Daily Life at St. Mary's

It's a cold morning here in New Orleans and I'm drinking a cup of coffee, watching the sun come up. I haven't posted in a while because I'm busy. My typical day is something like this: wake up at six, eat breakfast, pull together tools and a gutting crew, head out to the site, gut until four, come back to St. Mary's, decontaminate, shower. A little downtime, dinner, evening meeting, sleep. There are always jobs to do here at St. Mary's, like cooking breakfast, cleaning, washing dishes, or pulling night security shifts.

But today is Monday, gutter's day off, and I have a little time to write a post. I have been here about three weeks now, long enough to start to get to know the area and the volunteers I am living and working with. And Saturday I built a bike at the cooperative we operate here at St. Mary's, a nice Huffy ten speed, so I'll be able to explore the city a bit better in my free time.

I find gutting houses to be one of the most satisfying forms of volunteer work I have ever done. Getting your home gutted is the first step towards rebuilding, and also crucial to protecting the property from demolition by the city. But in post-Katrina New Orleans, many people have yet to be able to return to New Orleans, or have received no disaster relief or insurance money to use to hire a private contractor to do the job.

Thus for many folks, having a crew of volunteers come and gut you home is virtually a miracle. It's hard, nasty work, but the gratitude and support we receive from home owners and community members is both rewarding and inspiring.

I meant to write more about the process of gutting a flood home, and post some pictures I took last week, but I have to go write a solicitation letter for food donations. So next time, hopefully sooner than in two weeks? There is so much to do here.

Also, a little personal solicitation: we volunteers sort of feel like we're in boot camp or something here. The Ninth Ward where we live and work is still a disaster area. Because of this we are asking friends and families for care packages, which we will share communally. What are we looking for? Snacks, chocolate, clean socks, basically the types of things you would send a soldier in a war zone. The mailing address:

John Engler
1415 Franklin Avenue
New Orleans, LA, 70117

Thanks for your kindness.

I love you all!

First Week in NOLA

I arrived in New Orleans Thursday morning after a two day bus ride from Portland. Border Patrol greeted our bus and started hassling all the Hispanics piling off, including me (until I assured them I was a US citizen with my Yankee accent). I took a cab to the Upper Ninth Ward, and checked in at the five-star St. Mary of the Angels. St. Mary's was a Catholic elementary school before Katrina, and as the tallest building in the neighborhood it provided refuge to several hundred people during the flood. Commonground Relief took it over and has used it as an operations center for the past thirteen months. I live on the third floor in a classroom with a dozen other volunteers. We don't have a lot of privacy here, but the volunteer community is friendly and we are privileged to be offered accomodations right here in the Ninth where we are working.

I came here to gut houses, and that is what I do every day. The vast majority of homes in the Ninth, a black neighborhood, are still uninhabitable. In the days after the levees broke the residents of this area were bussed all over the country. Families were broken apart, mothers separated from their children, and many folks don't have the resources to return, much less rebuild. The city wants to bulldoze all the houses that haven't been gutted and seize the property for redevelopment. They have been thwarted by legal and political manuevering for the time being, but there is great impetus to get the Ninth Ward completely gutted.

Gutting a flooded house is hard, nasty work. First the house has to be cleared of furniture, belongings and debris. It all smells terrible--one of my colleagues, an Aussie, actually puked in his respirator when we moved the fridge. It is also heartbreaking to see all the worldly possessions of a family destroyed and getting thrown out into the street. Shoes, books, photographs, garbage and keepsakes are all mixed up together, all ruined.

Yesterday I finished my first house, a double shotgun. The word in the hallways of St. Mary's is that over 100 volunteers will be coming down to gut next week as it is the fall break for many colleges. Well, I already have my cot...though I don't look forward to waiting in line for the shower after a hard day gutting in a toxic environment.

I want you all to know that I am well and very happy to have come here. Also know that the door of St. Mary's is open to all those who want to volunteer. I'll be here until mid-December, and you can come gut on my crew.

I send my love and blessings out to all of you.

Leaving Portland

Tomorrow I will leave Portland, my home for the past 9 months, for New Orleans. Nothing like a 2 day bus ride to get a little head space. Once there I will try to find time and energy to post words and images documenting my experiences as a volunteer in the Big Easy.

See you later!