I'm BACK!!!!!!!!!

The above pictures were taken on my way out of New Orleans on Friday, June 15. I visited the Lower 9th Ward. The area is adjacent to the canal levee which broke after Katrina. Many of the homes were washed away, while the others have been removed because they were condemned. Once again the pictures don't convey the vastness of the destruction. What now are weed filled lots, were once block after block of homes.

I made it home on Monday evening (June 18). I had a good time driving and listening to my music again. I made a couple of side trips as I made my way home. One was to "The Bass Shop" to check out fly fishing equipment, and the other was a stop in Roswell, New Mexico. I didn't want to drag Gen and the girls there so I took the time while I was alone. The Bass Shop was great. I didn't buy equipment, but I got a lot of useful information. I hope to get a chance to fly fish in a few weeks when I travel with my family to Northern California on vacation. I thought stopping in Roswell would be a least a little exciting. I gotta tell you, it wasn't. I don't know what I was expecting, but I sure expected more than what they had to offer. I don't even want to waste any more time telling you about it. The one thing I will say is that if you ever get the idea to go there, DON'T.

I feel like I should finish my trip blog with something profound. I really must admit I have no idea what to say.

Thanks to; TLC for the opportunity, to Gen, Laura, & Erin for allowing me to leave them for a month, and to my Mom who instilled in me a love for all people,and a willingness to help people who are in need. I had a wonderful experience and I would love to share it with all of you when I get to see you. Thank you all for walking with me in my New Orleans Adventure.

It's time to go home.

It's my last night in New Orleans. The LDR team just took me out to dinner to say thank you. Katie, Larry, and Ellen have been great host. I really respect the work that they do here at the volunteer camp. Each week they have to train new volunteers to go out and face all the work that needs to be done in the city and surrounding areas. They along with many other groups throughout this region face an impossible task each day.





The hardest thing about leaving is feeling that I have not done enough. After 15 work days of Mucking, tarping roofs, helping to install counters and sinks, and cleaning out yards it just seems that I haven't done enough. I want to save every starfish on the beach, not just the ones I can pickup and through back in the water.





Tomorrow just after lunch I'll pack up the van and begin the long trip home. I have had an EXPERIENCE here that I will never forget. I hope that some of you get the opportunity to come and work here in New Orleans.

aaron

Eyes Wide Open!

I had dinner on Monday night with Pastor Keen and his family. He is the Pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church here in New Orleans. Before we went to dinner they drove me through the neighborhood around the church. It was wonderful experience as we drove to be greeted by so many people who were just hanging out. As we reached one house with 15 or so people in front of it, we heard the story of a young man who had been shot, and then drove himself to the hospital, where he later died. We were outside that house. Pastor Keen talked to a few of the people he new to find out what had happened and said that he would check with them later. I mention this because earlier in the day after I had helped install a sink and kitchen counter top in a home, I was watching the news and I heard the report of this shooting. The story had suddenly become real. Looking at the faces of the people at that house was gut wrenching. Along with all this city has to deal with from the storm, it has to deal with a lot of senseless killing. The community is upset, but nobody seems to have an answer. After it dealt was dealt with we did have a nice dinner and we talked about future plans that would include youth from TLC, and The New City Parish, along with youth from Bethlehem in New Orleans.
Sorry I don't have any pics to post today. I left my camera a the volunteer center again. I'll try to do better tomorrow, we're going to a new place to muck. In the mean time please check out this site; http://www.sojo.net/special/multimedia/video/061120_new_orleans/00_main.html, it's a slide presentation from Sojourners. Alli sent it to me, she'll be coming home from Mexico in about 4 weeks. Hi Gen, Erin, & Laura. Enjoy the last few days of school. I'll be home soon.

aaron

Only 6 days before the long trip home

As I get ready to start my last week in the city, I wanted to show everyone that I did go out and have some fun. I went to the French Quarter and relaxed after church today. I was smiling really. I spent the day eating and walking all over the Quarter. I still can't believe what goes on on Bourbon Street. I visited the Tomato & Seafood Festivals during my travels. The spirit at the festivals was great, even though the temp. was 94 degrees with very high humidity. I was excited to see so many people. The city is coming back, but it's going to take a long time, especially for the harder hit areas. I worshipped at Bethlehem Luth. Church again. I have fallen in Love with this congregation. I look at them and I still see the many people that I grew up with in Gary, IN. I spent time talking to Pastor after the service and I will have dinner with him and his wife tomorrow. Even after being here for 2 weeks, it's still eye opening when you talk to new people. 50% of their congregation has not and may not return to the city. The church had about 2 feet of water in it and all the floors and pews had to be repaired. The church is now ready to host groups who want to come and do relief work. (Hint, Hint Trinity) I have some ideas of what we can do to help, I'll let you all know what they are when I get home.

The biggest thing I can say right now is that the job is not finished. There is still work to do, not just for today for for years to come. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's so important that we do not forget about all the people here. Below are pics from the house our team started on Thursday. I will get a chance to work with another team this week. I hope we can get this one finished before I have to leave. The four block neighborhood is almost completely deserted. The more we clean this one out, the more it seems that it can be saved. We still did not hear if the house from my first week and a half can be saved. Many homeowners down here are in the same situation with their houses.

aaron

It's starting to get HOT down here!

I started work today on another house. It had already been cleaned out, we just had to remove all the drywall, flooring, and fixtures. We got a good start and we hope to have much of the job done by quitting time tomorrow. I'm going to spend the weekend eating beignets (ben-yays), gumbo, and jumbalaya in the French Quater. Ill take lots of pictures. Thank you all for your wonderful comments. I would write more, but I just need to go to bed. I'll keep you informed over the weekend. (to my Los Alamos friends; I'm going back to Bethlehem Luth. on Sunday)

aaron

Scenes from the City

It was a hard day of work today. In the morning we covered a roof with large tarps to stop damage from rain. The temperature was in the 90's. The afternoon was spent doing a lot of house keeping jobs around the volunteer center. I ended up outside again and it was hot & humid. It really wasn't a hard day of work, it was just the sun took every ounce of energy.

The pics above are of homes and a church that are still vacant. The church rebuilt next door and the homeowners are still waiting on promised money so they can repair their homes and move back into them. The boat was brought into the neighborhood by the storm. It's amazing how many boats I've seen in peoples yards nearly 2 years after the storm.

Thanks to Deni and John & Sonya for the Starfish story:

The Star Fish
Based on the story by Loren Eisley...
I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.
As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea."
As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, strectching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."
The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."
I left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. I returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea.

aaron

Does anyone know the Starfish on the Beach Story?

Hi all, as you can see the shoe made it to a baseball game. We went and saw the New Orleans Zephers (sp). It was Dollar hotdog Wednesday on Tuesday night.

We had a good day at the house today. We removed the sunken floors and some of the the support beams that had collasped. We are still waiting on the final word if the house can be salvaged. The more we work on it, the beeter we feel the chances will be to save it. At htis point the owner wants to save it. It has been his home for a very long time, and he would like to return. Bill the inspector guy from LDR will let us know as soon as he does a walk through. They really try to save homes if the homeowner wants it saved. Homes that have been deemed to be abanded are torn down. A house across the street from our hause was torn down this morning in just an hour and a half. I forgot my camera today so I don't have any updated pics of the house. We are scheduled to help at another home tomorrow, but I will try to get over there again on thursday.

There's a story about a little girl and star fish on a beach that people keep refering to down here, but no one seems to know the whole story. If any of you know it please send it to me. Thanks so far for all the comments.

My experience so far has been incredible, and I look forward each day to the new challenges. As I listen to stories from the people I meet, I know that it will be many years before New Orleans can recover. The spirit of the People is something I hadn't expected, with all that has happened to them in the last few years, there is still hope that each day things will get better. I know that a lot of bad things are happening now, murders, drugs, broken promises, and people taking advantage of the situation (and of people),but there is still that beleif that all the people will come together.

I've eaten a lot of GUMBO

It's monday night and I've been in New Orleans for more than a week. This weekend I had to catch up on my Gumbo eating. Between Friday night, and sunday lunch I had 4 lage bowls. I had to take a break on Sunday night because the restaurant had Blackend Salmon (it was very good). I spent the weekend hanging out with my new friends from Los Alamos, NM. We went out on friday night after work to just spend time enjoying each others company. Saturday we headed to the French Quater. It was much like I remembered it form my prvious visit to the city. Our first stop was to get what I like to call a Frence Quater Donut. If you any knows the name of the fried dough with powdered sugar let me know, they were delicious. The we spent the rest of the day enjoying the tourist parts of the quater. It felt a little strange after spending the week cleaning up and seeing the level of destruction in the city that we would be enjoying ourselves as tourist afew miles from where we mucked out a house the day before. We finished the evening at Bubba Gump Shrimp. (Of course I got a bowl of Gumbo) On Sunday we went o Bethelehem Lutheran Church in New Orleans (ELCA). It is a small church with a big heart. We were welcomed with open arms, even though we were under dressed. Many of the members had on their Sunday Best. This was the kind of church I went to as a child. Many of the mebersvreminded me of people I went to church with as a child at Cheif Cornerstone MB Bapist church in Gary, IN. It was a goood service, with one unusual surprise. Early in the service one of the leaders on the congreagation (the Pastor was away on a trip) asked Pastor Bruce from Los Alamos if he would give the sermon. Most Pastors I know might have said no, but Pastor Bruce graciously acceoted the invitation. He gave a wonderful sermon and the congregation was pleased. I'm not sure Pastor was used to shouts of amen and uh huh from the congregation, but he did a fine job. After service one of the members took us to a great restarant for lunch, of course I had Gumbo again. I'll write more about that tomorrow. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing at a park just wasting time until it was time for their plane to leave.
I had areally good time with my new friends from Los Alamos. Thank you all for making me one of your group for the week. I will miss you all. Will, Dion, Zach, Rob, Christina, Dia, Jessie, Tiffany, Ashley, Samantha, thank you for putting up with me and all my questions. Matt, Bruce Nicole', Dean, Lori, Roland, and Beth thank you for sharing yurself with these young people, and giving them an experience that they will never forget. I've got to call it a night. I've got more MUCKING in the morning.

aaron

It's hard to change the world in 5 days

It really is hard to change the world in only a few days, but you have to start somewhere, and it's always more fun with a few friends. These are some of my new friends from Los Alamos New Mexico. We have just finished another day of Mucking. As you can see the pile continues to grow. We take abreak for the weekend and then a new crew comes in next week. It will be hard to say goodbye, but I know I am better for knowing my new friends. May they take their experince here and share it with the folks at home.

We got all of the debri removed from the house today. Nothing was salvagible. Throughout the day people would come by the pile to search for scrap metal. All of them had ineresting stories. On Monday LDR (Lutheran Disaster Response) will have someone look at the house to see what can be done to save it. After that we will probably begin to remove all the framwork inside the house.

Look at my previous post to see the difference in the rooms.