April 2008 New Orleans, LA Five of us - three friends from Chicago, and two friends from NYC - decided to do a girls getaway weekend to New Orleans and lend our hands to Habitat for Humanity. We offered no construction experience, but a whole lot of spirit. We were assigned to the Musician's Village - Harry Connick Jr's project to build homes for partner families and musician's that were displaced due to Hurricane Katrina.
We got there on a Wednesday and joined a group of about 20 folks already working away on a house (there were several houses that were being build that day). Our team ranged from 17 year-old AmeriCorps project leads, to 85 year-old great grandmas supervising poor painting etiquette. The first morning the site manager had us scaling the roofs of the house to paint (an Easter egg purple) and caulk, which was great, but not terribly fulfilling. After we proved our worth, we were upgraded to putting up the siding on the house. I have to admit, there is quite a power trip when you get to work with power tools and chalk line. It was amazing at how much we would get done in such a short time. We would work from 8am to 3:30pm in the afternoon, taking a break to grab lunch at local diners (and discovered the best place for catfish and cornbread as a result). We worked 'til Friday, then spent the rest of the weekend contributing to the New Orleans economy.
Its been almost three years now since Hurricane Katrina made its mark along the north-central Gulf Coast. Wandering through the lower 9th ward, we met a family that was rebuilding their home. They told us how their foundation insurance refused to pay to rebuild their home because apparently their house floated off the foundation, so technically, it was not destroyed as a result of Katrina. Stories like this, sadly, are a dime a dozen in New Orleans. Crossing the bridge towards the lower 9th ward you could see a makeshift shanty town where people were living while they waited for there homes to be rebuilt. Lot of work needs to be done still, and if 2-3 days of volunteering can contribute to the rebuilding process, then I look forward to more long weekends!
