Hello All!!! As usual I hope all is going well and that you enjoyed the rest of your summer! I can't believe that fall is already here, and yet I still don't even notice it!! Its still hot as all get out down here in good ol' Louisiana. I just realized how long it had been since my entry into my blog, so I thought I would give it a little update.
Well since I didn't post an entry for the end of my third round I'll let you know about that, then tell you about what I've been up to for my fourth project so far.
The last three weeks in Thibodaux were really good,but difficult. It was particulary hot and humid those last couple of weeks, so I even non-physically intense work was. My teammate Kellyn and I for some reason got stuck on trash duth A LOT!! Those last two weeks they were having volunteers going around picking up the site just about everyday!! It needed it though because if it was only cleaned once a week like it started out, oh man!! We were good at it though, because we were filling up at least a whole dumpster everyday we did it!! Just the two of us tooling around on a four wheeler with a trailer behind it being the trash bitches if you will. However we did get to do other things too. Probably the best thing though(and I can't believe I'm about to say this) was when we got to clean the completed houses!! I'm talking washing windows, mopping floors, that kind of stuff. The reason why it was so cool though was because we got to work with a great married couple named Sheryl and Steve. They lost their other business to Katrina, and decided it would be best to start a new one. They put out fliers to various business/churces and the head project manager,Chris, saw their flier and hired them to come and clean/prep the homes.
I'm telling you these people are just amazing!! They are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life hands down!! They really embrace the 'southern hospitality' philosophy. After working with them for only a few days they invited my team and I over to their home for dinner!! They treated us so nice, and made some great food too!! I got to have gumbo for my first time, which was awesome! Funny thing about that; apparently people in that area prefer to eat thier gumbo with a scoop of potato salad in the middle of it! It sounds a little unusual I know, but it helps to offset some of the spiciness. It was so good, and after dinner they invited us to watch a movie on their flat screen plasma tv!! Oh yes it was awesome!! Oh I should mention that they have a GORGEOUS house too. Mom, I'm telling you these people have your dream kitchen! It was so crazy though because I didn't realize just how much they like us until a few days before we left. They were at the work site, and they said their good-bye's to us, and they were crying!! It was like we were their adopted kids or something. Especially for Sheryl because she never had any children of her own. I tell you it was so hard saying goodbye to them, Charlie, and Delvin. I never knew just how attached they had got to us until we left. Delvin gave us all a little gift to which was really nice. The girls got these nice bracelets from Dillards(Marshall Fields equivalent), and the guys got these cool mugs that say 'Honorary Cajun' with an explanation as to what that entails. Unfortunately mine broke on the way to Camp Hope . Ah well, it was the thought that count.
So yeah thats what happened with that. Oh, and over our transition we got to go to Pensacola,FL!!! It was so great because we all chipped in $55 for a hotel room that was right on the beachfront!! It was so nice. I'm telling you three days of lounging in the sun is good times!! We really didn't do a whole lot though because the area was unbelievably touristy, so we mostly just hung out on the beach. It was a good time though. After Pensacola we had to go to Mississippi for five days and stay at Camp Iti Kana. Its a girl scout camp that some other Perry Point AmeriCorps teams have worked at for their project. The lady who owns it is really nice, and in exchange for staying there we only had to do two days worth of labor(the other days we were working on transition paper work, etc.) It was cool, and I got to literally blaze a trail for the camp which was pretty sweet. Hard work and it was really hot out that day. However I did get to use a chainsaw, so I was pretty psyched about that.
Then those five days came and went and now I'am in Violet, LA where Camp Hope is located. Violet is a "suburb" if you will, of New Orleans. It was severly damaged by the flooding, and we are here gutting homes. Well, I should say I am here gutting homes. Some of my teammates are doing this, but others are doing other jobs on the camp. See, the way the camp is set up is that it is run by various orginizations who work together to keep it going. Mainly it is run/funded by Habitat for Humanity. It is also partially funded/run by St. Bernard Parish government. Finally you have us proud AmeriCorps NCCC'ers who helped to not only build the camp, but also run its day to day operations. There are six different areas of the camp you can work in. We sort of got to choose what we wanted, but not really. See what we did when we got here was give our Team Leaders our top two choices of what we wanted to do for a job, and then based on number of volunteers coming here, and other various factors, would determine what you get. Mostly you do get what you want, but not always. Its more about where the need is. Luckily I got to be what is called a 'bus captain.' Bus captains are people like myself who take various groups of volunteers who come here to gut homes. We are responsible for making sure all the volunteers are following all the safety procedures, and have all the supplies/materials they need. Also, say if we are gutting a home, and someone finds firearms/ammunition, or a snake, or there is something unsafe about the home that would prevent us from doing our work, then I'll be the one to call opps(Operations), and they will handle the situation.
So far I'am on my second week of training. You really don't need two weeks of training, but they just have so few volunteers and so many AmeriCorps. To much supply, not enough demand I guess. Hopefully we will get more volunteers coming in though. I'm not going to be holding my breath or anything, but I do hope things will turn around. It's odd because it seems like everybody has just gotten really apathetic to the need of the residents down here. I mean I know people have lives, and its really hard to get time off from work, school, or just life in general. But its still really sad just how few people are here. Whats even more sad is that we've had people come and volunteer here from OTHER COUNTRIES!! Yet our own citizens are not even willing to come and give some of their time/energies. I'm sorry I just had a little tangent there. I'll stop now I promise!
So anyways I'm really hoping that everything is going well for all of you, and I can not wait to see you all in November. You know when I was reading over my last entry I had made it on July 27th!! Its now September 14th!! Time is just so absolutely crazy like that. Must mean that I'am having fun I guess! Well take care and I love you all!!



Ryan