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!