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.