!

Galvez Houses

2007-06-17T13:31:00.000-05:00

Our group primarily worked on two houses on Galvez St. At times, it seemed like our progress was in slow motion, but by the end of the week you could definitely see all that we had accomplished.

Kirsten and I worked with Hannah and Martin shingling this section around the window. Kim, Sam, and Fran were experts by the time they finished this difficult siding section on the back of the house.

Our siding project was just about finished as well. Alexandra is in the picture with me. She was one of the AmeriCorp workers who really helped me a lot while we were working.

Rose spent a lot of time during our last
couple of work days doing finishing work
on the porch. She had it looking so good
by the time we left.

Home Sweet Home

2007-06-17T12:16:00.000-05:00

I'm back home again after an amazing week in New Orleans. I'm not ready yet to disconnect from this great experience, so I thought I'd write a little more about it and share some more of our pictures. The most impressive part of this whole trip for me was the great people I met. In our group, I really only knew Kirsten, so the other 8 members of our group started as strangers. But now, I will always consider them friends. Chris was our fearless leader who put so much time and effort into getting this trip together. He did an amazing job!! Thanks Chris for everything you did to make this trip happen!

Kim, Sam, Dottie, Carla, Janet, Jen, and Rose were all wonderful people who gave me many laughs and many memories over the last seven days. I'll always remember Sam's "made for radio voice" and the poetry reading he did for us during lunch one day. Ask him about his 87 cent poem sometime!! Kim created laughs wherever she went....and the rest of the group was always up for anything. I'm not sure Janet or Sam ever went to bed!!! Every night they were looking for something else to experience.

Musician's Village was the Habitat for Humanity site that we worked on during our time in NOLA. It is quite an impressive site. We loved to see all the new construction and the bright colors of
the houses really make it feel like a happy and hopeful place. Such a contrast to all the destruction we witnessed as well.

I'd love to hear from some of the new people I met this week. Feel free to send me an email. My email is: amshea21@yahoo.com

Thanks for all the great memories!!
Angie

Rose's Seranade

2007-06-15T20:01:00.000-05:00

After dinner last night we met up with this fantastic singer on the street who seranaded Rose with a birthday tune! Have a look:

Great line from the guy: I have a record. You can get it at the New Orleans Police Department. It's quite long!

Taking a little bit of NOLA home with us.

2007-06-15T19:42:00.000-05:00

Me again (Carla). A few of us had a little (planned) diversion last night. We got tattoed! Jen, Dot, and I all got Fluer de Leis tattoes in different styles and places on our parts! Jen and I both had been planning on getting Fluer de Leis tattoes eventually and with more talking decided to get 'er done here. Why not? NOLA is what is represents so why not get them here. They didn't hurt! See for yourself...

Oh, they thought they were being soooo funny!

My Turn

2007-06-15T19:08:00.001-05:00

I've been kind of quiet on this blog so I guess it's my turn at telling you something.

Today the group split up. Half of the folks went back to the Habitat work site to continue work on the 2 houses we have been laboring over all week while the other half (which includes me, I'm Carla, btw) went to Arno - Animal Rescue of New Orleans. I thought it would be a good experience to see, yet another, side of New Orleans I have not seen. Also, I've never volunteered for an animal shelter and wanted to see what that was like. There were a few tugs at the ol' heart strings, for sure. The group was put together after the hurricane and have rescued 6000 dogs and cats in the New Orleans area in just under 2 years. Currently, they are working with placing and housing 2800 animals. At the site we were working at I was quite sure exactly how many were being housed there.

We started out in the morning by getting the dogs out one by one to do their business while the staff worked at cleaning cages. Then we split up on tasks and things needing to get done. Jen worked with the kitties all day cleaning cages and giving them needed love and stimulation, play time. Janet and Kim worked with cleaning some of the dogs, walking them, and giving them needed love and attention as well. I tackled a section of the shelter that desparately needed cleaning. It was in sorry shape but I gave it a good wash down and then I got to get in a little play time with Toby and Razoo. I took to these 2 dogs in the back of the shelter because they were older, like my doggy at home, and they were so in need of some attention and a good ear scratch. Razoo really liked the shower I gave him with the hose but Toby wasn't into it as much. There were so many dogs that we just couldn't even get to. The folks there were so appreciative of the work we did AND the donation of $200 we gave them from our fundraising. It felt so good to know that we had lifted their spirits. That tugged at our hearts just as much as all those lovable dogs and cats that are waiting for adoption.

Oh, also, forgot to mention: this is a no-kill facility. Each animal will stay with them until they are able to give them a forever home. All adoptees do need to meet ARNO's requirements for adoption specific to the animal's needs.

Toby and Razoo waiting for their head-scratch.

Thursday, June 14th

2007-06-15T16:39:00.001-05:00

Thursday - whoa! It was one heckuva day!

Our work day on Thursday was pretty typical for the week. We met at the Habitat headquarters in the Musician's Village, then hooked up with our house leader, Eric, and went to the two houses on Galvez.

It was a pretty productive day, all things considered. One of the issues we keep running into is the need to fix mistakes that were done on previous days. This is what we did a lot of today. We kept working on the floor system. I would have thought we'd be done with it by now, but the work goes on.

Others in the group did calking, painting and sanding. I think this work was more rewarding for them because they could track and see their progress.

I shouldn't make it seem like the floor system work wasn't rewarding. It was. It is just a tad bit frustrating to constantly be redoing things. Having an expert set of eyes watching our work at all times is just a luxury that Habitat does not have.

At lunch time Carla, Dottie and I took a fun little field trip. We got in the van and drove north and east from our job site to visit two houses that we had gutted on previous trips. The first place we came to, a two-story gut from last June, looked about the same as it did when we left it. It was vacant, and no work had been done on the interior. Too bad that there was no obvious progress, but one way to look at it is at least the house is still standing!

The other property we visited was more enjoyable. This was the house on Corrine Street where we had interviewed Herman during last year's April trip. We lucked out to find the homeowner, Venny, inside the house. The house really hadn't been touched since we'd left, but currently Venny is working with contractors to get plans made for beginning the rebuild. She was so happy to meet us. Right away she gave us big hugs. Then just before we left she took our a photo album to show us pictures of her house from before Katrina. It was very pretty. We were reminded of the shame of Katrina and how it took good people's lives and turned them completely upsidedown. We hope with all our hearts that Venny can put together the money that's necessary to rebuild her home.

The afternoon was a bit of the same as the morning. We got interrupted for just a short time by a passing storm. The craziest part of the rain was that, unlike Minnesota where rain usually cools everything off, the rain down here just made things more humid and sticky. The sun came out and it felt like we were in a sauna.

Following our work, we went a few separate ways. Angie, Kirsten and I drove down to the Habitat officies which just happens to be only a mile or two from our house. We wanted to drop off our checks but also to possibly buy some t-shirts. The folks at the office were thankful for our checks and were even willing to pose for some pictures. Nice people all around this city!

While the three of us were at the office, some of the others went to the Quarter for - you guessed it - tattoos. Oooooh! Permanent souvenirs. Carla, Jen and Dottie each got different versions of a Flor de Lis (sp). Very becoming, girls! I thought about doing it for an instant, but then lost the courage. I was impressed by Jen when she said that she wanted to get a New Orleans tattoo because her trips to NOLA have marked a change in her life to volunteer more and lead a more giving lifestyle. She said these trips have been life-changing. Way to go Jen!!!

And the beat goes on... I told you this was a busy day. After returning from the Habitat office I had a hankerin' for some seafood and I knew that the Saltwater Grill was just two blocks from our house. I dropped off Kirsten and Angie, then took the PT Cruiser to the Saltwater. I ordered five pounds of boiled crawfish and a shripm po-boy, then drank an Abita outside while I waited for my food. It was a nice little moment. Once home, it was only Rose and me who wanted to dive in to the crawdads. Sam doesn't eat meat, Angie and Kirsten just plugged their noses, and the rest were in the Quarter. Oh well, their loss. The crawdads were wonderful!!! Glad I could squeeze in this super awesome opportunity!!!

Is there more??? Yes!!! After these things we all met in the Quarter for dinner and drinks at 13 Monahan's where the girls got to share their tattoo stories.

Anything else??? Of course. We left the quarter and since the van had to stop at the house to drop off some to-go boxes, Sam, me, Rose, and Angie had the time to swing into Cafe Dumonde. Actually Sam just chauffered us there and drove around until we were done. We all got some gift items, and some coffees and binets too. Another experience you just have to do a couple times while you're in this glorious city!!!

Still more??? For sure - the best was still to come. Next stop - Mid City Bowl for some Rock n Bowling and Zydecko night. What a party!!! This place is an old dillapidated building but has charm up the whazoo. It's a bowling alley but there is a stage set up right adjacent to the lanes - so you can rock and bowl. What a concept! The band that was playing was this group of you guys who were kicin' out the Zydecko. It was just the best. And to make things even more fun we met up with folks from the job site including Cynthia, Beau, and Rocky.
Good times!

We bowled a game and danced until midnight. Can't say you could really find this kind of an experience back home.

Whew! Now are we done??? Not really! Next came a drive down Magazine Street and a trip to the Bon Temp Roulais (sp once again). This place was a smokin', happenin' bar and the place was packed. We did a few drinks in the front of the bar, then went to the back for some music from a blow-you-away brass band. The tuba player was the fella whose house we dedicated on Monday. What a wild scene! The place was packe, no air conditioning, and everyone was dances and having a great old time.

Now I think we're done. Mostly we were except Sam just had to peak his head into his favorite local joint - The Maple Leaf. We did that and saw a three-piece rock band perform three songs before they quit for the night.

Is the day over??? Yes, oh hapy blog reader, it is!!!

Tuesday Night at Jacque-Imo's

2007-06-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

Hola! I'm going back in time a bit but thought it was important to document one of the best night's of the trip - and that was Tuesday night.

We walked to Jacque-Imo's which is just down our street a few blocks on Oak Street. What a time we had! We got an awesome table in the back patio. Our waiter was great. We got to meet "the" Jacque-Imo and he swung by a few times to talk with us. We celebrated Rose's 60th birthday with the help of money from friend Vanny back home. And, we got free desserts and champagne. And that's not even to mention the WONDERFUL food we all had. Absolutely one of the best single experiences of the trip.

It's awesome to work hard all day with all these amazing folks, but then it's just as fun to all hang out together at night. Jacque-Imo's was the best - a great time for all of us to hang together and do a group outing.

Later that night some of us went down to the French Quarter. We wanted to do the "Burbon Street" thing, and it was fun. On our way there we saw a brass band that had just broken out on the corner. Unfortunately by the time we parked and walked to where we saw them, they were wrapping up.

But we had much fun, nonetheless. All in all a really great day in NOLA!

New Orleans / "Habitat for Humanity" work and fun

2007-06-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

Howdy from "Hurricane Sam"!

This has been a fantastic trip and there's still one day to go! I'd like to share with you a bit about the people and experiences that have made this a rewarding and memorable time. I'd also like to thank Jeanine for her willingness to "pick up the slack" back in Minneapolis while I'm gone, and thank all the generous people who donated money to our trip, Habitat for Humanity, and the animal rescue / shelter here in New Orleans. You all helped make this possible!

The volunteers I'm staying and working with are a fantastic, giving, and funtastic bunch. Chris located a house to rent and the ten of us are sharing the house for a week. Thanks go out to the family who rented their house to us while they are traveling. It's a great N'rleans house and the Uptown area it's located in is ideal; with unique houses, friendly residents, delicious restaurants, and one very fun bar - The Mapleleaf.

Our Sunday in New Orleans allowed us to experience 2 of the many festivals this city has to offer - the Tomato and Cajun / Zydeco festivals. Janet picked up a box of Cajun tomatoes at the festival, they are delicious - must be the Cajun soil and gardeners! We got to experience heat, humidity, Abita beer, blues, jazz, and Zydeco bands!

The evening ended with great meal at "13" and a rockin band named Gradeaux at "DBA".

Monday saw us at the worksite bright, hot, and early. Our "crew" began work on a partially completed house along with about 30 other volunteers from around the country. Two coordinators, Eric and Terry, got all of us started on various jobs and then continued to answer our questions and work with us. It was amazing how patient the 2 fellows were / are with all of us; especially considering the heat, humidity, and inexperience of most volunteers. The help and encouragement has continued day after day all week. I should mention that Americorps volunteers also work at the sites and are equally as friendly, hardworking, and encouraging.

Tuesday was one of the more comfortable workdays, 93 degrees instead of Monday's 97 degrees and included a good breeze. We knocked off early to attend a ceremony which celebrated the wall raising of a couple's new house. The Habitat for Humanity director was there and the young couple's mothers. It was meaningful to see and hear the appreciation that was felt by the new home owners. The Musician's Village where we are working will provide about 70 homes for New Orleans musicians and their families. Kitty corner to the site of the wall raising sat Fats Dominoe's drummer, sitting on his porch. I talked with Paul, a resident of the French Quarter who was working on housing. He explained that the application for housing indeed required new residents to prove their work as an area musician. This city is jampacked with fantastic musicians everywhere one turns, there is truely a need to house them along with so many others who lost their homes in the flooding and storm.

The days have been filled with hard work, did I mention the heat and humidity, and the nights have been filled with music, music, music! I'm fortunate to be a part of this relief effort, thankyou so much!

Dottie, posting on kimbalya's blog

2007-06-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

Another hot day in New Orleans!! We've been having a great time working in the Musician's Village, located in the upper 9th ward. The first day I worked with Angie, Kirsten and my new BFF, Cynthia. Cynthia is a lawyer from Annapolis MD. We did some caulking, sanding, and painting. The second and third days were much more exciting. My team, consisting of Kim, Sam, Cynthia, and Fran, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, and I, worked on siding the back side of the house. Cynthia and I were designated "cutters". We were in charge of measuring and cutting all the pieces of siding. We were given a quick lesson in how to use the "avionic clippers". Chicks with power tools!!! We had a few "do-overs", but were quickly deemed "avionic masters" by our other new BFF, Rocky. Rocky is a New Orleans resident and medical student at LSU-Shreveport. He is a fine young man and will make an excellent doctor. We had lunch with Rocky on two of the days and learned of his family's experience with Hurricane Katrina.

It is once again an awesome experience, and I am reminded of the many ways in which I am truly blessed. I have so much. A home, a job, Lindsey, Jay, and Lucky, Bill, my many great friends, and of course, the best sister in the whole wide world. Love you, Julia!! I have never worked so hard, yet had so much fun!! I can't believe everyone isn't volunteering! It is so rewarding when we are all walking to our job sites and the local residents stop us to thank us for all that we do.They stop their cars in the middle of the street just to say "thanks". That is all I need to keep me going when it is 90 degrees, and I am sunburnt, dirty and soaking wet with sweat.

I've met some great new people on this trip. Angie and Kirsten are special education teachers at Eden Prairie High School, Sam is a retired teacher, Rose is a paraprofessional and Kim is a teacher at Oak Pointe. All of these people give of themselves selflessly, and are great to work and play with. It goes without saying that Chris Kreie is the greatest trip organizer in the world, in addition to being WAY hotter than Eric, especially when he wears his "Gilligan" hat. Kudos, Chris, you're one million and I am proud to be a "Kreie baby". I'd follow you to the ends of the earth to volunteer! You still owe me a big ass beer!

VIVA NEW ORLEANS!!!

As the sweat rolls......

2007-06-13T15:38:00.000-05:00

New Orleans is an amazing place....amazingly HOT!!! I know that has been a common topic in our blogs, but seriously, you cannot even imagine the sweat pouring off of our bodies!! We are sweating in places we didn't even know existed.

Last night we had an awesome dinner at Jaques Imo's! I had a chicken pontalba something or other...and it was unbelievable!! Worth every penny!! Great restaurant...I'm not sure Kirsten was too into her food, but she definitely was into her Greyhounds!! Needless to say she was pretty tired by the time we hit Bourbon Street.

The last two days Kirsten and I have been siding a house. Yes, you heard me...Kirsten and I are putting siding on someone's house. She and I were even in charge of our crew on this task. Believe it or not, it actually looks good. We need to thank our professional cutters, Dottie and Cynthia, without them we would be nothing. We now know how to use a "speed square." How many of you can say you've used a speed square?? It's been a blast working on the house.

Today we ate a quick lunch on a 2 X 4 in our usual shady spot next to the dumpster and the gutted out flooded repair garage (lovely smell of motor oil doesn't do much for the appetite) but it's our favorite lunch spot. We didn't have much time to chat with our usual lunch buddy "Rocky" because we took a quick trip to the lower ninth ward. This was the hardest hit area from Katrina. Even almost two years later, it is practically a ghost town. We saw houses that were absolutely destroyed and ripped off their foundations. Many houses had already been bulldozed over and all that was left was the foundation. We saw lots of messages that homeowners had left spray painted on their houses. They said things like, "Home, this was my home." "Roots run deep." It was a very emotional experience. It made the devastion even more real to us. It makes Kirsten and I feel so fortunate to have the homes we have back home in GoldenValley and Minneapolis. Our houses even have the same exact floor plan. Kirsten and I are cosmically linked through our homes! So, it has been great to be here building them together! The new people we have met have been great! Fortunately we were quickly accepted into the Eden Prairie group, and we have made many new friends from other places. We are humbled by the charity and generosity we see around us. Rocky is here on a short break from medical school. We met a man today who lives in New Orleans who takes vacation time to help this rebuilding project. Meeting all of these wonderful people has encouraged us to keep doing projects like this in our own community. As hot and tired as we are, we feel energized and full of hope.

Madeline, I hope you are reading this because we have a lot of great pictures to share!! Take care and see you all soon!!!

Angie and Kirsten

Day 4 in New Orleans

2007-06-13T15:28:00.000-05:00

I woke up to a hot humid day down south. Someone said we broke some sort of record high of 97 degrees on Monday. Getting up with nine others and getting organized for the day felt like youth hostel days this morning. A crew was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and getting other lunch food together. We got to our Musician's Village work site about 7:30 am and went over a bunch of safety rules with a group of about 200 volunteers. Next we were all assigned to different projects. I've enjoyed going back to the same house to work on each day. Great color...a salmon colored Habitat House. I'm out of my comfort zone working on this house. I need a lot of instructions, but I feel like I'm a pretty good team player. I'm learning some new construction terminology to impress my son and my father. I'm glad I'm here with other like minded people who want to make a difference. I love talking to people from all over the U.S. Some of the work I've been doing over the last few days have been hammering, measuring wood and assisting Carla with the power saw, moving giant pieces of wood here and there, nailing in connectors after measuring, and drinking a lot of water. I look forward to working on this house tomorrow and working at the animal shelter on Friday. I'm halfway. Time is running out. Thoughts of my next volunteer adventure is flowing through my mind. I'm interested in continuing volunteering in the cities. I've got the volunteer bug.

Jen (Fried) Beans n Rice reporting..........

2007-06-12T15:49:00.001-05:00

So im taking a stab at this blogging thing even though it probably won't compare to Krie-fish's or Kimbalaya's....and im pretty certain there may be multiple posts for the day....so forgive me if i repeat. but here goes:
So today we all started the day out bright and early and got to the habitat main site for our little "spiel" about safety and such and even had a little early morning music to get the day started off......the musician, Ricardo Crespo, was a brazilian musician that now lives in musicans village.

From there we all returned back to our work site from the previous day(there was about 25 of us, which was about 20-30 less than yesterday!!). One group continued to do work on the roof putting up shingles and such, another worked on cutting and putting up the siding and a group including myself, worked on constucting(or should i say "reconstructing" the floor system and extending the foundation out due to the fact that the foundation was contructed like a foot too short!

At the beginning of the day, I assessed our job and thought, "oh this will take about 1/2 the day....what are we going to do for the rest of the afternoon?
" Well at quitting time, we did about 1/2 of the project!! Its amazing how long things can take....
So we all worked hard and right at lunch break, the ice cream truck came and Chris aka Krie-Fish bought a round of ice cream treats......."Oh my goodness" that hit the spot!!! Then we walked down the way for a little live music lunch concert at the home of Ricardo Crespo and it was awesome....definitely one of my highlights so far!! This guy was so awesome and so gracious and appreciative and giving. Almost all of us got a cd of his and he autographed them all and we even got a picture with him. It was just awesome. (http://www.ricardocrepso.com/ check it out!)

But the fun times came to an end and it was back to work! I was extremely exhausted by the end of the day.....but strangely not as exhausted as yesterday(i think it had to do with the fact that there was somewhat of a cloud cover today and I was not in the direct sunlight for the entire day!! ....anywho, so we wrapped it up and booked out of there so that we could get home and shower and get to Jeaque Imo's by 5 for our reservations. Most of us are showered and should be ready to go here shortly.
Tonight after dinner we will be heading to Fritzel's European Jazz club for music and drinks.....should be a good time. We invited some of our new friends that we met at our work site and some of them should be meeting up with us. Good times, Good times!

until next time,

Chao...Jeaque Imo's is calling my name!!

ps- i just wanted to mention that I absolutely love the house we are staying in and I love, love, love the neighborhood!! We even stopped last night for snowballs and "Queen of the Ball", which is owned by the sweetest lady ever. We met her on our last trip here and the shop wasn't even open yet, but its open now and she was so nice and specially made us some VIP snowballs! Her shop is like the cutest little shop ever!! If you are ever in the area, you must, must, must stop by "Queen of the Ball" and Jeaque-Imo's!!

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

2007-06-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

What a day! We worked hard, had a blast and met some great people!

Sam, Dottie, Fran (professor from Detroit), Cynthia (lawyer from Washington DC), and Andrew (World Changer boy from Texas) put on approximately 6 peices of siding (no joke-- it took us all day!) We measured, cut, remeasures, recut, pounded the peices up, took 'em down, remeasured... It was Xhausting and FUN!

Tonight we're off to Jacques Imo's-- a quaint little place down the road. I'm sure the menu will offer LOTS of seafood. Perhaps I'll let one or two oysters slide down my throat.

After dinner we'll head down to The Quarter to Fritzels. Big Al, whose thrown is THREE barstools, plays. I guess when the band is ready for a break, the lights go off, the other band members belly up to the bar, but Big AL just sits. I think we should send Jen up with a beer to cool him off.

Showers open...

Can You Feel That Heat?

2007-06-11T21:20:00.000-05:00

All weekend long I yapped about how much I love the heat.
Then today happened.
Today.
There exists a heat I never knew existed-- one that sucks the very last drop of energy from your body and leaves you for dead.
As I revive, I realize what an awesome day:))) I learned so much-- how to angle the nail, how to use the table saw and chop saw, the difference between ripping and cutting wood, but the BEST was seeing how jealous Chris gets when we talk about Eric-- HA!
We ate at a Lebanese restaurant a block away from our house-- pretty good stuff (I ate lots of red meat as the vegetarians were all at home eating tofu stir fry!)
The highlight of the whole day? Seeing/Talking to Bryan, Kali and Michael!

Monday, June 11th - First Day at Work!!!

2007-06-11T18:36:00.000-05:00

Morning began at 6:00 a.m. The alarm went off and we were up! Coffee was made, music was played, and people began to rise and shine.

As I was getting ready Sam came out of the bathroom to deliver some interesting news from the night before. And as he told the story I was reminded of a loud clunking and crashing noise I had heard last night while trying to fall asleep. As the story goes, Sam was soaping up his feet in the shower last night when one or both of his feet went out from under him. He reached for whatever was available, which ended up being the shower curtain. Obviously that was not enough to support Sam’s tremendously buff body and down he went taking the shower curtain rod with him. So long story short, we’ll be going to Home Depot soon for a few home repair supplies.

We hit the road for our site at 7:00 after breakfast and lunch packing, then arrived in the Upper Ninth Ward around 7:30. We waited around a bit with other volunteers, signed in, then had an orientation with Bill and Mike. Altogether, we figured there were around 400 volunteers there with us. It was quite a site to see.

Following the orientation, our Minnesota group walked a couple blocks away to the house where we would be working. We were joined by a couple dozen other volunteers including a bunch of local young guys doing community service, groups from Mississippi and Tennessee, and a few people who had come down all by themselves including Cynthia from D.C., Theresa from Philadelphia, and Fran from Detroit. As always, meeting the people you work with is half the fun of these experiences.

The ten of us did various jobs from caulking to painting to trimming out the porch at this house. Kim, Sam, Janet, Carla, and I did the trimming. We were lead by former Jersey shore native Terry. He showed us the ropes – how to run a chop saw and a table saw, and how to do all the right measuring to make sure things fit. It was slow work, but fun. We got to pound nails, and use those macho power tools. Good times!

Kim, and many others as I just found out, were very excited anytime young stallion Eric came around. Eric was the house leader and strutted around in his white tank top, hairy chest exposed, barking out orders. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have a fetching female group leader. That would only be fair.

Sunday, June 10th

2007-06-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm back now with more info from Sunday.

I guess it goes without saying that it was a good day. Most days down here are. For breakfast we walked to the Oak Street Cafe. It was fabulous, I must say. The place was small and packed so our group had to split up. Dottie, Rose, Sam and I ate at the bar. They had great choices - I had the Mexican scramble which was muy bien. We were waited on by loved Fredericka. After I was finished I joined the others at the table and did my duty of helping them finish off their meals. I was blown away by Kim's pancakes. They tasted like caramel rolls! Ooh la la! I hope to go back maybe Saturday morning.

After breakfast we split up a bit. Rose, Janet, Dottie and I went to the church service at First Street Methodist while the others went to Whole Foods for groceries. The church service was fantastic! I just love it there. When I go to that service am I deeply reminded of why I love coming down here so much. The people at that church are so loving and so welcoming. At one point in the service we were invited to shake hands and greet those around us. Now us Minnesotans are used to doing this in our churches but it's usually somewhat of a formality and we only shake hands with the few people right around us. At First Street this part of the service takes 5-10 minutes as people meander down the aisles greeting as many people as they can. The congregation is filled with 99% African Americans. I just love and appreciate the warmth that these folks have always shown us at the church. I feel like I belong, and I feel like the work I do when I come to New Orleans is so worth it.

We chatted just a bit with Rev. Lance, Miss Joanna, and Diana Knoble. I'm so, so glad that we went. It was just what I needed after the long car drive and after feeling a bit tired from the whole travel experience. The service just invigorated me and most of all reminded me why I love coming to this city so much.

Following the church service, I got caught up in something called a "second line." It's a sort of parade where neighborhood folks strut through the streets, dress in gaudy suits, and follow the lead of a brass band. I couldn't help joining in along with the locals. Janet, Dottie and Rose were trying to find me as I just left them hanging back at the van. It was such a cool thing, I just couldn't resist marching along. Once it ended I had to look up at the street signs to figure out just exactly where I was.

In the afternoon I stayed back to get settled in a bit and organize all my things. The rest of the crew went to the French Quarter and had quite the good time. They took in a tomato festival and a Zydecko music festival, both in the same area. They listened to lots of music and did some shopping as well. I should probably have one of them write some more about this day considering I wasn't there. I just know that they had an awesome time taking in the city during the day. Sam was in his glory with all the music.

Around 6:00 Jen and I drove to the airport to pick up Angie and Kirsten. It was nice to see them and they had a good flight. We felt as though the whole group was finally together. It felt good.

By around 8:00 we were all back in the French Quarter for dinner. Sam, Janet and Kim had stayed in the area all day and had picked out a dinner spot. We ate at 13 Monahans on Frenchman street. It was good, fresh tasting food, and was complemented by cold, frosty beverages. This was a super fun time as it was our first chance as a group of 10 to all hang out together.

Following dinner some went back to the house while Sam, Janet, Angie, Kirsten and I went to DBA on Frenchman Street to listen to a three-man rock/blues band. They were fantastic! The lead guitar player was something else. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Our evening ended with a stop at Cafe DuMonde for binets to go. Yummy, yummy! I certainly hope more of them are in my future!

Saturday Night

2007-06-10T16:47:00.000-05:00

Whew!

We're here, and I, for one, am tired. I'm sitting in the house on Jeanette Street listening to some jazz on the stereo. The group is in the French Quarter taking in some of the sites and the music. I stayed back just because of the tiredness factor and also because I wanted to calmy get organized. My memories of previous trips largely involve the feeling of "go, go, go." I thought I might take this lone opportunity of the trip to "relax, relax, relax."

Last night was a fun one. Sam and Rose, after a few detours, made it to the house around 6:00. We were happy to see them.

A lot of organizing, decompressing and shower-taking were in order last night. I would like to say that I took a shower but mine ended up a bath as I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn the shower on. I later discovered that I wasn't alone in not figuring out the complexities of the shower, it was just that I was the only one who was too stubborn to ask for help.

The house is good. It's a double shotgun house. It used to be a duplex but they bought both sides and turned it into a single dwelling. We will not have trouble locating one another in the house. We are very packed in, two or three to a room. We'll definitely learn much, whether we like it or not, about each other.

We've met the neighbors, Evelyn, Andy, and son Luca. They are very nice. They are from Switzerland. Andy helped recommend a breakfast place to us this morning. Very good!

So, after the necessary work of last night, we went downtown and took in Mulate's. It's a cajun dancehall/restaraunt. It was a fun way to celebrate our first evening in the city, listening to a band and eating the local fare. None, however, walked a way too impressed with the place. Let's just say we won't be rushing to get back. Sam is our resident music expert and he wasn't particularly taken by "waltz-like" cajun tunes. Kim was reminded of a dancehall her grandparents used to take her too. First night in New Orleans - fun but we set the bar low. Things will surely only get better from here.

The Trip Back Down to Nola

2007-06-10T16:35:00.000-05:00

We’re rollin’ down the highway, zippin’ through the south. We left Minneapolis at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 8, 2007. We met at Carla’s, took some pictures, and said farewell to Joe, Sam and Jeanine.

I would say that the evening went well, all things considered for a drive-all-night van ride. We found creative ways to sleep including folding one of the back seats down and taking turns sleeping on the floor. Kim was most fond of this arrangement. I took a shift on the floor and did okay until I realized how really trapped I was down there and began to feel claustrophobic. Not to mention my hip bone grinding into the van floor.

Janet and Kim were the winners for most hours awake last night. I did my share from four a.m. to nine.

Waterloo, IA marked our first official stop. We did beautiful, downtown Waterloo and enjoyed dinner at Doughy Joey’s Peetza (that’s really how it’s spelled).

Only a few wrong turns and many hundreds of miles later we did breakfast in southern Arkansas at Shoney’s. Kim enjoyed the huge breakfast “boofay.” The rest of us weren’t so daring and ordered off the menu.

So, things are good as we approach Louisiana. Hopefully Sam and Rose will have a good flight and we’ll rendezvous around 5:00 at Pax’s house!

June 9

2007-06-09T18:46:00.000-05:00

Yipee, we're here!
One van.
Twenty two hours.
Six people.
Priceless!
Tonight we'll go listen to music at Mulate's--

Minnesota Group on Fox 9 News

2007-06-04T16:43:00.000-05:00

We made the local news! Take a look at our featured segment from Fox 9 that ran Sunday, June 3rd.

Departing June 8th

2007-06-03T20:40:00.001-05:00

Well, the trip is set!

We are leaving town, six of us anyway, on Friday night, June 8th, 2007. The rest of the crew, the other four, are leaving on a jet plane a bit later.

I'm just beginning to get mentally prepared for the trip. I've been searching through old trip stuff to come up with the addresses of some of the places we worked on during our previous trips. I am anxious to visit them to see how much progress has been made during the year. I'm happy to say that I was able to recover the addresses for all the sites I hope to visit! Yeah! I think I will take part of Sunday to do this.

Hope you think about us out there as we're making this journey. Please follow us along the way! Check back every day for updates. We will have pictures and video as early as Saturday so stay tuned!

Chris

2007-04-04T16:03:00.000-05:00

We're going back to New Orleans!

Join a group of Eden Prairie Staff member for another hurricane recovery trip to New Orleans.

And have fun along the way!

WHAT - Work with Habitat for Humanity to build homes in New Orleans
WHEN - Depart June 8th or 9th - Return June 16th or 17th (other dates possible as well)
HOW - Car pool in vans, or pay extra to fly
WHERE - We will rent a modestly-priced, yet clean and nice, home to accommodate our group
COST - Approximately $350 includes van travel and lodging (some meals and entertainment extra) - we will fundraise to help with the expenses
WHY - Because almost two years later New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still recovering slowly from Katrina
WHO - You and a great bunch of fun, dedicated EP staff members!

For more information contact Chris Kreie at 975-7681 or ckreie@edenpr.org

Friends, spouses and non-EP staff are also encouraged to join us.

Deadline to hold a spot on the trip is May 1st, so don’t wait!

The End of the Line - for now

2006-06-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

Another trip to New Orleans is now behind us. On Saturday, our last day in the city, we spent the morning taking in a few last sites. I wandered around the French Quarter one last time, bought some souvenirs and watched a World Cup soccer match from a stool in a local bar. Most of the others did some walking around in Audobon Park.

Before leaving we attended Rev. Lance's anniversary party at a nearby church on St. Charles Avenue. It was a nice chance to say goodbye to many of those we spent the week with. Miss Frances and Elvira were there. They loaded us up with water, Abita beer, crawfish and lemon pound cake for the road. It's awesome the connection we have made with Miss Frances. She's a one-of-a-kind great gal.

The trip, I must say, was another rousing success. The group from Minnesota that traveled down was just awesome. As our trip in April, I was completely proud and impressed with the work ethic of all the Minnesota volunteers. We just got in there and did it. The heart of all of us was also something to behold. We weren't just there to flex our muscle, we were there to spread a little bit of kindness and compassion wherever we could. We interracted with the locals at every corner - from the Quarter, to Uptown, to every site in which we worked. We left a part of ourselves in New Orleans. And I think all of us were happy to do so.

If anyone out there reading this is looking for a cause for which to get behind, please keep everyone at Hands On New Orleans in mind. They need your support, your participation, your dollars. We left the volunteer site all feeling that the workers at Hands On seemed to be weary. They have expended so much of their personal energy to help everyone who needs them in New Orleans. Now, I believe, they could really use some help. They are a great, caring group of people. Send them care packages, gift certificates, money for R and R. They need your help in order to be able help all those who still desperately need it in New Orleans.

Thanks to all of you who helped our group get to New Orleans. We couldn't have done it without you. As you plan your life in the upcoming months, think about taking a trip to New Orleans. You won't regret it. Rather, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Friday Back at Singleton

2006-06-17T12:36:00.000-05:00

I woke up for early morning KP today at about 5:45. Way too early! Our day would prove to be fairly low-key today, but we did really get a lot done.

Carla, Val and I, along with Hands-On leader Melody, signed-on to spend the day at Singleton continuing our work at the library. Melody had purchased shelves from Home Depot the day before so our first task of the day was assembling the shelves. We did this work at the church then brought the shelves over to the school in a truck.

Most of our day was spent either alphabetizing the fiction collection, putting labels on spines and getting as many books as possible onto the shelves. We really only touched the tip of the iceberg. We got some of the fiction done and on the shelves but a lot remains. Also, there are still boxes of picture books that we didn’t have time to get to or space to put them.

It was really an awesome day to see the library start to take shape. For just a couple days of work we took what had been started by the Bard kids and really whipped the library into shape. I’m glad I could help on this project and use the skills I have gained from years working in a children’s library.

We got four student helpers during the day from Singleton. They were cute kids and eager to help. You just have to feel for these kids whose lives are so chaotic and whose futures are still so up in the air. There school has a long way to go before it’s really giving these kids what they need. Everywhere you look, lives have been turned upside down.

Val was such a good worker today. She reminded me a lot of working with Pat Hammer back at school. She’s a very efficient worker and mixes in some great humor throughout the day. She wanted to work until 9:00 at night, but we convinced her that at 5:00 it was time to go.

Who know what will come of the Singleton library, but with Melody watching over it and continuing our work when we leave, it should be in good hands. Carla might also come back for a day during the ALA conference next week and even bring some other librarians with her to help. Whether anyone at Singleton will step up to oversee the day to day management of the library is yet to be seen. The hope is that someone will. Perhaps if the students show how interested they are in using the library, that a teacher at the school will realize the importance of keeping the library going and improving. Word is Singleton is still attempting to finance the building of a more permanent library. Time will tell.

After our work day we had the chance to say our goodbyes during the dinner meeting at the church. Then following that Carla and I drove out to Slidell and took Miss Frances, Rev. Lance’s grandmother, and her friend Elvira to dinner. It was nice to see them again and sort of repay them for the wonderful night they gave us back in April back at Miss Frances’ home.

Carla and I came back into New Orleans around 10:30, passing across Lake Ponchatrain from a different direction. House upon house had been totally destroyed along the lake. Elvira told us that at that particular spot there was a 30 foot storm surge. Amazing! We met up with the clan in the French Quarter and took in some music at D.B.A. for our final night together.

Thursday Night

2006-06-17T12:19:00.000-05:00

Shock rang through the crowd during Hands On’s No Talent Talent Show Thursday night. It was quite the interesting spectacle. One dude from Bard College in New York (there are about 30 students here from Bard) sang a couple of original songs while strumming his guitar. One song was about cloning himself into an army of zombies, and the other was about his love affair with the red goalie from the foosball table. Yeah.

Unfortunately that wasn’t as weird as it got. One of the groups from AmeriCorps is leaving Friday so they did a “togetherness” sort of thing for their act. They sat in chairs, each nibbling on an oreo cookie, then passed a toothbrush and toothpaste down the line each taking turns brushing with the same brush. When each finished brushing they spit into a common cup. We were all dreading what would happen in the end. And our worst fears were realized when the last gal in line proceeded to drink everyone’s spit. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to shake that sight from my memory. I probably could’ve lived life without seeing what I saw tonight.

After the show a few of us went to Winn-Dixie just for kicks to buy some food and drinks to bring home with us. Then we ended the night with some good hot coffees and beignets at Café DuMonde.

How 'bout some pictures?

2006-06-15T15:18:00.000-05:00

One thing about New Orleans is it is a very colorful city. These shots I snapped in various locations where we've been volunteering. For those people who say, "just tear down that city," maybe these pictures are for you.

Thursday at the International School

2006-06-15T14:04:00.000-05:00

Hi from Chris -

The intention for today was to work a little bit then have some time in the afternoon to spend seeing the sites of New Orleans. That's worked out pretty well. We did some more weeding and landscaping in the morning and now we're back at the church and set to go around 2:00. I'm probably staying back just because it's been go go go all week and I could use some down time to blog and catch up on pictures and videos and stuff.

We went back to the International School of Louisiana today. I say "we went back" because this was the site where some of our crew worked on Tuesday - the site where Usher showed up. What remained was more weed wacking and lots of pulling of weeds in the asphalt of the playground area. We also did a little spray painting and put down some landscaping fabric overs areas they intend to cover with mulch.

The school never reopened after the hurricanes but the hope is that they can have it ready for the fall. We met with the former head of the school, Tom, the head custodian, Robert, and another school employee, Joe. All of them were very appreciative of the work we were doing. Tom is retired from the school yet he was there on his own time to see to it that the school will be functional in a couple of months. All three guys couldn't thank us enough for the work we were doing. They treated us to lunch - take out sandwiches from a cafe across the street - to show us their appreciation.

While we were working on the outside of the school, there was a group inside doing some mold removal. I went in and immediately found out that none of them spoke any English. So I tried a little bit to converse with some of the workers. About all I found out was that they were here from various places including Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico. After lots of stubbling around, their supervisor came and talked with me. They are from a group (I can't remember their name) that specializes in mold removal. They go from city to city gutting houses and removing mold. The gal, Ivy, said that they have been in New Orleans ever since the hurricanes. She said how hard-working the group is, how they are just trying to survive and provide for their families like any of us. An interesting example of foreign workers doing good in our country - doing work that most Americans wouldn't choose to do.

The International School will be a Spanish/French immersion school when it opens back up. Tom, the former director, was a very nice guy and extended the invitation for his school and our schools to maintain contacts and create partnerships once we're back home. He won't be working at the school any longer, but said that he and his wife intend to do a lot of volunteer work there. The school is a long way from being ready to open. Let's hope they can get it together by September.

Wednesday - Great Day for a Gut

2006-06-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

Hi from Chris -

On Wednesday Carla and I joined a team for a gut job not too far from our neighborhood. We were just off Claiborne Street away from downtown.

It was a tough but very memorable day. The mold in this house wasn't as substantial as the mold in the home we worked in on Monday. Flood water had affected this neighborhood only to about four or five feet. The most difficult part of this day was that the homeowners were at the house and had to go through pile after pile of stuff. Besides large furniture items, the older couple hadn't really moved anything out of their home. We took out tons of clothes, food, dishes, personal items, photo albums, etc... The gal, Miss Rose, was a definite pack rat. I counted at least 10 jars of peanut butter in her kitchen cabinets.

Miss Rose and her husband Richard left the neighborhood two days prior to Katrina. They moved in with family but then Richard had conjestive heart failure. They moved again but then had to relocate when Rita arrived. They finally ended up with friends in a neighborhood in New Orleans that wasn't affected by the hurricanes. And up untill now they have been there. Richard ordered a FEMA trailer just after the hurricanes and it didn't arrive until a few weeks ago. They hooked it up at his sister-in-laws' place just down the street. After we finish gutting they'll try to scrape together money to rebuild their homes. Amazing and tragic to think that there are so many people like Rose and Richard who have been without a home for over 9 months, with no real end in sight.

The gutting was tough, as all guts are. The heat was again difficult but it seemed a tad cooler as the sun was behind clouds much of the day. Our team lead today was Akudo, a spunky girl from Boston who proved to be a great leader. We worked hard together as a group and finished up around 3:30.

Most of the rest of the Minnesota group was at a house-painting job near our neighborhood. They were trying to improve a home that serves as a residence for mentally and physically handicapped people. The city of New Orleans is threatening to tear down the home if the owners don't prove that they are making an effort to restore it. It's in pretty bad shape. Apparently after the hurricane many people set up shop in the house as a temporary residence. And of course they didn't take very good care of it. So many different challenges in so many different parts of this city. The needs are endless.

An Evening Out Wednesday Night

2006-06-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

A great dinner in Uptown!

We met some neat people starting up an ice cream shop. Fredericka and her family.

Ryan and Steve love their gator and crawfish cheesecake.
Jacques Imos was fantastic! We all loved our food.

Tuesday on Burbon Street

2006-06-14T17:31:00.000-05:00

Hi from Chris -

We did the town Tuesday night - had a blast! We ate at the church then went back to the French Quarter for some drinks. The goal was to see Burbon Street in all its glory. The crew was Rose, Jen, Ryan, Angie, Janet, Val and I. Lots of fun was had - N'awlins style.

Weedwhacking with Big Ush

2006-06-13T19:01:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone- I'm Ryan, I came down here with the Eden Prairie crew and brought my old man, Steve, along with me. So far it's been an amazing experience. We've been here 3 days and have been working pretty hard. Today we did landscaping work for the International School of Louisiana. Their school suffered severe damage from the Hurricane and needed a new location. They chose a public school that has been closed for some time (formerly Andrew Jackson Elementary). We spent all day cleaning up their new home helping to get it ready for the fall.

Six of our Minnesota crew (Angie, Steve, Ryan, Rose, Janet, Jean) landscaped all day. We pulled weeds, cut grass, removed fallen tree limbs, raked, and WEEDWHACKED!! It was a lot of work in the hot sun, but when it was all said and done we accomplished quite a bit.

We couldn't have done it alone though. Usher, the famous R & B star, swung by and lent a helping hand... sort of. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/1403AP_Usher_New_Orleans.htmlHe learned how to use a weedwhacker and removed a tree with some "loppers." He used Angie's safety goggles and weedwhacker so she will no longer wash her hands. She was star struck. I did see that he broke a sweat and stayed for longer than I expected. It's for a good cause. Thanks big Ush.

Anyways, things are good here. We're off to paint a house tomorrow. Hope all is well with y'all.
Peace,
Ryan

Day two

2006-06-13T16:50:00.000-05:00

Tues. june13

The group was split this am on jobs, We worked on gutting houses again, at a food bank, cleaning up a playground (which included a special guest...more on that later!) and organizing a school library.
Four people including myself and Andrea our leader went across town to work at a food bank. The actual building was destroyed during the storm, so they are using a parking lot of a church (again wiped out) as their temporary site. The site is basically a huge tent, and three PODS. Our job was tohaul cases of food from the PODS to the tent, sort it, and bag it to specifications. Actually, clients from the area were able to obtain two bgs, containing, mac and cheese, potatoes, canned fruit and veggies, beans, rice, H20, sports drinks, cereal etc. Cars lined up, showed their ID's, got their goods and drove off.
The site is open five days a week from 10-1:30. Most of the volunteers that we met that run the organization had lost their own houses and had other jobs.
The best part of the day, was that we canned our PB sandwiches and were served a jambalaya for lunch! It was terrific!
I t was an easy day compared to yesterday's hot gut. Hot but breezy. The toughest part of the day for me was actually the drive over which had been a nice area with malls and many fast foods,etc. ALL of it was gone! Dillards, Sears, Best Buy, McDonalds, etc. It really got to me just how devestating this storm was. To see these major American companies not up and running yet, is a testament to the damage. You can kinda get an understanding of how difficult it is for the average joe. Anyway, I am positive that NO and other places hard hit in this storm are in for a very long journey of hard work. They need any help we can give them and are so appreciative.
You'll hear about other people's day later. Until then!

Val

95 degrees and sunny is perfect gutting weather!!

2006-06-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

Hi from Jen!

So today was our first "official" day of work. We decided to sign-up as a group to do "Gut 2" today as our project. Gutting includes taking out everything and then removing the dry wall, instalation, floors, ceilings, appliances, structures, ect.....It called for 10 people and there were exactly 10 of us so it worked out perfectly! Our leader was Paul and he was joined by 2 other NAAA americorps staff, andrea and megan. We headed out around 8am and arrived to our location around 8:30, unloaded the gear, got suited up and got to work!! Since we were dealing with a lot of mold, dust, etc....it was necessary to get suited up completely, including tyvek suit, work boots, hard hat, safety googles and a respirator.....all that and weather in the high 90's......good stuff right there.....I don't think any of us have ever sweated that much in our entire lives!!!

This is Chris now -

We also had a terrific night. We went out for dinner in the French Quarter and listened to some jazz on Frenchman Street. We made a couple of new friends - Gretchen and Janie from Chicago. We got our restaurant recommendation from a guy at a laudromat and he didn't let us down. We had shrimp, gumbo, fried chicken, blackened catfish, and bread pudding. Ooh la la! It was great. Then the jazz later at the Spotted Cat was also fun. Some 60-year-old sax player whowas hitting on all the women.

Back on the Road

2006-06-11T16:47:00.000-05:00

We hit the road for the Big Easy once again. We left Carla's house close to 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 10th. The road trip went remarkably well. Our two vans weren't too concerned about staying together, yet most of the trip we were within several miles of each other. We did a lunch stop in Iowa as a full group at a truck stop, then did individual stops for dinner late in the evening.

The drive went so well that both groups, again within a couple miles of each other without trying, got into New Orleans about three hours ahead of schedule. Not knowing quite what to do with ourselves at six in the morning, we decided to go to the French Quarter for coffees at Cafe Dumonde. It was a steamy morning, yet the coffees hit the spot.

We arrived at the church around 7:00 and were greeted by some familiar faces. Many of the Hands On staff that were here in April are still here now. The bunk area was very full, but we managed to all find a spot to call our own for the next week.

We had a couple hours to settle in before taking in the church service at First Street. Rev. Lance gave an inspiring message and of course the music was great.

After church came an afternoon of work. We spent our time cleaning up parts of our neighborhood - Central City. Lots of garbage litters the streets and sidewalks, and Hand On is trying to work with neighborhood citizens to clean up the area. The weather was hot and the piles of garbage were quite numerous. The work is important, yet it seemed like we barely put a dent into the rubbish that covers the city streets.

We're Going Back!

2006-05-01T10:21:00.000-05:00

We're going back to New Orleans! Consider joining a group of Eden Prairie, MN staff members for a fun, eye-opening, life-changing (seriously) travel opportunity. Here are some details:

Dates - June 9-17; and/or June 16-24. We may be going both weeks; or, depending on interest, we may choose just one week that works best for most. Please e-mail Chris Kreie at ckreie@edenpr.org or call him at 5-7681 to let him know which week you plan to go.
Trasportation - Road trip or flight, it's up to you. Some of us will travel in a caravan of vehicles. If you cannot drive, chances are very good that you can ride with someone else. You could use your own vehicle or rent something. We rented a minivan last time that fit six very comfortably for only $350 for the week. Or, fly. Currently round trip flights to New Orleans cost roughly $280.
Accomodations - We will stay at First Street United Methodist Church in New Orleans. The church has a large room set up with wooden bunks. It is air conditioned and actually very comfortable. You will want to bring a sleeping bag and air mattress.
The Work - We will be led by volunteer leaders from Hands On Network and AmeriCorps. We will assist with whatever projects they have going on at the time, but more than likely our work will involve gutting homes in preparation for their restoration.
Cost - The cost of the trip will involve two things. One - We suggest that each participant raise $100 to go toward hurricane relief in New Orleans. The money will go toward either Hands On, James Singleton Charter School, or another worthy cause in the area. More on this to come. Two - The cost of transportation to and from New Orleans. For the Oak Point group it cost the six of us roughly $200 each for the van, gas, and lodging. The other expenses will be any entertainment or dining out once you are in New Orleans. Hands On provides all our meals at no cost to us.
Fund Raising - Consider asking friends, family, colleagues to donate money for the trip. The Oak Point group raised close to $5,000 doing this. We were able to defray some of our transportation costs and still present large checks to two relief organizations.

Please respond to Chris Kreie, ckreie@edenpr.org or 5-7681, if you plan to go or if you have any further questions. If possible, repond by May 12th in order to give us time to make all the arrangements.

Scroll though the blog below to get more details of our awesome trip over spring break!

The story doesn't end here.

2006-04-19T14:23:00.000-05:00

As our adventure came to a close and we returned to MN, our last blog was entered and many viewers learned about our adventure via this website. It all appeared to be over. But for those of us who went on this journey, we know it is far from over. The images of barefoot children playing among the debris of the destroyed ninth ward haunts us. The sight of garbage-lined streets and a poor sanitation system are impossible to forget. The smell of mold drifting from people's once-loved homes and precious belongings is ingrained in our minds. And the traumatized and distracted children of Singleton Charter School, as well as the devastated citizens of New Orleans, we will never forget. Thus, the story doesn't end here. Our brief visit to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina simply introduced us to what lies ahead. We have been made aware. We're aware of the numerous houses that await gutting and de-molding. We're aware of the schools that need relief and supplies. We're aware of an entire city, waiting for word as to what comes next, frustrated by political decisions, desperately in need of labor, and feeling forgotten. To go back to our old way of life is now impossible. Please join us in our journey as we continue our work with Hands On and Singleton Charter School. The plans are in the works. Please check back to this website and support us. The people of New Orleans need you.

Sincerely,
Angie Reinard

What a trip!

2006-04-08T05:46:00.000-05:00

Our trip to New Orleans, other than the ride home, is now over. We departed the church at 10:00 this morning. We were the last to leave. The Huntington College kids left around 9:30 and our new friends from Minnesota left just before us. They planned to spend the morning touring New Orleans before starting back this afternoon.

We did our final night last night in style. We enjoyed pizza at the church before caravanning to the New Orleans Zephyrs baseball game. We had been given free tickets from the Zephyrs because of all the work we did this week at the Boys and Girls Club. It was a fun night. The whole gang was there sitting together providing a fitting ending to a week that turned strangers into friends, and to a week that will live on forever in our hearts.

The Zephyrs lost the game but that mattered very little. The dollar beers were flowing, the Minnesotans all bought loud, clashy Zephyrs boxer shorts, Boudreaux and Clotile entertained the crowd, and we even were honored with getting to sing the national anthem. The temp was perfect, a nice breeze was blowing. Baseball outdoors on the last night of our crazy journey was just what we all needed.

Earlier in the day Neil and I tried in vain three separate times to connect with Miss Biagas, the principal at James Singleton School. We instead made an appointment for this morning, which was more successful. Jamie, Neil and I all went over to speak with her about what Oak Point could do in the future to help and support her school. Tricia spent yesterday afternoon putting together a photo collage that we gave to the Hands On and Americorps volunteers during the evening meeting.

Memories of the trip are endless, but I’ll try to name as many here as I can. Meeting some great Minnesota people including Dottie, Dave, Char, Jens 1 and 2 (2 is actually from Chicago but we took her in as one of our own), Carla and her crew, Lynda, and Kris and Charles. Talking with Herman prior to gutting our first house. The difference we made and the reception we received at the Boys and Girls Club. Visiting and teaching at James Singleton School, and all those enthusiastic kids. Seeing kids from Singleton on the street and them remembering my name and coming up to say hello. Garbage everywhere we turned. Planting sunflowers with Forrest. Seeing the Mardi Gras Indians. The emotions of seeing such chaos throughout the city. The optimism of the New Orleans people. Swinging sledgehammers and knocking down walls. Rescuing the possums. Drinking mango daiquiris on Bourbon Street. The sleeping quarters, the affectionate teens, and all the snoring all night long. Spunky Akudo. The Indiana kids who seemed to never stop singing. Miss Joanne and Miss Frances from the church. The nice twin girls from Indiana and their mother Suzie. Blog Boy, Turkey Neck and the other names I was called during the trip. The loud music emanating from the iPod player while breakfast and supper were prepared. All our friends from Hands On including Nick the carpenter, Nate the cook, Big Nate and Jess, Kenda, Megan, T.C., Anthony, Allison, Amy, Neal, Akudo the talent show M.C., William from Nawlins, and Sarah. Dinner at Grandma’s house – incredible! Reverend Lance. Getting ready for the Bishop. The Sunday morning service and all the wonderful music from the Dillard Choir. Cookie saying “Suck da head!” and “Mama just said one word, ‘un huh!’” The dinner out at Café Maspero in the French Quarter. Beignets and Coffee at Café DuMonde – twice, both times seeing our friend Hunter the waiter. Hurricanes at Pat O’Brians with our friend Clarke the bartender. Sitting in the nook at D.B.A. on Frenchmen Street after the baseball game. Watching the chicks from Minnesota work their butts off – especially Dianne. Seeing Neil wrestle with two brown, dirty toilets. Our neighborhood bar, the bar that Dave built – Igors. Kids playing barefoot in the rubble of the Lower Ninth Ward. Singing “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Teachers” at the outdoor talent show. The heat and strong smell of mold in the flooded houses and just walking the streets of the Ninth Ward. Running the computer during the Sunday church service. Jamie singing “You’re Beautiful.” Lactitating boy. The endless “thank yous” from the citizens we encountered. The commitment of the incredible AmeriCorps and Hands On kids who are taking months of their lives to make a difference in the lives of others. The swamp boat ride with the marshmallow-eating gators. Putting a stinging buck moth on Jen’s neck – oh my! The orange-toothed nutria mascot. The long shower line where the wait between most showers was more than four minutes. Feathered face masks. The healthy, tasty suppers.

Everything about this trip was great. And like I said to Tricia yesterday, once I put some space between this journey and the rest of my life I think our trip to New Orleans will go down as one of the best experiences of my life. Thanks to all who helped make it possible!

Our Last Night in New Orleans

2006-04-08T05:43:00.000-05:00

Taking in the Zephyr's AAA ball game on our last night. A great way to end our experience!

Ceremony at the Boys and Girls Club

2006-04-06T18:26:00.000-05:00

Hi from Neil

2006-04-06T17:31:00.000-05:00

Wednesday P.M.

After working Wednesday we all had appetites for a real southern treat, a Lousiana dinner hosted by Reverand Lance's grandmother, Frances! We drove for an hour around Lake Ponchatrian to Slidell, Lousiana, almost to Mississippi and just off the Gulf of Mexico. We were warmly welcomed and sent to the serving table. I started with fried chicken, added some cornbread, then some turkey neck, cajun potatoes, sweet corn, beans and rice, and sausage. OOOEEEE was it good!!! Then it was time to bring out the crawfish. Cookie gave us lessons on how to pull the tails and "suck the heads". Some of us were not quite ready for that, but I loved it, and Dave from Minnetonka had a crawfish eating race, but lost to the neighbor next door. We then finished off with sweet potato pie and some peach cobbler, which was THE BEST!!!

Then it was time to chat. All the neighbors come to these feasts. We heard stories of the storm and how they all watched out and took care of each other. Grandma was in her home as the storm hit. They think tornados passed overhead, as some trees were snapped off way up high. Luckily none hit the house. However, the storm surge then came off the lake and the gulf and brought water into the neighborhood. It was decided that the neighbor would help Frances get to higher ground down the block. Water rose from a few feet when they started out to neck high very quickly. They reached safety at a home on stilts a couple of doors away (when it was built everyone thought the homeowner was crazy to raise it up, now we know better). Some arrived later by boat and could step out to the second floor balcony. We were shown a magazine article which tells their story and has pictures of these great people, their homes, and the house on stilts. If you want to see it, pictures on are on colorsnw.com. As it turned out, over thirty people spent several days at the house! Now the residents including Frances, live in trailors in their yards, waiting for permission to refurbish the insides of their homes, which have been gutted and cleaned.

Besides the great food, there was lots of laughing, making of new friends and many, many thanks once again for us spending our few days helping out. Everyone appreciates every little thing so much, including the fact that they are still around and together!

Thursday A.M.

This morning our group returned to the Boys and Girls Club or Girls and Boys Club depending on who you ask. Things were cleaned up and painting finished for a grand reopening. Speakers from the Club and the local baseball team thanked everyone involved in the rebuilding. The newspaper and TV stations were present. Even the mascot, a nutria, was there. Apparently these creatures roam the swamps, look them up. We heard from some former pros who told how the club was important to them and the kids of the community of the West Bank. It was really touching. We were given hats and pizza, posed for pictures, and invited to tonight's opening game of the season. This is very symbolic since the ballfield basically became an army base after the storm, but the owner said they would not leave. They have made it back as the whole city hopes to do. This afternoon some of us will be enjoying a thank you swamp boat ride, and some will return to the school to learn what we might do after we return home. Our time is almost done, we feel we have made a tiny dent in all that needs to be done. However, to see that a new group will roll in behind us, and the hard work everyone is doing, we have to believe that one day New Orleans will rise again!

Hi from Chris

2006-04-06T07:25:00.000-05:00

Our day today brought us to a Boys and Girls Club of America just over the Mississippi. Jamie, Tricia, Angie, Cindy, Dianne and I chose to do this project. Neil did another gut house instead. He wanted to see a house from the very beginning of the gutting process since our last gut house was a house that had been started by another crew. He reported that his experience was very interesting. He hauled out clothing and furniture, and tried to avoid the closed refrigerator. We were told at the beginning of the week by Anthony to never, ever open a refrigerator in a gut house. He said that the materials inside at this point are considered toxic. One whiff and you’d probably vomit on the spot.

Our day at the Boys and Girls Club was a good one. Other crews from Hands On New Orleans had been to this site already Monday and Tuesday, so a good portion of the work had already been done. The other groups had removed large sections of bleachers, so what was left for us was to remove a few walls, finish up the bleachers, pull the tile and plywood off the floors, and begin painting some of the office spaces.

This club did not receive extensive damage from the hurricanes, yet we felt happy to do the work. Getting some community spaces up and running to put a good face on the city is probably as important as anything. We’ll be helping over 300 kids have a space to go and hang out.

In the end the hope is that the club will get completely restored with a spruced up gymnasium and brand new offices. We are partnering with a local construction company and the New Orleans Zephyrs, a minor league baseball team. Those two groups are apparently putting up most of the money for the project. The construction company was kind enough to supply us with water and Gatorade all day, and with a lunch of chicken strips, French fries, and salad.

We did some really hard work today demolishing walls. The walls were held together with plaster, so even after we finished knocking them down it took forever to separate the studs from the wire mesh that held the plaster together. It was a chore. We took plenty of swings with the sledgehammer. In the morning I had energy to fire away. But by mid-morning I’d take some hacks with the sledgehammer for 10-15 minutes then need to take a break. It was exhausting.

I’m really impressed with our crew, and all of the other workers who are down here. The girls from EP amaze me. They just get in there and go to town. No questions, no waiting for guys to help them. They just do it. It’s quite inspiring. I’m proud to be down here with all the Oak Pointers. We’ve bonded and are now a tight bunch. We’ll now have this common experience to share with each other forever.

Speaking of pride, several of the Hands On crew members commented today on how impressed they are with Minnesotans. They think we’re really tough, and they are astounded by how many Minnesotans have come down to help. They say Minnesota is the state that has the most volunteers coming to New Orleans. So, we’re doing our part to help make Minnesota look good.

Boys and Girls Club of New Orleans

2006-04-06T07:23:00.000-05:00

Cindy at the Boys and Girls Club

2006-04-06T07:22:00.000-05:00

A Feast with Miss Frances

2006-04-06T07:15:00.000-05:00

What a night we had last night! We spent our evening with Miss Frances, Reverand Lance's grandmother, in Slidell, Louisiana.

She and her neighbors and friends rolled out the red carpet for us, including a feast of crawdads, red beans and rice, turkey necks, sausage, head cheese, corn bread, sweet potato pie, fried chicken and more. What an experience!

Work at the Boys and Girls Club

2006-04-06T07:05:00.000-05:00

We spent the day on Wednesday continuing a job at a Boys and Girls Club in New Orleans. All the bleachers and most of the interior walls were gutted. They'll now restore much of the inside.
Cindy and fellow Minnesotan (our crew leader for the day) Nick.

New Orleans Ninth Ward

2006-04-05T00:45:00.000-05:00

Jamie discusses school experience

2006-04-05T00:42:00.000-05:00

Jamie and Tricia Teaching First Grade

2006-04-05T00:30:00.000-05:00

These pics were taken at the school we visited, and taught at, on Tuesday. Jamie and Tricia were assigned to team teach in a 1st grade classroom. It was a very eye-opening experience, seeing these students who come from all parts of New Orleans to attend school. None of these kids went to this school prior to the storms.

Tuesday Pictures from the 9th Ward

2006-04-05T00:26:00.000-05:00

These are all pictures from the ninth ward, one of the worst hit areas during the huricanes. Unlike the area we were at gutting a house yesterday that seemed to slowly be coming back to life, this area was like a ghost town. We went block after block rarely seeing a soul. It was a life-changing experience. What a challenge this city has ahead of it!

Greetings from Cindy

2006-04-04T17:38:00.000-05:00

This morning we woke up to prepare to teach. We were a little surprised to be teaching on our spring break. This truly gave us a sense of the community and how they are adjusting to thier new world.

We doubled up to teach a classroom of about 23 students in a room that was 12 by 20 ft. It was amazing that they could fit everything and everyone in each room. They had recently reduced there classrooms of 35 to 23. Can you imagine that many children in one tiny room? It's unbelievable! This school had just opened this January which meant 4 additional months of no school for these kids. We were told that there are still children who are not in school today. We are all truly worried about them.

Our jobs consisted of teaching from 8:00 to 11:00. The teachers took this time for team building, which they have been unable to do. Each team of two was a bit overwhelmed by the energy of these first and second graders. We all came away with a variety of interesting stories. The number one things we all agree on is that we hope for the best for these children. Each student is very important and deserves an education. These little ones will stay in our thoughts and hearts!

After a morning of teaching we moved on to a half day vacation called a "Cultural Day." This means we were able to cruise around and see New Orleans. We spent the afternoon going out for lunch and looking at the ninth ward. The ninth ward was heavily flooded, reaching water depths of 12 to 20 feet. Can you begin to even image it? Each house was marked with an "X." The triangles within this "X" labeled different information such as; when the house was inspected, who inspected it, and the number of people found inside. Every single home in this area was condemned. There were several homes found in the middle of the street. The spray painted homes displayed the frustration of these homeless people. As we got out of the car to walk around, we could smell the dense mold. Only a few people were living in trailers outside their condemed homes. We were all concerned and surprised with the two children running around outside. They were barefoot and picking up debris from the garbage collected along the curb. At one point we stopped at a Walgreens that had just opened the week before for a snack. The cashier asked us where we were from and could not stop thanking us for coming down and helping. She kept saying, "Bless you!"

Visiting the school and the ninth ward was really an eye-opening experience. I think we are all glad to be able to witness the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and we will remember this for years to come. Hopefully, one day, we will be able to come back to see New Orleans up and running, with clean homes and streets, education for all children, and smiling faces.

Cindy

Answers to Questions

2006-04-04T07:14:00.000-05:00

Here are some questions about New Orleans:

How many states, including Minnesota, did we travel through on our trip?

Eight. Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana

New Orleans is well known for its music. What types of music is it famous for?

Jazz, Dixieland, Cajun, Blues and others!

What body of water connects Minnesota to New Orleans?

The Mississippi River

What were the names of the two hurricanes that devasted the Gulf Coast last year?

Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita

How many words can you form from the letters in Louisiana?

Hi from Tricia

2006-04-04T07:11:00.000-05:00

Monday, April 03, 2006

Many emotions were felt today as some of our group did work at the Boys and Girls Club and others did work at a mold-infested house in New Orleans. I was lucky to be in the small group that gutted the house of a single mom who is currently living in Atlanta, Georgia. She is living there while her house is being gutted and rebuilt. One of the most memorable things I saw today was on our drive to the house. Each house we drove by in this neighborhood had an X spray painted very largely on the front of the house showing four things: the date of the rescue, who inspected the house, if anyone was found in the house and if it was “all clear”. This hit me the most as I could more clearly imagine what the days following the hurricane must have been like. As we unloaded the tools from the van, a local man named Herman Brooks, who lives a block away from the house we were gutting, stopped and filled us in on the hours and days during and immediately following Katrina. How meaningful to hear this first hand. See the video footage for his amazing story.

The gutting consisted of tearing out moldy sheet rock, appliances, toilets and a washing machine filled with water and clothes from August. Needless to say there was an extremely bad odor coming from the washing machine and the house in general. We all wore respirators and goggles to protect ourselves – although some smells still floated through the respirators. The water had risen to about 5 feet in the house and about 9 feet from the street level. This area was very close to Lake Pontchartrane and as Herman explained, the water rose faster than anyone could imagine.

Tomorrow the Oak Point group is planning on helping at one of only three public schools now open in New Orleans. We are very excited to make a connection with kids in New Orleans.

One more thing, today was the first day that U.S. Mail in New Orleans was back to its regular schedule!

What a rewarding day!

Tricia

Monday video

2006-04-04T07:04:00.000-05:00

Gutting a house on Monday

2006-04-04T06:59:00.000-05:00

Sunday Video

2006-04-04T06:56:00.000-05:00

Questions for students

2006-04-03T07:43:00.000-05:00

Here are some questions about New Orleans:

How many states, including Minnesota, did we travel through on our trip?

New Orleans is well known for its music. What types of music is it famous for?

What body of water connects Minnesota to New Orleans?

What were the names of the two hurricanes that devasted the Gulf Coast last year?

How many words can you form from the letters in Louisiana?

Hi from Neil!

2006-04-03T07:40:00.000-05:00

Today it came up Sunday. After a second long day on the road we slept well on our air mattresses in our giant dorm room. To start the day off we walked around the Garden District, an area of beautiful mansions on one side of St. Charles Boulevard. They are in great shape with many flowers you’ll never see in Minnesota, especially in April, no April Fool’s there! We even listened to a mockingbird we spotted as it sang on a post. On the other side of the boulevard, however, are many homes in need of lots of work and evidence of wind damage.

When we returned we attended the service at the church. It was a two hour event full of fantastic music from the choir, vocalists, and the band. It was a cool cultural opportunity for all us Minnesotans. Music and celebration was intense from beginning to end! The congregation was honored that the Louisiana bishop attended. He honored us as well several times thanking all the volunteers in the purple shirts who were there. Afterward we were well fed and thanked some more.

Then we were off on a neighborhood beautification project. We dug, weeded and planted along several blocks of a major street in the Central City area. The southern sun was strong and temperature in the 80s, so we sure came home tired. Oh, I almost forgot! Just as we were starting we ran into the New Orleans Indian parade. Family and neighbor groups dress, chant, and dance in elaborate, feathery costumes that reminded me of Native American style costumes. They are really colorful and some were 10 feet tall with the huge headpieces! We were told that they make new ones each year, and that they can spend a thousand hours getting them just right. They then compete against each other in face-offs. Another really cool glimpse of southern culture!

Tomorrow it sounds like we will work on a Boys’ and Girls’ Club building they have been unable to use since the storm. We hope our work will give them some fun, positive things to do after school. And, some major league baseball players may be there with us!

Talk to you next time!!!

2006-04-03T07:36:00.000-05:00

Monday we planted sunflowers along one of New Orleans' busy streets. The idea was to do two things: to help beautify the city; and, to help remove harmful substances from the soil. Sunflowers are a natural organism that pull lead from the ground.
Tricia with our leader, Forrest.

2006-04-03T07:34:00.000-05:00

We don't completely know the significance of this parade. We do know that neighborhoods spend days making these costumes, then at the end of the parade there is a face off to determine a winner. Neighborhoods compete against one another.

2006-04-02T09:17:00.000-05:00

As we approached the city of New Orleans, we quickly saw a polka dotting of blue tarps covering sides of homes and roof tops. The destruction of Katrina and the aftermath were soon all too visible. One thing that struck me was the normalcy that New Orleans residence long for each day. Continuing to drive down the road we saw a father and his son playing catch in their litter-filled yard. With a tarp on roof, the family continued to bond over America’s pastime, the wonderful sport of baseball. A little ways down the street, a man was mowing his lawn and tending to his yard, while the fence that was once a decoration in his yard now rested along side the wall of his garage. The pride of these residents has not appeared to be broken.

We arrived at our home base around seven o’clock last night. After a quick supper and some directions, we started to work in the church area. The Bishop of Louisiana is coming for church to preach on Sunday. We cleaned the church from top to bottom a couple time over. I helped moved the monster organ at least five times to get it into its final location. AMEN!

Roll to the right, roll to the left the shifting of the air mattresses on wooden bunk beds made an eerie sound in the large dark sleeping room. An occasional snore from the back corner of the room was either a Louisiana black bear or Sammy’s dad. I was too scared to find out which one it was. I pulled the covers over my head and soon it was morning.

The sun is out and a beautiful morning awaits us. The Bishop is going to be arriving soon. The church looks pretty good considering mold stained carpet and plaster cracking from the walls.

Here’s a riddle for you: What kind of flowers would you plant on Sunday?
The answer of course is: “Sunflowers!”

When the afternoon rolls around, some people will be gutting a house while others will be helping a man plant sunflowers in his yard. Gutting a house means tearing the sheet rock off of the walls and exposing the support studs behind. The sheet rock needs to be ripped off because of mold that has spread behind it. Planting sunflowers is an environment project. Not only will the sunflowers add some beauty to the plain landscape but also absorb lead from the ground. The hurricane has damage a lot of the soils in people’s yards. The sunflowers are sure to help cure some of the problem.

Well it’s time to take a shower and get ready for another busy day in New Orleans. Rub-a-dub-dub, by the end of the week I’ll be ready to chill out in my bathtub!

Jamie

Angie from the road

2006-04-02T09:15:00.000-05:00

It’s 4:17 pm Saturday, April 01, 2006 and the Oak Point Mission from Minnesota is on its last stretch as we’re leaving Jackson, Mississippi. I (Angie) think we’re all in pretty good spirits considering we’ve been in this mini-van for 9 ½ hours. Personally, I could keep going . . . Mexico anyone??? The captain (Neil) just announced that we have 154 miles to go. Woohoo!

Currently, Cindy is watching me type and narrating the situation to me as we speak, Tricia is now reading the tabloids, that . . . ahem . . . she bought at the truck stop. Jamie and Chris are guessing Neil’s 20 question game, while Chris enjoys some wonderful truck stop popcorn. He was about to get the Cajun boiled peanuts (with shells), but opted for a lighter snack.

I just got a call from Diane Hockert and she is at the airport in New Orleans. She said she’s having difficulties getting to the church (our temporary home), however, a taxi driver is helping her out. Will she make it . . . ?

Today has been a long day. There was some napping and discussion about a topic no one can recall. We rocked out to the Walk the Line soundtrack and ate at a Quiznos just south of Memphis, Tennessee. We all got a smile out of the couple dressed in matching camouflage outfits. We agreed there was an interesting hodgepodge of people in that small Tennessee town. Since lunch, we’ve been quizzed on our Spanish vocabulary by Jamie, worked on a crossword puzzle together, and played multiple games of 20 Questions. The answers were as follows: Bobby Brady, Gene Rayburn, Arnette’s house, and Mr. Peanut. Random? I think not.

Finally, do you know what “ZIP code” stands for? Wouldn’t you like to know? =)

2006-04-02T09:04:00.000-05:00

Helping Out in the Church Saturday Night

2006-04-02T08:52:00.000-05:00

Helping at 1st St. Methodist Saturday night.

"Angie's my name. Sucking up roaches is my game."

Rev. Lance is ready for the Bishop.

Volunteering is an aerobic exercise.

2006-04-02T08:47:00.000-05:00

The Mission from Minnesota group is happy to be in New Orleans.

"I'm happy as long as there are no cockaroaches, mice or men!"
"Mmm, tofu."

Pictures from the road

2006-04-02T08:45:00.000-05:00

Hello Iowa!

2006-04-01T01:37:00.000-06:00

Friday, March 31st

2006-04-01T01:17:00.000-06:00

It’s 9:30 p.m. on Friday, March 31st and we just crossed over the Iowa border into Missouri. A mix of John Prine, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash is playing on the car stereo. Cindy and Tricia are fast asleep. Angie is reading a tabloid she picked up in an Iowa truck stop. And Jamie and Neil are in the front seats discussing the virtues of Q-Comp.

Spirits are up as we’re all excited to finally be heading down the road. It seems like we’ve been waiting and planning for a long time.

We left Oak Point around 2:15 this afternoon and have made only a few stops so far: one in Waterloo for supper at Panera; and the other in Ainsworth, IA (see note about Angie’s tabloid). We’re shooting for St. Louis and should be pulling in around midnight.

We have connected with Lynda Ott from Mission from Minnesota via Angie’s cell phone along the way. She and Dottie from Rochester are driving all night and will beat us to New Orleans. The connection was bad, and I couldn’t figure out Angie’s phone, so needless to say some of the details of the conversation were lost. What we do know is that three divorcees will be vying for the chance to dance with Jamie, our own resident certified Cajun dancer. Jamie is trying to convince us to drive straight through.

Tomorrow we’ll be N’awlins bound!

2006-04-01T01:14:00.000-06:00

Tricia's in the driver's seat.

2006-04-01T01:13:00.000-06:00

Leaving Oak Point

Meet the team

2006-03-28T20:34:00.000-06:00

View this clip on Vimeo

Hi from Tricia

2006-03-28T11:20:00.000-06:00

This is Tricia Kreie, team member, just checking in.

Getting Ready to Go

2006-03-23T11:56:00.000-06:00

Seven staff members from Oak Point Intermediate School, in Eden Prairie, Minnesota are getting ready to embark on a journey to New Orleans to engage in hurricane relief work. We are leaving March 31st and will return April 8th. Continue to login to this blog to follow us on our journey. Watch for information, pictures, sound clips and perhaps even some video. We will all be learning along the way.

Chris