23 March 2009

Slidell, LA

So here I am in Slidell, LA with Jonathan and Emily for a few days. We are staying at the dorms provded for volunteers and working with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. We're working on a house down in New Orleans with a group from Dartmouth. We didn't get in until 11ish last night, so we got to stay in the downstairs dorms, which was nice b/c it was only the two of us in a room and Jonathan with another guy in the male dorm. Now we moved our stuff upstairs and there is absolutely no room! Emily and I might ask to stay downstairs b/c we actually have work to get done as well. This is not just spring break for us...

I did all the driving yesterday, and I think my driving makes Jonathan a little nervous! Hahaha! I tell him that I have everything under control, but I don't know if he believes me.. :-) But yeah, 10 hours is a lot of driving, but luckily I was in a good driving mood yesterday. That might not happen on Thursday when we leave, so I may need help on the way back.

The group from Dartmouth that's working with us is a Hillel group, so we spent our lunch time chatting with them about school and the like. Their leader will be going to Israel in the summer to start school for becoming a rabbi, so that was pretty interesting to talk with him. 

The house we're working on is right across the street from a levee, so we walked up to it to look out over the water. You can tell that the city is below seawater and how the houses are pretty much screwed when water breaches that levee. We worked on hanging up insulation in the ceiling today and tomorrow we will finish that and start hanging sheet rock. Jonathan and I hung the insulation while Emily measured and cut. Considering none of us had ever done any of this before, we actually got fairly good at it. We got a system down and rocked it. The other group got a lot more done, but we only had 3 people compared to their 10, so I think that's allowable. 

Tonight Emily is cooking dinner, so until then I'm going to try to get some work done, you know, since it's Research and Study week and all...

3 comments:

  1. I was in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago doing work on houses. Is this your first trip down?

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  2. Yeah, this is my first time. We're having a great time. Have you been down before?

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  3. This recent trip was my fourth to the Gulf Coast. I've been working in New Orleans the past two trips, but we visited every time we were there. It's been good to see the progress in some areas, but disappointing to see what work still needs to be done. As you have seen, there are still so many homes that haven't even been touched since the storm.

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