Third Church bears witness to the hope of coming home

Team arriving for work at Minnie and John's house on Clouet.

Our Third Church team working on Clouet includes Nancy Watson, Nancy Bertnik, Nancy Adams (yes, that's a lot of Nancys), Bill Chase, Ginger Potter, Sue Spaulding, and George Gotcsik. We got to meet home owners Minnie and John on Tuesday, and they have already become "our" people and their home "our" house. Minnie and John returned on Wednesday bearing authentic New Orleans po-boys.

(left-right) Ginger, Nancy, Nancy, Kate, Minnie, Sue, Bill, John, and George enjoy the po-boys lunch; the first meal served in their refinished dining room. John said it was the "best blessing" they could have for the table space.

 

Ginger paints window trim.

The crew has been installing baseboards, painting the trim, caulking the finished trim-work and painting the doors. The family hopes to be back in the space for Christmas, and the volunteers are working steadily to make that possible.


George and Bill install floorboards: "measure twice cut once..."



All the work teams at Olive Tree gathered today on State Street Drive for a home dedication--standing in the stead of all the teams who have worked on the home. More on this later, but for now a picture of the homecoming.

Toni receives handmade quilts--made with love by Presbyterian congregations--from a long-term volunteer who worked on her house for half a year.

Nancy Watson

 

We finally learned how to post photos!

TFW

Today we realized our week is going to consist mostly of flooring, but we’re hoping we’ll see some significant progress. We worked together to frantically finish grouting a floor before taking a late lunch, and we learned to install bamboo flooring. We learned that, even though the bathroom we are using in our house does not have a door, we are lucky to have access to one. Other teams have Port-a-potties, or nothing at all.

This afternoon, we learned what 'TFW' means, which we often see on the vacant houses: 'Toxic Flood Waters'. This is written on almost any still vacant house, indicating that it was filled with water for an extended period of time. Water receded around the houses, but the houses stayed filled, filling them with mold and damage, rendering them uninhabitable.

We've had the opportunity to hear many Katrina stories since writing yesterday:

- Our bartender last night grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward, a completely desolated area of the city. He said that he thinks that the city would not re-build if a disaster like Katrina happened again any time soon. It would just be too much. He did say though, that he could never imagine leaving.

- We’ve heard a lot of stories about the crime that occurred in New Orleans soon after the flood, and still continues today. Our bartender told us about how he was shot at for trying to get food from a nearby store. Imagine, calling 911 did nothing. The city was shut down, and local law enforcement was worrying about their own families. We’ve heard of many instances where construction equipment and copper wiring has been stolen from the houses we are working on, often because there are still no neighbors around to keep watch. You’d think a disaster like this would make people bond and help each other, but it shows the desperation that still exists in this city.

- Our crew leader, Henry, was a sophomore at Tulane when Katrina happened. He was away for the weekend, and was not given much information as to how extreme the damage was in New Orleans. When he finally saw what had happened, he felt that he couldn’t handle it and had to go right to bed. He had to very quickly decide what school he would transfer to for the semester. He is now working for extremely low pay because he cares so much about this cause.

- Our roommate Leigh is a fire fighter in Texas. She was available to assist the refugees of Katrina who had fled to Texas. These people had been without a shower for a number of days. They were without refrigeration for their medications, and without a doctor to call to get refills. They ended up building showers, connected to a fire hydrant!

- This afternoon, we drove around a mostly vacant neighborhood taking photos to bring back to NY. A resident seemed concerned that we were taking photos, so we explained why. We told him that our friends in NY often think that New Orleans is completely cleaned up by now, 5 years later. The resident looked at us, shocked, stating “It isn’t cleaned up at all!”

Muffalettas for lunch tomorrow! Can't wait!

- Sumalabarbgie

First Workday for TPC Katrina Trip 7



North Rampart house.

 New Orleans looks good from the airport, and the Superdome was a busy place when I arrived from Rochester. The French Quarter looks good; the trolley cars are running all the way past the Audbon Park. Some neighborhoods even look pretty good, as if the recovery is almost complete. But as we drove to the site today--in a poorer area of the city--the picture changes. Houses are still vacant and unrepaired. The markings from the rescue workers made in the aftermath of the storm are still visible. Streets need repaving.

We are here working with Project Homecoming, which is still busy trying to help lower income, elderly, and disabled folks get back into their homes. We are staying at the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Village called "Olive Tree" in the Gentilly area. One crew: Kara and Andy Torres, Tom Ashcroft, Margaret Schwaneflugel, Bob Merz, and Martha Langford; are working on a house on 

North Rampart, very close to the Industrial Canal and in the Lower Ninth Ward. This house was donated to Project Homecoming, and is being rehabbed for sale as low income housing--something that is critically lacking in New Orleans right now.


Margaret and Tom


We met a neighbor today, Kirk, who was thankful and brought us snacks. He is glad we are here, helping one house at a time, one family at a time. His parents live a few houses from the one in which we are working, and every home that is repaired improves the neighborhood for everyone. The day was busy, demolition and framing work, but there is joy in every hammer stroke. It is good to be here; rebuilding homes with a foundation of faith.

Martha Langford 



  


Baptized in the Louisiana rain!

We woke up to rain, that continued all day. The temperature was in the seventies, so the rain wasn't too bad. This affected where numerous groups were sent to work. We ended up in the Upper Ninth Ward, close to the Musician's Village. Unlike the neighborhood a few of us worked in last year, most of the houses were still standing, but many are still vacant. The vacant houses often have spray paint on the front listing the number of dead people found in the home after Katrina. Still, 5 years later, these houses stand right across the street from where we are working.

As part of Rainbowcorps, we were joined today by Reid from North Carolina and Michael Adee, the Morelight Director. We met our work leaders, Henry and James, Americorps volunteers, at orientation this morning. We were also happy to see Alex, our leader from last year. Today we worked mainly on flooring: laying tar paper, preparing tiles for grouting, and scraping grout. The first day seems to always be a little more challenging, because you arrive at your house having no idea what is expected of you. By the end of the day, it was good to see what we had accomplished. We can't wait to see what progress we have made by the end of the week!

Everybody in Olive Tree Village seems to be very friendly (even the Baptists! :) ) Our roomates are lots of fun, important because it is dorm style living.

Red beans and rice for dinner tonight! YUM!

- Sumalabarbgie

We've arrived!

We were ecstatic last night to learn that our flight was leaving at 7 am- an extra hour of sleep! We arrived in New Orleans at about 1:00 and briefly visited the French Quarter before heading to our home for the week- Olive Tree Village. All of us, except Summer, have been here before, so Olive Tree was a familiar site. It was exciting to find the plaque we made at Olive Tree last year still hanging on the pole. We look forward to our orientation tomorrow morning as we don't know anything about our homeowner. We have been reminiscing about last year and comparing how this year might be different. We'll find out tomorrow!

Sumalabarbgie (Summer, Alanna, Barb and Angie)

RainbowCorp 2010 Heads to New Orleans!

Four women from Rochester represent RH2NO in this year's RainbowCorp week. RainbowCorp is a mission component of More Light Presbyterians (MLP), a network of people seeking the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The team comprised of 11 people from across the USA including MLP Executive Director Michael Adee, will be at work with Project Homecoming next week, November 15-19. We will be housed at Olive Tree Volunteer Village, along with 30 others from Illinois, South Carolina and our own Third Presbyterian in Rochester. The RainbowCorp team will be working at the home of Antoinette Smith. The deployment sheet says we'll be doing exterior siding. We don't know much about our homeowner yet, but we'll share the details with you as soon as we can. Our flight from Rochester departs on Sunday at the cruel hour of 6am. We're looking forward to lunch in the French Quarter before heading to Olive Tree and our "comfy" beds for the week. Stay tuned for more info!
Please hold in prayer your mission team: Alanna Dolen, Angie Gunkler, Barbara Sattora, and Summer Sattora.