New Orleans Musicians Village

Because I have wonderful friends, I was invited to attend and witness a spectacular event. Former President James Earl Carter, Jr. went to the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village to take part in a wall-raising ceremony for Jeremy Haydel, a New Orleans musician. The former President hammered nails, raised walls, and offered hope and advice to the volunteers in attendance.



At an informal press conference, the President compared the efforts in the gulf region with the efforts to restore the areas devastated by the 2004 tsunami. In the tsunami-affected regions, Habitat for Humanity will develop 24,000 homes. While grateful for what has been accomplished, the President called the current levels of effort "embarrassing". When asked what could an administration do to revitalize these efforts, President Carter called for revitalizing FEMA, and harshly criticized its place within Homeland Security, saying that the director should report directly to the President. The President also pointed out that of the more than $7 billion dollars allocated to rebuild the area, only 22 of the 79,000 loans applied for have been granted, which provides another cause for concern.

President Carter arrived and met with a Musicians village homeowner, and was given a tour of the house. He then got straight to work on two neighboring houses. After an hour or so, the Habitat affiliate provided a Cajun-style lunch and authentic New Orleans music before the President went on to Biloxi, MS to observe more gulf rebuilding operations.

Almost...

I was so excited for a minute or two today. Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, finally posted some job positions on their web site. I have a cover letter and resume all set to send them -- but I'm not qualified for any of the current positions. Now, I'm back to deciding if I must go back to school in order to work for one of the organizations that is trying to make social or environmental changes to our world, or do I just give up this dream and continue whatever it is that I'm currently doing. I'm telling you -- one of these days I'm going to work on one of these water or energy projects (or not), and that is going to be fun.

Until then, I've got one or two other irons in the fire. We'll see how that goes and I'll report here.

If you're not familiar with Google.org or the Google Foundation, this article at the NY Times will bring you up to speed.

They need blankets

Two in one day.

If you want to make a difference this Thanksgiving, please donate blankets or money for blankets to Camp Hope (sorry no PayPal link, but instructions are provided at the link). The volunteers (up to 300/week) are staying in a school that was flooded by hurricane Katrina and currently does not have heat. Camp Hope is supported by the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity affiliate and has worked to gut over 1,800 homes in St. Bernard Parish and is now involved in reconstruction. Read a recent volunteer's experience here.

While I don't have the strongest blog following, due in part to my recently infrequent updates, please feel free to pass along this request to those you think may support them. We're reaching out in Baton Rouge to those who can donate blankets, but now every little bit counts.

Thank you.

Old Friends

Two Sundays ago, I took the day off to go to Camp Hope. It was an opportunity to visit my friend Don who returned to volunteer in St. Bernard Parish as well as Emily and Crystal who work at the camp. It was a reunion of sorts. After a tour of the camp, we went to breakfast and swapped war stories about our respective service organizations.

Seeing them was like seeing family. It grounds me. I'm lucky to have met such wonderful people who share such a common vision.

Later the same week, I ran into friends from college. A close friend as a matter of fact, and her sister. It amazes me how old friends can pick up a conversation as though it hasn't been fifteen years since they last talked. Although I only spent a few minutes with them, it was so meaningful for the same reason. Maybe it's just me, but occasionally i find it reassuring to have my perspective and approach validated by others that I trust. I think it's taken me a long time to even get to the point that I can admit that.

I believe I have some new opportunities unfolding, and it is a quite exciting time. I'm grateful that I was able to spend time with people I love because it helps me make better decisions. Thank you.

What a Wonderful World

As some have noticed, it's been a while since my last update. I've been busy working on that software I said would take a week to write. I wasn't certain how interesting it would be to describe the details of designing/writing it would be, hence the lack of updates. It has been a significant undertaking, and will probably end up being one of the more useful pieces of software I've ever written. My best estimate is that I've got close to 400 hours of design/development in it now.

Last week I reached the one-year anniversary of my move here from Virginia. I had high hopes of going on here about what I've learned, what I've accomplished and what I hope to be when I grow up. Instead, the day came and went. I am glad that I came here, and at least accomplished what I originally set out to do. And I am satisfied that I've met others who have done the same thing. I believe that twenty-years from now I will look back on this time and still feel I moved forward in life.

Before I go on to watch the Daily Show recap of today's election results, I thought I would drop in and give an update. I just finished watching the end of Meet Joe Black. Every time I watch the movie I smile, laugh out loud and cry -- and I appreciate it more. It's quite beautiful really. I love listening to Jeffrey Tambor describe love to Death, Sir Anthony Hopkins expressing his contentment with his life, and Marcia Gay Harden expressing her love to her father. All that acting, and I can watch Claire Forlani too.

See, I'm running low on material. I haven't posted in three weeks now? Four? And all I've got is I watched a movie. At least it was a good one.

Guess what?

So, this is old news to some but I will be at the Baton Rouge affiliate for at least another week. In a previous post, I joked that it only takes a week to write good software. Of course that's not true, but I did make quite a bit of progress. So much so, that I've been asked to extend it for others to use. I think I can make the updates in another week or so -- and then maybe I'll feel like my job is done.

I've begun wondering: did I just spend the last year developing domain knowledge so that I can properly address what was a systems engineering problem all along? If so, then maybe I'll just pretend that I intended to do this investigative style, requirements analysis all along. It sounds like a reasonable enough rationalization of my year here. I'll go with that for now.

If any are interested, in the future I'll post about how simple/powerful/extensible Ruby, Rails and PostgreSQL are and a description of how any of this applies to building houses. Be forewarned, I'm an average embedded software guy, a decent engineer, but now I'm trying to tackle MVC, again. ugh.

We get around (in the news, that is)

The New Orleans Saints are 3-1 for the year. Last week, they beat Atlanta 23-3 in a highly anticipated game in the Superdome. To the credit of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they highlighted the activities of the Atlanta Falcons, the Blank Family Foundation and running back Warrick Dunn and their contributions to Katrina relief in an article last Monday.

In November, I reported that the Blank Family Foundation and Warrick Dunn had contributed to our affiliate in support of hurricane-affected families. The article in the AJC reports that the Falcons have provided over $1.1 million in relief aid. Warrick has demonstrated time after time he believes in helping those in need. In this photo, he is shown with some of our women of Habitat.

The reporter came to Hidden Cove, the site of the Beat the Heat Week Blitz, and interviewed some of our residents. While the article isn't as gripping a tale as you would have if you sat down and listened to Nina, Mrs. Moore, Monique, Mrs. Helen, Della or Cheryl and heard their stories of the storm or the evacuation -- it is still good to hear that their hope has been restored. Lynn attended the interviews, and I'll report that she was moved and re-energized to hear their heartwarming stories of hope. Her hope helps me -- I think that's all any of us are looking for.

It's a matter of taste

This may be my most petty post yet.

So, I read today that Dustin Diamond (a.k.a. Screech) has a sex tape, which led me to discover that he also has a website designed to help him pay the property taxes on a house that he can't afford.

Over the past year, I've been even more aware of celebrities and their causes than I have in years past. To be completely truthful, I've been jealous of their access. In the past I may have been jealous of their access to award ceremonies, parties, sporting events or even money, but no longer. I do however still feel those pangs when I read that Angelina Jolie or George Clooney have access to the U.N. on behalf of those in Cambodia or Sudan. Or, when I read that Jon Bon Jovi or Harry Connick, Jr. have done a good deed by building houses.

Don't get me wrong -- good for them and what they've accomplished. Good for them for raising awareness. Because of them, others in our country are more aware of the opportunities to give and therefore help others.

Last year I decided that giving wasn't good enough for me, I wanted to do. I've been looking for more opportunities to do without much success. I'm tired and cranky, but reading about this latest celebrity development at least gives me a reason to temper my jealousy, and be grateful for those that do see a bigger world and their part in it. I'm jealous because I want to help and because of who they are, they will make a more significant contribution than I ever will.

Mr. Diamond, I don't know anything about you other than what I've read. I would encourage your publicist to get a story about you contributing to the community something other than a sex tape. If you are looking for a place to volunteer, contact me. I could help you meet some people that have actually lost their homes. And finally, if you want to talk about justice, please read this first.

Guilt, or something like it.

Never underestimate my susceptibility to guilt, ability to swallow my pride, or desire to appease beautiful women -- and Mike (who is beautiful, but that's beside the point). Regardless of the reason, I have elected to stay with the affiliate for at least another week.

Oh the rationale seems, ahem, rational enough: we are having a blitz this week and there is another one next week. Or, there is the fact that I am responsible for ordering $52,000 of material from the Home Depot that is trickling in and needs to be accounted for. (You want to know how to get help when you go in the Home Depot? You let them know you're coming in with a check for $52,000. OK, you want irony -- I actually had to wait.) Or, I did promise to provide the affiliate with a slick web-enabled front-end to a relational database full of house information, and then I spent all of my time going out and helping to build houses, or making phone calls, or spending money at the place I've already plugged twice (they deserve it and more because they gave us such a great discount on material. That is in large part due to an employee of theirs who believes in the work that Habitat is doing. Thank you Travis.) Finally, there is the fact that the blitzes take a large toll on the construction staff (the one's out there actually banging their fingers and sweating), and if they need help I'll certainly do what I can for them.

Anyway (bringing it home now, boss), I'll stay next week and help out in the office or on site if necessary. After that, I'll probably work for a week from my apartment getting the aforementioned web thingy up and running (because that's how long it take to develop great software, right guys?), and then I'll finally take my car to the shop, pay my water bill, beg for food and internet access and a job. I promise, I'm not wishy-washy -- just easy.

Last Weekend

The Baton Rouge Habitat affiliate started three builds this weekend. The first is a community build funded by the ReStore and from our "Fund for Humanity", where the mortgages of existing homeowners are used to pay for new development. The other two are sponsored by Formosa Plastics and are a blitz format -- they will be completed this weekend.

I'll let the Formosa sponsors speak for themselves and recommend you visit their 2 Xtreme Blitz Build Blog to view a daily progress report. In particular, you should read this to learn about my mighty replacement, Stephanie. She is a remarkable individual, and in her brief time here has distinguished herself by her attitude and personality.

Coach Rob Spivery of Southern University brought about twenty of his basketball team and coaches to work with us to build a house for Kim. Because it was the first day of the build, Lynn began the day with words of thanks and a blessing, Joan introduced our gracious homeowner and Mike started organizing the volunteers. Just one day before, several of us on the construction staff worked into the early evening getting this site ready preparing the sill- and top-plate and completing the house layout on the slab. This is one of the rare times I have been able to work with our new AmeriCorps, and I really enjoyed the opportunity. Among our new employees are some truly bright spirits and I will regret not having an opportunity to work with them more. This affiliate is better off because of them.

I worked with Mike and Lynn Saturday at the Community Build. For us, it was like old times working together on my last weekend as an employee -- and I was glad to work with them. They have treated me like family since I've been here, and I will never sufficiently express how much I will miss them.

Hey, Hey. I got my 'A'

Now that the end is near, and I have successfully completed my term here as an AmeriCorps with Habitat for Humanity - a friend gave me a wonderful gift, my very own AmeriCorps/Habitat shirt. I finally have my very own A.

What [I have|have I] been doing

As I mentioned previously, I was to make an entry to let you know to which organizations I have applied. Let's not tell either of my current employers, in the event that I have to lower my head and plead for employment (since James asked that oh so poignant question). Without further ado (cliché of the day), the list:

Doctors Without Borders
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
William J. Clinton Foundation
The Carter Center
Save the Children
Grameen Foundation USA
ACCION International
Geekcorps

and two more that I just submitted and don't want to jinx, yet. I think this may just be a partial listing because I think I've applied to a few more organizations than these. These jobs range from IT specialist to a camp coordinator in Darfur, Sudan. I feel confident stating that I am not uniquely qualified for any of them, but they all seemed like something to which I could have adjusted. And, I've only officially gotten rejections from two of them (I seem to recall).

Again, unless you are actually offering me a position, this is the best place to check the online, realtime status of mattfite's non-profit job search.

Three more...

The two Methodist builds and the Women Build kicked off this weekend. I believe that the Women had all of their walls up before the Methodists did, but let's not tell them that. It was a race to finish on Saturday because like most residents of Baton Rouge, our volunteers wanted to be home for the 2:30 kick-off for the LSU/Auburn matchup. The fan loyalty is something we have to plan into the weekends - so we were prepared to knock-off a bit early.

Veni, Vidi, I had my ass handed to me

The Thrivent build started on time, and after two build days, we're still more or less on schedule. Congratulations to the house leader as she's really earning her stripes. That means that this weekend we start three new houses in Hidden Cove.

I say we, but I don't really feel it. It's odd not being a hands-on part of the build, after helping with the previous ones since I arrived. Perhaps that's the reason why I resigned today. September 29 will be my last day at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge.

Oh, I'm certain that some (all three) may be curious 'what's next.' And, if I knew I would tell you. I will continue to seek a job with a non-profit or other organization that is trying to improve the quality of life for someone else, that can provide me with some way of finding something I do well, and using it to help others.

One year ago, I was working with a team of volunteers in Kauai building a dust wall to enclose a 150-house development during its construction. We were rushing to reinforce the wall because there were three tropical storms moving toward us. I was incensed at what I felt was a lack of coherent response at the time to the devastation of hurricane Katrina, and within another week - Hurricane Rita would begin to threaten Texas and Louisiana. One week later I determined that I had started something that I wasn't going to be able to finish anytime soon. I am thankful for that group of friends that I made and the new ones that welcomed me in Baton Rouge. Frankly, I'm grateful for everyone that I've met for this entire year. In one year, I began and ended my time with AmeriCorps, and I have completed the hardest year of my life, and the best year of my life.

I have no idea what the future holds. But I promise that I will spill it here first.

ad imo pectore

Faith Court is done

So we finally dedicated Faith Court and turned the street over to the city. The mayor of Baton Rouge, Melvin L. "Kip" Holden, attended the ceremony where we presented him with a plaque commemorating the event. The family that donated the land to Habitat, and subsequently the city, also attended. The ceremony didn't last very long, but it was still very meaningful. After the event, the mayor stayed around to mingle with our staff before they went off to continue preparing for this weekend, when we start building the first of the remainder of the houses we will build this year.

Last night, I was asked to give an orientation to the ladies that will participate in our Women Build that begins next Saturday. Minutes before I was to attend, Lynn told me that last year there were more than 90 women who attended a similar reception, a point she neglected to tell me when she asked me to speak. Fortunately for them, and me, there were no more than 25 who attended. Not only was I asked to talk about construction, I was also the only male there - no pressure whatsoever. The Women Build is one of the builds we do that doesn't have a sole sponsor, but instead is developed of funds raised by functions like our Pink Toolbelt Bash, auctions, a raffle, and selling sponsorships by the square foot. For a mere $55, you too can sponsor one square foot of the house they will build.

Now that September has begun, there will be little rest until November. I'll do my best to keep this site updated as there should be more than a few upcoming photo ops.

Televised

The first Friday of every month, a local news affiliate, WAFB Channel 9, gives us a few minutes at 5:53 a.m. to plug what we're doing at the affiliate. Lynn has been our face on the news for a long time, but this month, our new executive director made his appearance to discuss the upcoming build season and give a report from our dedication at Faith Court. I'll plug here that although the photos are uncredited, they are mine and show some of our staff, AmeriCorps (both HFHI and *NCCC) as well as the house sponsor, Exxon Mobil. Enjoy.

Weekend Watch

It looks like news, but I think it's just an advertisement for a program this weekend. CNN will air a special report on world poverty and will feature three organizations trying to help in different ways.

The article illustrates an example of a Bangladeshi woman using microfinance to improve her family's well-being. Microfinance is a term used to describe providing small loans to individuals in developing nations. Often, the value of the loan is less than $200. These loans are intended to allow individuals and families to improve their economies by promoting entrepreneurial behavior. Additionally, there is no collateral required to grant one of the loans. An example of an institution that provides these types of loans is the Grameen Foundation. One barrier to providing this type of loan is that the transaction cost is such a significant percentage of the loan value. These costs can be mitigated by providing a larger loan to an individual, who will then work with the community to disperse it.

In addition to microfinance, the show will highlight the work of Heifer International, an organization that also embraces the principles of helping build economies for individuals and families. What distinguishes them from other organizations is that you can 'shop' through their catalog and give livestock, among other things. For example, for $250 you can donate a water buffalo to a farmer in Asia. Heifer International also believes in microeconomics, agroecology, animal well-being, gender equity and combating HIV.

Finally, President Clinton will discuss his organization's commitment to these principles.

Anyway, although I'm plugging all three of them, none of them have responded to my requests for employment. Regardless, I still think they're doing good work.

Another Dedication

Although we were scheduled to dedicate the last house on Faith Court, and the street itself today, we rescheduled at the last moment to only dedicate the house. This was mainly due to weather, as we had the threat of rain all day and the mayor's calendar wasn't suited for an outside, rainy event. Hopefully, next Tuesday we'll dedicate the street that Habitat built.

Even without all the pomp and circumstance we would have had, it was a very nice celebration. Although we had many of our new AmeriCorps, it was much like the celebrations we had when I first arrived, our hard-working staff, a sponsor and homeowners that we have really grown to love. It was a very special day.

Paul & Bernice are such warm and genuine people. The wonderful part of this story is one of the first houses that I worked on in Baton Rouge was for their daughter, and today we dedicated the house we built for them just three doors down. In fact, the first time I tried to take Bernice's photograph, at Omeisha's dedication, I had to beg her to be in the photo. Today wasn't much different in that regard. For me, today was a wonderful reminder of what I came here to do, and like all good stories, the end of this one came full circle back to Faith Court.

Katrina: One Year Later

While President Bush calls for a return to New Orleans and southern Mississippi, one gracious hotelier has provided a place for them to stay.

In honor of those that died, and those whose lives were immeasurably altered, I'm proud to announce the opening of the Beau Rivage casino and hotel. Nothing says "I'm a survivor" quite like opening a hotel and casino. "We scoff at natural disaster." Finally, Mississippi can begin recouping their tax base and those who never settled with the insurance providers on their houses have recourse. Let it ride...

I know, I know - I'm being naive and this message marks a return toward prosperity. They spent a lot of money in the community getting it up and running and the revenue provides a tax base. Now, tourists have a place to stay and eat when they come look at the devastation, or to swim in the ocean - sorry, I haven't quite beat the cynic in me down as much as I hoped. Perhaps it's because of this report by the U.S. Census Bureau that announced today that 12.6% Americans live in poverty and that 24.9% of black Americans live below the poverty threshold. Further, Mississippi's poverty, at 21.3% is the highest in the country. Louisiana is not far behind (currently number 2 (or 49 depending on your perspective)) at 19.8%.

The positive spin here is that these rates have remained relatively unchanged since 2004 and "marked the end of four consecutive years of increases in the poverty rate (2001-2004)."

Thoughts on a Rainy Day

Yesterday was a nice day for me, because the staff at the affiliate threw a surprise birthday party for me. At my last job, occasionally, I would take off on my birthday or even go out of town, just to avoid any celebration. But yesterday's celebration was nice and thoughtful. I really don't like being the center of spectacle, but these were people that were genuinely wishing me well and maybe now that I'm a bit more comfortable in my own skin, I can accept it as that.

Today, I don't feel as though there is anything new and interesting to report from Baton Rouge. That, and because it is my birthday are probably two of the reasons why I even read my horoscope. Now, I don't usually do that - it really is an indicator that I'm bored and I'm actually sorry to share it here. But, it seems poignant (to me and the approximately 6.6e9/12 other humans who share my zodiac sign).

"Today you could learn a lesson ... and that lesson is that positive collaboration can move mountains. You have power and passion, but if you can gather up one or two other people who share your passion, your power will grow exponentially. Do what it takes to make a healthy group dynamic -- focus on the big picture and encourage other people to keep personal issues out of things."

Ahhh, hope!

Which made me think to share a few other quotes I've collected over the past year. Ones that continue to inspire me, and give credit to those I've collected them from.

First, is the famous quote attributed to Margaret Mead:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has"

Next, is Nelson Mandela's charge against poverty and challenge to the G8 to respond with action:

"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom."

When I was young (real young) I remember the bitter disappointment when I learned that there wasn't really a Spider-Man, Superman, Justice League or Jedi/Starfleet Academy. I like talking about justice. I like watching "Who Wants to Be a Superhero". Hero is a word that often gets tossed about by publicists and media campaigns, but I really do get the same sense of exhilaration that I got when I was young learning and reading of real champions of justice and equality.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated when accepting his Nobel Peace Prize,

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."

I won't even attempt to summarize it, but his Nobel lecture, "The Quest for Peace and Justice" is as appropriate now as it was then, as he describes poverty, war, nuclear threats and racial and religious discord. Again love - not the "sentimental and weak response which is little more than emotional bosh", but the love that is the "supreme unifying principle of life" plays a pivotal role in his challenge.

So, in my year of living from the heart, I want to thank Leigh Ann for posting this:

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

- John Wesley

and this:

"All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things, and what we do to make them come about... We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live."

- Joseph Epstein

and to Scott for posting this:

"If we are to have peace on earth ... our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools."

Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967

and finally to Monica for reading this to me last year in front of a house in Kauai:

"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."

Although these are credited to Mother Teresa (three Nobel laureates in one post), they are a modified version of Kent M. Keith's Paradoxical Commandments, the real inspiration for the title of this blog.

It's Almost September

In just over two weeks, we'll be back in full-swing. You may recall that we've produced twenty houses this year, with all but two houses occupied at Hidden Cove, and the dedication of the remaining two in the next week.

Next week, we will dedicate the last house on Faith Court as well as hold a dedication of the street itself, as we turn it over to the city. This is a big event because it marks the completion of a multi-year effort to develop a new street and the end of this fifteen house development. I'll provide a special report on the dedication of Faith Court next week. Next week also marks the end of my ten-months as an AmeriCorps with the Baton Rouge HfH affiliate.

This September we start the following:

• September 9 - one house sponsored by Thrivent.
• September 16 - four houses. Two sponsored by local Methodist churches, one Women's Build, and one community build - sponsored by our ReStore.
  
• September 23 - two houses sponsored by Formosa.
• September 30 - five house, two-week blitz, sponsored by Baptist churches.

October we slow down a bit. We finish all of the above and pick up one, one-week blitz sponsored by a local Presbyterian church. That will make thirteen total, and then we begin fifteen additional houses in November and December.

There's a lot of work to come, and it's a unique time here in Louisiana - the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's impact in the region. This time last year, I was preparing to come visit a friend in New Orleans before I was to leave on a Habitat Global Village build. My flight and subsequently my plans were altered as a result, and here we are a year later. Come to think of it, United still owes me for the airfare. Anyway, there will be a lot of memorials and celebrations here in the next week, and I'm certain there will be a lot of reflection on the past year.

It's been an interesting year.

Meet my replacements

When I arrived last year, one other AmeriCorps and I started on the same day. Terrell worked with Lynn as a volunteer coordinator, and I worked with the construction staff. Over the past month, seven new AmeriCorps volunteers have joined our affiliate to work in construction, family services and volunteer coordination. It's pretty diverse group: some young, some more mature, but all eager and bright-eyed. This is in addition to the ten AmeriCorps NCCC that are working with us for six weeks.

Our last day with the affiliate is scheduled for August 25 (week ending 8/27). I think we will leave the affiliate in better (certainly more) hands that what we provided. Given that there are still 30-ish houses to build this year (approximately twice as many as was built last year, and half-again more than we've already built this year), someone's work is still cut out for them.

New Team

We have a new team of AmeriCorps NCCC here to work with us. Today, Silver 4 from Charleston, SC arrived to work with us through the middle of September. I feel bad for them not only because of the heat & humidity but we won't start building new houses until September, and the work they have ahead of them is site preparation and cleanup, and eventually some prebuild. We are their first service project of the year, so we need to set the bar high.

Our next round of houses will start construction on September 9. This happens to be the date I left last year to go work on a Habitat Global Village build, and subsequently changed my life's direction. Enough about me. To get to 50-ish houses, we need to build 30 more this year. As I previously stated, September 9 and then the 16th are our next two start dates and we have already started preparing the foundations for those houses. This team will at least see the walls raised on the September 9th house before they move on.

We're going to try to get them a bit more integrated into our affiliate than we have with previous teams - today I gave them an orientation from the construction perspective, a bit of history of the affiliate and how we're attempting to do things post-Katrina/Rita. Kim, an AmeriCorps who has joined us in the past few weeks, gave them an overview of the family selection process and Lynn, our development director, brought them up to speed on our sponsors and volunteer needs.

We hope to have them attend some of the home-buyer classes to give them a better understanding of the processes involved in partnering with families. Hopefully, they will have a better perspective of the affiliate operations before they leave us.

Welcome aboard.

For some reason they thought I was going to succeed

[Those purely interested in houses built in and around the Greater Baton Rouge area or the happenings of a HfH affiliate may stop reading now, this one is going a different way]

So [my second favorite way to start a new subject. 20 points to the first person that figures out the first,] I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome of the past weekend. I debated myself if I would even admit out loud what I even did (I won/I lost), but it kinda is important to me and is fitting that it happened this year. Yes, I'm so old that I attended my twenty-year high school reunion.

I suppose they are hit-or-miss - you either like 'em or you don't. As you may have intuited that I'm at some personal crossroads, I do like to reflect from time to time if this past year has been the most productive use of my time, or if I'm indeed insane. I'm not certain why this particular group of people hold sway over certain aspects of my life, but I was clearly nervous leading up to the event, and figuring out how to describe my current status was definitely one of the reasons why.

What I discovered is that I found myself in very familiar territory after the anxiety subsided. Many of them are also on their own personal journeys of discovery. Those that aren't may find themselves on one soon enough.

I can be terse. Ok, I tend to be terse. Often, I try to know my audience. For example, sometimes people are just asking you a question they want you to ask them in return - no long or thoughtful reply on my part is necessary. If some non-engineer asked what I did at my previous job, I would often ask back how detailed of an answer they want, or were we just making conversation - if so, it may be simpler for me to suggest potential topics that will hold both of our attention. Or when someone asks the inevitable, "what kind of computer should I buy" I have to get them to define "kind" for me. Because where I'm thinking processor architecture or processor manufacturer, they're talking vendor or retailer. That led me to the comforting, but probably annoying habit of just answering enough that they're sure not to follow up. But every once in a while, when the tide is high, the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, I'll describe in great detail what I'm doing.

Maybe it was the venue, or because we are at similar points in our lives, or maybe it's good old curiosity, but more than one person seemed genuinely interested in my past year and it afforded me the opportunity to meet the challenge of responding with a thoughtful and genuine response. And, with every response, I took the time to learn from the previous reply to further refine, even for myself, what the heck I have done for the past year, and what I want to continue doing. If for no other reason, it was worth it to open myself up to old anxieties and insecurities of high school. Fortunately, there were many other rewards (ok a few, but they were good), but I'll keep them to myself.

The irony of the whole deal was that I took all this time to figure out what I'm even looking for, and it was best summed up by my great friend Alisa, who said "Oh, you're just like those guys in 'City Slickers'. You know, looking for One Thing."

A Very Busy Day

Today started with a meeting at 7:30 and it seems all I did was run from one appointment to another for the entire day. The first one was our weekly construction meeting where we plan the week's activities. The 9:00 was our staff meeting where we met not only our new Executive Director Chris, but also another AmeriCorps employee who moved here from Missouri. Next, we met with a group from a Presbyterian church who will begin a house in October. Moving on, I ran to help one of our new AmeriCorps, Kim, move a dresser and bed into her new apartment. This I followed up with a conference call with Silver 4, the AmeriCorps NCCC team that will join us from August until the end of September. Throw in a meeting with Chris, another trip to move a mattress, a last cigarette while leaving the office where I witnessed a police officer drop his ticket book (that I subsequently retrieved and will report tomorrow) when he drove off in pursuit, and a mad dash to avoid a thunderstorm on my motorcycle, and you can call it a day.

I mention all of this, because in all that hustle, the meeting with Chris was the most significant. In fact, it was one of the most significant I've had since I moved to this town. Chris comes from a construction background, has worked in non-profit development, and was a priest. I've mentioned here that I'm interested in pursuing opportunities abroad with non-profits and I had an opportunity to share some of this with him. In fact, I got to share a lot with him. I'm reasonably certain that I could stay with this affiliate when my AmeriCorps obligation ends (which I believe is August 27). To fulfill my requirements, I am to have completed 1700 hours by then. I'm not certain I will achieve that - it will be close. The two months I spent in St. Bernard don't count toward my hours, and that put me a bit behind. I believe that around that time, I'll post something summarizing my time here in Baton Rouge, so stay tuned!

To get back where I started: the meeting with Chris was a great opportunity for me to remind myself of some of the reasons I took the year off. To say (write) it out loud again, I wanted to spend a year living from my heart, helping others, making connections, and learning about myself. I don't want to get ahead of myself, and I'll save some of that for the end of August, but it's always good to assess where you are, how you got there, and where are you trying to go. Rather, it's good for me to assess that. You do what you have to do for you.

Anyway, if you want to see a work in development, you can take a look at a map of some of the houses that we've built this past year, and some of the ones we're getting ready to build. It is a work in progress, and I will update the map with icons to distinguish new business from old business at some point in the near future as well as update it as we secure the property we will build on this fall. It uses the Google Maps API, and is available here.

(Ok, last aside. I've snickered before about blogger's spell checker doesn't recognize blog or blogger. It doesn't seem to recognize Google either. Cute.)

Status from Baton Rouge

Eh-hmm. Please pardon my recent lack of updates.

Of the ten houses we built in Hidden Cove, five are currently occupied and the other five shall be occupied soon. In fact, we are primarily waiting on electricity to be turned on at three of those houses, and the others will be closed out soon enough.

This is not to say I've really had a hand in that part, Christiaan and the other construction workers have been keeping that up. I've been doing office work. You see, it all started a few weeks ago when [start crazy flashback sequence]...

A couple of Friday's ago we lost our construction director. The next Tuesday, Christiaan, Mike and I met with a couple of members of the board and we decided that we would try to plan the thirty-two houses that we are building this fall and finish up the twenty-ish houses we currently have in development. So my part in that has been to figure out where we are, where we are going, and how can we get there. For some reason, I've felt that I needed to develop something to help do that, and I've spent the last couple of weeks basically developing a web front-end to a database where we track the status of our current builds. I guess you go with what you know, although I really don't know that much about web front-ends, or databases for that matter. Anyway, it works, for now.

The hard part really was figuring out where we are, which I believe we almost have an accurate picture. The next hard part is beginning the next wave of houses, currently scheduled to begin on September 9.

To help us, we have a new team of Americorps NCCC starting this Friday, and we have some new construction bodies that have and will start soon. Rachel joined us last week, and at least three more should join us during the month of August.

Today, I got to meet our new Executive Director, Chris. Today was his first day so I had limited interaction, but he will join us at our 7:30 construction meeting tomorrow to get an idea of what we've set as our current priorities. I think it will be nice to quit being headless, or more accurately, quit being a hydra.

In other news, the future homeowners of the last house to be built on Faith Court had a little tragedy over the weekend. The house in which they currently live caught fire, so it is now uninhabitable. We've decided to focus our efforts on getting their new house completed, so we've set a goal of getting them in their house by next week.

Speaking of Faith Court, as Christiaan and I drove by the Popeye's down the block from Faith Court, Christiaan pointed out something strange about its side door. You could tell from the Police line around the building that it wasn't going to be good, and later we confirmed that the door was indeed covered with blood. It turns out to be the blood of the manager, who was shot, stabbed and left to die in the freezer early this morning. They did catch and charge someone with the murder. Lynn pointed out to us that it wasn't the assistant manager who always calls us "baby". Instead, it was someone equally as nice. Apparantly, there was a shooting at the Piggly Wiggly parking lot (across the street from Popeye's) the day before.

The handprint on the door, visible from the road, is still lingering in my mind.

"We believe that every family in the United States is entitled to decent shelter."

These are not the words of Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, instead they are the words of William J. Levitt, one of Time magazine's 100 Most Important People of the Century. Beginning after World War II, he and his company are recognized for revolutionizing the home-building industry and building more than 140,000 houses worldwide.

After WWII, the U.S. government recognized a need for 5,000,000 houses and incentivized private industry to provide this housing by securing loans made to builders and to buyers. Five years after the war, 4,000,000 houses had been produced. William J. Levitt's company had produced over 30,000 of them.

In the tradition of Henry Ford, Mr. Levitt applied modern principles to the manufacture. He developed a stationary assembly line where the workers would move but the product remained fixed. He decomposed the construction into 26 (or 27) steps and then allocated teams of two or three to perform their unique step on each house (raising studs, red paint painters, white paint painters, deckers, sheathers, washing machine bolt tighteners, etc.). All of the material used on the site was cut to length, labeled, sorted and delivered to each slab (yes, they used concrete slabs and would trench each house in less than fifteen minutes) in identical kits. He purchased his own timberland and sawmill. He manufactured his own nails. At the height of their production they could produce 36 houses/day.

The cookie-cutter housing concept was not without its critics and controversy (would William Safire be proud?) He was himself Jewish, but would not sell to African-Americans. His argument being that while he had no room for racial intolerance, the prevalent attitude was that the large majority of his customers would not favor integration. He once said, "As a Jew, I have no room in my mind or heart for racial prejudice, but, by various means, I have come to know that if we sell one house to a Negro family, then 90 to 95 percent of our white customers will not buy into the community. That is their attitude, not ours." Always a capitalist, I believe he described it a little more palatably as, "We can solve a housing problem, or we can try to solve a racial problem but we can't combine the two." I believe that Time recognizes him not only for revolutionizing U.S. construction practices, but for leading the suburbanization of America.

Does any of this sound familiar? Racial parallels aside, we've been building 10 houses since May. Once again, I'm going to write that "we're almost done", and we are. We expect to be ready for two more homeowners to move in on Friday, and hopefully a couple more the following week. But, as Christiaan pointed out in the Fortune magazine article that introduced us to William J. Levitt, he was able to complete a house every fifteen minutes and because of the amount of preparation, they only required 20% of their labor to be skilled. I believe the "15 minutes" may be a deceptive statistic, but I do believe that they understood volume and this assembly-line technique has merit.

Anyway, their houses were 750 square feet, one level, two bedrooms with an attic. Our houses are 1150 square feet, one level, three bedroom houses with an attic. I hope that we could at least keep up with practices from 50 years ago.

(Thanks to Google, I was able to do a good amount of research while another Project Runway marathon was on Bravo. Most of this information was gathered from The Capital Century, Wikipedia, and Time.)

Thoughts on Independence Day

[Watch out, he's talking politics again]

It's raining in Baton Rouge, I'm surfing through web sites of organizations that provide aid and relief while watching a 'Project Runway' marathon. It occurs to me that while I've provided a link to the Millennium Development Goals, I've not listed them for those that didn't want to follow the link.

The eight specific recommendations of the UN Millennium Project are:

1. Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
4. Reduce Child Mortality
5. Improve Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development

The report from which these goals were produced is available online.

It is widely accepted that over 1 billion of our world's population live under conditions of extreme poverty - a condition defined by people that do not have access to the basic human necessities of food, water, shelter, education and health care. There are not extreme poor in the U.S. Extreme poverty is a condition of the developing world. This is not to say there are not poor or people in need in the U.S. I can look around my neighborhood and you can look around yours, and we'll both find there are people who are in need, but not to this extreme degree. I have spent the last eight months helping people in need, and it has been rewarding.

Sub-saharan Africa and Asia are the two regions most affected by this condition.

The G8 has pledged to cancel debt and increase aid to these nations. In the past week, Bono's group Debt, AIDS, Trade and Africa Group (DATA) reported that the G8 was collectively off-the-mark in its pledge to increase aid to Africa. There was some good in the report, but there was much room for improvement. It seems he even left his audience with a lightly veiled threat. From the article, "Next year when we get to Germany and we're not back on track we won't be talking pop concerts ... we will be demonstrating in very different ways."

Anyway, to bring this back to the 4th... I'm a child of the seventies, and was raised watching School House Rock. In addition to learning that three was indeed a magic number, and finally learning what the functions of conjunctions were, I also learned the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, in song. In it, is described domestic tranquility, general welfare, and blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity while striving to create a perfect union. Don't the Millennium Goals sound like implementations of these principles? Or at least vaguely parallel? What better way to promote those principles and our 230 years of maturity than to help the greatest number in the greatest need. This would be a foreign policy that I could embrace, wholeheartedly.

first resident

I think we've almost got this one right. The owner of Lot 59 (a.k.a. the Sue Gunter House, the one on the right) moved her belongings into the house on Friday, June 29. That's only 26 days after the blitz ended. Her electricity and HVAC unit were installed on Friday, and I believe she spent her first night in the house on Saturday. This is such an accomplishment for us, and by comparison to the Thanksgiving 2005 blitz, we are much improved.

Of course, we had several things in our favor this time compared to last: the number of volunteers, the amount of preparation, it probably doesn't hurt that I know more about what I'm doing now, the number of NCCC teams that helped us, and even that we have Christiaan working with us now is a great benefit compared to last time. Note that in the photo, Christiaan is installing two of the two-hundred or so shelves that needed to be installed. I believe he installed a total of six shelves. To be fair (and I don't really want to be), Christiaan is much more valuable doing other things than installing shelving - that's where I fit in, and why I make the big bucks.

Other good news from Hidden Cove is that I installed the last wire shelf on Saturday! The flooring has been installed in a number of houses, so I think we just need to put shoe mould down in those houses and they'll be complete. Hopefully, the remainder of the floors will be installed in the next few days, and then we'll follow behind them installing the moulding. This can still be completed in a week or so, and maybe then we'll get some more homeowners to move in.

There will still be a bit of exterior work to complete. Many of the houses have problems with the siding that needs to be corrected, but we can work on that once we've completed all of the interior items and not prevent people from moving in.

Today I went to lunch with all of the ladies in the office. I stopped by the office as they were leaving for their new monthly event, and they invited me to join them. I think they could tell that I was lone..., err, bored (why else would I go to work on my day off) and offered me a distraction.

Anyway, Happy Independence Day.

this just in

I've officially lost my mind. In the past week, I have applied for positions with two former U.S. Presidents and the richest man in America. Despite some of this year's setbacks, apparently my ego is still intact. I may have also applied for a position as a nurse, it's all kind of a blur.

In other news, good for him.

updates from Hidden Cove

This last week, a group from Idlewild Presbyterian Church traveled from their home in Memphis, TN to work with us. Every year, their church performs a week of service and they usually alternate between an international trip and a domestic one. This was their year to help domestically, and they chose to come to the Katrina/Rita affected gulf. They only worked with us three days and spent the remainder of their time helping in Slidell, working with PRC. In that time, they were able to help us quite a bit by installing doorknobs, painting, cleaning, and yes, they helped install the wire closet shelves. I know the AmeriCorps teams would have been proud, if not a bit jealous. Idlewild was a pleasure to host, and if they ever want to return, they are more than welcome. I've said before that it's difficult building relationships with good people just to watch them leave. This group was no exception.

We really are on course to get these houses mostly complete before this month ends. This week, Christiaan, Bill and I will finish the shelves (only four houses to go), and I'll help Eddie finish any painting he has left. The floors should be installed in the remainder of the houses, and then it's just punch-list items.

Last weekend, we had a group from the Louisiana National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program work with us, and we got them to help us clean up the site. For those not familiar with the program, they are a group of at-risk young men and man were they fun to manage. The most notable occurrence of that weekend was seeing the Hidden Cove homeowners working together on each other's house. This was one of the first times I've seen that amount of cooperation among the homeowners here in Baton Rouge. They help each other all the time. It's quite a community they've already built, and they haven't even moved in yet.

Of our new homeowners, two are a couple from Violet, LA. Violet is one of the towns in St. Bernard Parish and the new home of Camp Hope. It turns out, we even know some of the same people. Here in the gulf, and performing disaster recovery - it is an extremely small world.

As you may be aware, there are no residents living at Hidden Cove yet. However, when the owners of lots 41 and 42 move in, they have a surprise waiting for them. I don't know if the drilling that's going on behind them is almost complete, or if that structure will remain indefinitely. I just know that it appeared overnight.

We had some disappointing news on Faith Court: two weeks ago, one of the houses was vandalized and all of the bathroom fixtures were ripped off the walls and stolen. This week, the same house was broken into and the appliances were stolen. I can't find a way to positively spin this.

after the blitz

During the week of May 27 - June 3, we brought several of the 14 houses to completion. Truthfully, we far exceeded the condition of the 4 houses that we built the week after Thanksgiving of 2005. However, there is still a bit of work to do. Now that we don't have the 300+ volunteers, nor do we have any teams of AmeriCorps NCCC, that's a lot of work left for the three full-time staff. Heck, it's lonely out there.

That means this week I've been caulking and caulking, while my co-workers are putting up trim. Tomorrow, I get to paint and then I can paint some more (clearly, I'm taking one for the team). Once I'm done with the painting (say, 2008) I can start the beloved closet shelves. Ask any AmeriCorps NCCC team that's worked with us, and I'm certain they'll tell you how much they love cutting and installing wire closet shelves.

Seriously, we hope to be done by the end of this month. That's good because while attending the Beat the Heat Week Blitz post-mortem yesterday, I learned that in fact we aren't building 40 houses this year, we're shooting to build 52. So, 20 down and 32 to go! To add to the challenge, the next blitz (who knows how many houses this one will be, maybe we'll do all 32 at once and sleep the rest of the year) will start in September. I ran the numbers, and by my calculations, that leaves us about ten weeks until I'm once again over my head. That is, if I'm still here. That's not a forecast or warning. It is merely recognizing that it has almost been a year since I began my grand experiment. I will also acknowledge that 'almost' is relative, and in this case indicates that I've passed the 50% mark of my one-year leave of absence.

Finally, this article is worth a read if you believe that the U.S. should take part in helping to live up to the Millennium Development Goals.

well, crap

Once, someone said they noticed I never put anything too personal on this thing. Well, here. You can see the downs in all their glory.

I've had two dream jobs in my lifetime. I first saw Star Wars when I was nine years old and was absolutely taken, as were most young boys, with the magic on the screen. I couldn't see the movie enough - but eleven times was as many as I could see it in the theatres at the time. Nor, could I read enough about the movie. I read every science fiction magazine there was about George Lucas and the partnership he built with John Dykstra to forge Industrial Light and Magic, and the wonderful computers that they used to control the motion of the cameras as they filmed the elaborate scenes that captured the senses and imaginations of so many young and old. I decided then that I wanted to go into engineering so that one day, I too may have the skills to work on one of those movies.

Well, in 2001 I worked up the nerve to apply for a job at ILM. You can imagine then how enthusiastic I was when they called me and invited me to San Rafael for an interview. Even more exciting was the tour of the magical facilities of their R&D group. I heard wonderful story after wonderful story of the ins and outs of ILM work on computer games, movies and even the new films in the Star Wars saga. Long story short, the interview went well, but not well enough.

Three years ago, I learned of a wonderful organization, Doctors Without Borders, and their contributions in developing and third-world countries. After the tsunami of December 2004, I even wished I had studied medicine instead of engineering so that I could go help such an organization.

After my run in St. Bernard Parish helping with operations and logistics, I wondered if Doctors Without Borders could use someone with my enthusiasm and skills to help with their mission. Long story short, I got the letter in the mail over the weekend that said, thanks but no.

Anyway, I'm back to trying to figure out what the heck to do next. If anyone still reads this (other than my mom), and knows someone who knows someone, I'm all ears. I'm reading a wonderful book that I will blog (once again, the irony that blogger's spellchecker doesn't know 'blog') about soon and I'm still inspired (although a bit discouraged) to go overseas for a year to further this self-directed internship I seem to be on.

In other news, I stopped by Camp Hope today. For those that don't know, Camp Hope is the replacement volunteer camp in St. Bernard Parish for Camp Premier, which stood down on June 1. It really is a marvel to see the new facilities. Not so much because of the facilities, per se, but it is readily apparent how much hard work has gone into the preparation of the facilities. The old-timers, Tom, Crystal, Michael and Andre have outdone themselves, as have the new old-timers I just met, Kelly, Peter and Paul. At one point, I was a week ahead of Andre - he's now on his 18th week. I'm certain there are others that I don't know yet but if I wore a hat, I would tip it to all of you. As of May 29, they have gutted a total of 1394 houses.

I was only there a couple of hours, but Camp Hope is so much more welcoming than Premier ever was. This may be in part because Emergency Communities is on site as well, or because they are in a school instead of a field of tents, or it may be because this determined set of volunteers has weathered FEMA storm after storm, and it is filled with people who believe that they can do anything. Regardless, you should see it if you can take the time.

whew!

The heat and humidity of Louisiana has killed my iPod, cell phone, car and for a day or two - me. During the "Beat the Heat Week Blitz", fifty of my closest friends and me ended up with a round of fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Still, in eight days we were able to build most of the fourteen houses we set out to build.







There were over 300 volunteers that showed up to help during the week. They came from all over the country to help us build 10 houses in south Baton Rouge and four houses on the west side of the river. Some volunteers come with groups and some come as individuals. Houses were sponsored by Operation Home Delivery, the people of Saudi Arabia, an insurance company and the NCAA. Four new teams of AmeriCorps NCCC showed up to help the one already with us and quickly became our MVP's. The teams came from Sacramento, Charleston and Washington, D.C. campuses. To me, the most extraordinary volunteer that arrived was one that was on my first debris-removal team in St. Bernard Parish.






Once these houses are completed, we will have achieved half of our 2006 goal - 20 houses. As you can see from the photos, most are very near completion. We surpassed the level of accomplishment we achieved during our Thanksgiving blitz, thanks to some hard work by volunteers, NCCC and staff. We'll spend this week trying to finish as much as we can before we are without our NCCC teams. That means we have some painting, shelves, trim work, cabinets and floors to finish. Our work is cut out for us.





Once again, it's hard to say goodbye to wonderful people. I've really grown to enjoy working with the AmeriCorps NCCC teams. Their hard work, dedication, good-spirit and youth are often inspiring to me personally. Aside from the work I've performed in St. Bernard Parish, one of the most rewarding experiences of this year has been working as their supervisor. I've grown to love my teams and I miss them.

almost upon us

If all goes well, the volunteers that arrive this Saturday to work on the 'Beat the Heat Week' blitz will have everything ready for them to build ten houses in Baton Rouge and four houses in Plaquemine. There has been a lot of activity running up to this event: clearing lots, building forms, pouring slabs, ordering materials, assembling prebuild, operating heavy machinery - and all of it under a warm Louisiana sun.

We've had plenty of help the last several weeks, and this past week we've been joined by five teams of AmeriCorps NCCC.

Let's just call this period a little frantic.

The Baton Rouge development is named Hidden Cove, and eight of the houses are spoken for. Several of the new home-owners are displaced New Orleans residents that have been residing in one of the FEMA parks here in Baton Rouge.

Anyway, we've one day left before we can either pat ourselves on the backs, or get busy blaming one another. After June 3, and if all goes well, we'll have build twenty houses this year.

Oh, and you should see my tan.

Not A Bad Weekend

Traemel slept in her house for the very first time on Friday. Although I've worked on other houses that have since been completed, this is the first house that I've worked on from the very beginning, and I was present when she moved in on Friday.

We've begun and nearly completed three houses this year, this is in addition to the four left over from last year that we're finishing. Two others should be complete in the next two weeks. Just in time for us to begin worrying about the fourteen that we will attempt in May.

As you may or may not have heard, both of the volunteer camps in the New Orleans area have received supplemental funding, so the operation of both Algiers and Premier should continue until June. Maybe someone listened.

Updates from Baton Rouge

I don't have a whole lot to post. I know that the house count in St. Bernard was around 900 houses as of April 1. My sister came down to St. Bernard to volunteer. Because she was injured the first day she was working, she wasn't able to complete the week. I think with 14 stitches, her excuse is good enough.

The camp is still scheduled to close on April 10 (or 11), as far as I know. It is quite possible that they will exceed 1,000 houses before that date (if they haven't already). I know there are plans to move the operation to a local school, and that people have begun the process to prepare for the volunteers. I'm not aware of alternative transportation arrangements nor of the plans for food. I'm certain that either the information I just provided is dated, or will change at the last minute.

As far as Baton Rouge is concerned, we are busy preparing for our 14 house blitz the last week of May. There is a lot of preparation necessary, and we need volunteers. In fact, if anyone wants to step up and build one of the houses, I'm certain there are at least six people who will write songs to praise you.

[edited 2006/04/07 @ 00:25:39 to correct stupid grammatical error]

First House

The Baton Rouge HfH affiliate completed their first house of the year. The LSU Greek house started last Saturday and we finished it this afternoon. Yes, their are a few punch-list items, but the dedication is tomorrow and we hope to get Barbara in her house in the next couple of weeks.

It was an eventful week: we had a volunteer who returned to us from North Carolina to help us last Saturday and today, neighbors who were less than inviting, a homeowner that can make anyone smile, three daily shifts of LSU fraternities and sororities and a team of NCCC learning finish carpentry.

While it is no secret I've not quite found my place, it was good to come back and work with two of my very favorite co-workers, Mike Bryant and Tom Pruyn. Mike has been my supervisor and friend since I've come to this affiliate, and this week he performed the duties of house-leader for the very first time. The proof is in the product - the house was completed on schedule and Mike grew into his new role and exceeded any expectations anyone could have had. He met every challenge with a smile - the house, the homeowner and the volunteers benefited from his new role.

If anyone could ever choose a mentor, they should choose Mr. Tom. He has been with the Baton Rouge affiliate since it began and has accumulated more years of construction experience than I've been alive. You will not meet a kinder soul with more wisdom and dignity, nor one with such concern for justice and tolerance in our world. He continually surprises me with his grace and sincerity.

It has been my distinct privilege to work with these two. They have certainly helped make this experience worth it.

I won't attend Sunday's dedication. I'm leaving tomorrow morning to return to St. Bernard for a couple of days. I'm not working - I'm just taking time off and seeing people I miss, talking about the future of the project, and trying to gather enough information to make my next decision.

Thank you

I just re-read my last two posts, after the several emails and comments I got asking me what's up.

Two things strike me as extremely weird: first, those who knew me before I left on my adventure (usually I call it my journey) may remember how extremely private I can be - and then here I am living out this adventure in full view of both of the people that read it. Second, I'm ok with it.

I'm glad people are interested in post-Katrina/Rita Louisiana, Habitat for Humanity or me. In fact, I'm shocked and amazed that some people have found this site by accident or have just continued to follow it. In fact, one person found it on the Internet and then I met him at Camp Premier. How weird is that?

I'm not doing any of this anymore because I want to, I feel like I have to. After my experience in St. Bernard Parish, I think I'm catching my breath before the next thing. Now, I'm not certain what it is next, but it needs to be important, and make a difference. I finally left St. Bernard because I believe I did make a difference, but it took a big chunk of me to do it. Maybe if I get my second wind I'll go back.

The common theme I hear from those who have come to Camp Premier and gone back to the world is that they've been changed somehow. No one really can describe how they've changed, but they have and often it seems they're missing something they didn't even know they had to lose. I believe that when you meet and work with good people for a good cause, that everything else seems less important. Maybe it's just a new perspective. A rebirth? It definitely can be spiritual. I think my change has been more resolve.

Anyway, I'll be in Baton Rouge for at least the week. We're finishing new and old business right now - building a new one this week in fact, and finishing ones that have been sitting too long. A team from AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is here and they're doing what they do, getting things done. That's there motto by the way.

If you want to do something good for the country, then write your Congressman or woman and your Senator and ask them to reinstate funding for NCCC. The St. Bernard Recovery Project wouldn't exist without them (69,000 lives they are directly affecting), there are a great number of teams in the Gulf region helping with hurricane recovery (I've met and worked with six so far and the Washington Post reports that at least half of their number are in this region at any given time), and they are our nation's motivated young leaders. Our President decided that $22M was too much to spend on the 1100 18-24 year olds and the 80 staff that support them.

If you're on the fence about volunteering because of time, work or family - then please write a letter and endorse someone doing it on your behalf. They're only paid $13/day and they do more for that money than you can imagine.

I urge you to visit one of the following sites for more information, links to sample letters and addresses/fax numbers:

• AmeriCorps Alums
• Save*NCCC

Taking a break

So, I left St. Bernard Parish Friday night.

It was a long but good week. By the end of the week, over 2,000 volunteers went to work in St. Bernard in one day plus one former Presidential hopeful, Sen. John Edwards. He even came to the camp and took a tour of Camp Premier. Hopefully, he can help renew the funding that is scheduled to dry up on April 11 or help motivate someone to take over funding the camp from the state.

I believe the house count is close to if not over 600 houses as of Friday.

I don't know if I'm going back or not. I want to, but I'm tired. I'm not even certain I'm welcome, when it came time for me to leave - I just ran. I came back to Baton Rouge to work on a blitz build, and we're into the third day of it. I didn't work much on Saturday - I was there, but didn't work much. Not only that, but I learned that one of our homeowners isn't living in her house yet, and she probably should be. I feel as though if I had been around living up to my obligations there, that maybe she wouldn't sometimes have to sleep in her car.

All of these experiences are taking from me, and not giving back much. I've chosen this year, and it breaks my heart that others didn't make this choice - these things were just dumped in their lap. I'm learning that one person has limitations and that it takes more than just one-on-one experiences to really accomplish anything. I'm tired of goodbyes. I'm tired of feeling helpless. There were very similar feelings of frustration that brought me to live this year as I'm trying.

There's good work in St. Bernard. There are good people there too. There are also normal people - people that you run into every day with the same frustrations and shortcomings as the rest of us. But that doesn't mean they don't need help. The same can be said of the work in Baton Rouge, or anywhere I'm certain. Just as I learned I don't have to leave the country to help those in need, I don't get to choose those that need help, and sometimes it's not just the people we're trying to help that need it, but so do those of us who are trying to do it.

If you're reading this merely because you're interested in St. Bernard Parish - I'll see if I can stay current on the house count and numbers of volunteers and keep you up to date if I don't go back. I'm not promising anything though, not to anyone. I don't know if I'm staying in Baton Rouge after this week, going back to St. Bernard Parish, or just going for a very long motorcycle ride. But, I will live up to my commitment to continue to work from my heart - even if it kills me.

A Bunch of Progress

Sorry that I haven't updated this in a while - it's not productive to wait this long because there's been so much that I'm afraid this post will be long-winded, and boring. It's been difficult convincing myself that administrative, operational and logistic details of Camp Premier are anything anyone would want to read (much less do!) Argh. Bear with me as a sort this out...

First, I made my first trip back to civilization last week. I returned to Baton Rouge for almost 18 hours to claim three weeks of unopened mail (oh yeah, I got guilted into working Saturday also). The trip alone was eye-opening. Anyone reading this who's worked at this camp may find this sentiment familiar. Returning to traffic, stores, people, work and bureaucracy is a surreal experience. I had forgotten there was a real world out there where people had electricity, Sonic or even indoor plumbing. Today I cheated and drove to Metairie so that I could buy some new glasses (I lost my only pair in a debris pile), and I went to Burger King. Good grief, how good it was to have a vanilla shake. Ten minutes later I felt guilty because I did.

Anyway, so in Baton Rouge I got my first thank you card from a St. Bernard Parish homeowner, who wanted to thank my husband and me for all of our hard work. I'm glad I had that point of confusion to laugh about so that I didn't just break down and cry when I got it. Not that I want anyone reading this to think I'm some sentimental twit, but living here, sharing this grief and celebration and facing these daily challenges has left me occasionally fragile.

Just yesterday, I was calling this place my home.

This week, we completed about 170 houses with about 60 teams. I think we're around 350 now. Those volunteers reading this who were here when we were a one bus operation should know that now we're reliably scheduling and dispatching about 20 buses/day. Next week, it's going to be closer to 40, maybe even 50 as we have about 1100 HfH volunteers arriving, along with the 200 or so Samaritan's Purse and 60 AmeriCorps NCCC. I think we're scheduling for about 100 teams. This is after a bit of fanfare (and confusion). Probably you've read in the news about President Bush touring the area (I think he missed us. I had a funny idea about a where's the President post. I would walk along the French Quarter and take photos at Café Du Monde, the River Walk and Bourbon Street, but that would take time and effort of which I have none extra to give), and then Franklin and Billy Graham are here, and even broadcasted live from Camp Premier this past Wednesday night. All of a sudden, we seem to be getting a lot of federal support - this just hours after we had to tell 600 HfH volunteers that Camp Premier couldn't provide housing for them - and promptly called them back after we got a different story today. Argh, the complexity of a fragile partnership between the federal government, the parish government, service and volunteer organizations.

I hope the tone of this doesn't leave the wrong impression. I've received encouragement from volunteers who've assured me that they felt productive, and they're surprised at both the accommodations and the amount they've been able to accomplish. Federal employees have been asking us how we're doing what we're doing. Where's our SOP? What's been documented? I don't know if they want to tell us how we've been doing it wrong or (more likely) how the heck have we been able to do what we've done so far. I choose to believe the latter, because it makes me feel as though we're doing something right. I've even heard this organization proposed as a model. Heh, that just makes me laugh. Still, it's cool.

I don't even know if I have a point right now (I definitely shouldn't be trying to write this). I just wanted everyone to know that volunteers are coming and it will be steady for a while. It's a cool thing to see how much this has grown.

Sorry for all of the parenthetical asides. Writing was never my strong suit (did I just use a cliche? woops, sorry for that also), and I'm just kind of journaling right now - although this is not supposed to be a journal. I promise, I'll do better next time.

Soon, I'm going to do a post on how awesome AmeriCorps NCCC is and how they are the organization that has ensured the continued success of this operation. Until then, just trust me on that one.

If you're still reading this (I feel sorry for you), I did find the Gold Star Diner and talked to BJ, the owner. He plans to open a week from today, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I want to go eat there (I don't care what's he's serving) and then take a nap.

You can't make this stuff up

Monday morning, I sent over one-hundred volunteers to an area where the St. Bernard Fire Department had responded to a fire. This afternoon, as I was waiting for nearly three-hundred volunteers to return from a long day of house-gutting, a fire broke out across from Camp Premier. This week, I've taken a break from gutting houses, and I'm trying to help the four Habitat volunteers who have coordinated us for the past three weeks by sharing some of their responsibilities. It's been a logistical nightmare scheduling resources with FEMA and planning for the hundreds of volunteers who have wanted to come help. But, we're getting better every day.

I've tried to keep my emotion and political leaning out of this, and just relay the experience as much as possible. I know this isn't a late-breaking news site, but this is too hard not to share:
Video Shows Bush Heard Dire Warnings Ahead of Katrina.