The U.S. Air Force Academy

It was a pretty typical transition week. We had a debrief and brief. We had a tool check in and room inspections. Friday however was exciting. Instead of our usual transition week activities we went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We woke up at the crack of dawn and drove up into the foothills of the rockies. It's a beautiful sprawling campus dotted with pine trees. We spent the morning doing the confidence course. It's basicly a big wooden obsacle course. There were walls to climb over, logs to balance on and ropes to swing on. It was really fun. Like a jungle gym for grown ups. :)

In the afternoon we did the teamwork training course. It was a series of puzzles that you had to solve together. One involved building a bridge to get a barrel across a river. Another had us climbing over two 5ft fences without touching them. It was neat becuase they weren't just imaginary puzzles on paper they actually had fences and barrels that we physically interacted with to solve the problems.

By the end of the day we were worn out but we were stronger physically, mentally and together as a team.

~Sam

Shuffle Round - Earth 3

Third round, which we just finished, was shuffle round. This means we went on spike with a new team and a new team leader. Amanda, Stacy, Maria and I were shuffled to Earth 3. It was really fun, so I wanted to share a little about our experiences.

We had a great project. We worked with Habitat for Humanity in Lafayette, LA. Right away they had us doing construction. We spent the first few weeks putting up insulation and drywall. Insulating a house is not very fun. It's itchy and harmful if you breathe it, so we had to wear dust masks, but it makes the house more energy efficient. Dry walling was better. It took us a while to figure out how to do it but once we did I really enjoyed it. We also installed flooring, cabinets, doors and trim.

Probably the best part was the people. The area where we lived is known as the most "cajun" place in the country. People were so friendly and they were constantly cooking us food. Shrimp etouffee, gumbo, crab, jambalaya. It was delicious. One of the future homeowners would often come and work with us and whenever she did she brought a gigantic watermelon. We danced to Louisiana zydeco music and we heard great cajun jokes. The people, despite all their hardships, really manage to enjoy life to the fullest.

-Sam

Back to Denver

On Thursday morning the team left our lowernine.org house to head back to Denver. We stayed in Terrell, TX our first night and ate dinner at Applebees. It was great. We left the following morning at 8am for Salina, Kansas. Tonight we’re staying at a Days Inn. For dinner tonight we were going to treat ourselves to Red Lobster, because we thought we had enough money with our AmeriCorps budget (we saved money making our own lunches on the cheap). But, they seated us, we looked at the menu, and saw that this restaurant was not for our AmeriCorps budget. So we left and went to Chili’s. It was great! Tomorrow we will be in Denver in the afternoon.

Katie snags lunch out of the back of the van.

I’m excited to get back to Denver, but I will miss this project. This round went well. I worked at Willie’s house for the whole round. I was a site supervisor of volunteers from New York City and for Summer of Service AmeriCorps members. We built a shed and worked on the inside of the house to re-frame and re-floor the rotten wood from the storm. We were able to finish the framing before I left for Denver. Overall, the spike was good. I got to meet some great volunteers at lowernine.org who I hung out with the entire time.

-Rob

Returning and Reflections

We are currently preparing to depart from New Orleans and head back to Denver. The shuffle round is over and we all are going to return to our original teams. I enjoyed working with this wonderful group of people. As we pack our things and clean our places we get to reflect on what we have done here and the people we have met. Though our team’s impact is only a small part of the overall effort toward recovery, I think what mattered most was that we showed up and joined the volunteers who let those of the lower nine know that there are still people willing to work for the betterment of their neighborhood.

The spirit of Lowernine.org is one of caring and camaraderie. There is no way to escape the smiles and enthusiasm of people here. It is sad that we only had four weeks and some times even less, depending on how long the volunteers stayed, to get to know some of the people here.

One of the more meaningful things that I got to do was work with the children during the summer camp. They were pure in their motivations and even when they were being bad it was more about getting attention. I had fun drawing similarities in how children would interact and fight with each other and how the major societies and global communities interact; petty squabbles, silly needs, not wanting to clean up after themselves, and always wanting payback.

Our last Monday at lowernine.org.

I was also able to spend time working with my hands in the construction efforts, the process of repairing is tedious but working with Darren was something else. I know we already did a post on him but some things we left out was that his pace is at champion speed, and he knows how to do everything. He never got impatient or angry either. It was like there was no individual task; it even felt like the overall objective was overlooked, all there was was work, the steady persistent output of energy. This to me is the height of honor. It reflects in the lightness of heart during the off hours when he is a true clown.

As I move on to the next project and then forward with my life, I will take from this experience the nature of service, the meaning of caring, and I will pursue personal purification so that I can better serve in the future.

~Alex (Earth Two)

Introducing Darren

So we're just getting through our third week of work with lowernine and the team is split up between worksites. About 3-4 of us work with kids at a summer camp and the rest of us are at various houses fixing floors, replacing studs and whatnot. One of the projects that I've really enjoyed was building a shed. We finished one the first week, and the second week we started a brand new one.

And with working on these sheds comes the joy of working with Darren, a long-term volunteer, a kind-of site supvisor and life-long resident of the lower ninth ward. He has his own way of doing things (and talking) and it took some getting used to but overall he's a great guy. He keeps us stocked with water and Capri Suns for long days on the roof and he's always there if you need someone to teach you a new skill, or even if you don't... Overall, Darren is a cool dude, a great cook, and he knows what he is doing. He is really helping us to get things done. The round is going great and I'm looking forward to finishing our projects.

A short break from roofing. Darren's on the far right, teasing us to get back to work.

~RG

The Weekend Getaway

Before I joined AmeriCorps NCCC, I never would have described two long days of caulking, painting and drywalling in 90 degree weather as the perfect weekend. But last weekend's visit to Cameron Parish, Louisiana proved that there is nothing I would have enjoyed more. I got the chance to see my friends from Earth 3 and visit some of the amazing people we met during our second round project.

Last round, my team (Earth 3) worked in southwestern Louisiana helping residents recover from Hurricane Rita. One of our project sites was framing and siding on a new home being built by a very nice couple, Mo and Mary. Every day Mo would work with us at the job site, while Mary (against our strong, but ultimately insincere protests) cooked us delicious Cajun cuisine. Over the weeks, our team became very close to Mary and Mo. We were all heartbroken when, just a few weeks after our project ended, we heard the news that Mo had passed away. Despite our sadness, we were immediately determined to do whatever we could to bring Mo's house closer to completion for his family.

Three of us from Earth 3, along with Katie and a friend from a Perry Point team, rented a car and headed out to Lafayette. From there we drove to Cameron and stayed with Miss Julie, our sponsor from Round 2. Early the next morning, we arrived at Mo and Mary's and went to work sealing the house and caulking dents and holes in the siding for its first coat of paint. Miss Mary made us a delicious Louisiana meal for lunch and that evening, Mo's son took us on the family's boat to the spot where Mo was laid to rest.
Every one of us knew how important the house had been to Mo, how his strongest desire was to build a new home for his family. I saw in Miss Mary's eyes just how grateful the family was for our help, and for the connection our team has formed with them. It was incredibly touching to be brought so close to people who, just a few months ago, I had never even met. And on the next day seeing the house painted a beautiful sky blue, the very shade that Mo himself had picked out, impacted me and every person there very deeply. We all smiled when we thought about Mo, who, as one of his friends joked, was probably laughing, looking down on us from a nice, comfy cloud and watching us do all of the work.

From left to right: Mo's friend John, Kayla, Ashley (E3), Brandy (TL E3),
Greg (E3), Miss Mary, Kate (Perry Point), MB, Keegan, Caitlin (E3). Some of the
team had taken showers, changed, and returned for a delicious dinner.

The next morning, after our return to Lafayette, we had the chance to work half of a day on Earth 3's project, hanging drywall in a Habitat for Humanity house. We even had the chance to hang out with four of the original Oneders (Stacy, Amanda, Maria, and Sam). As we drove back to New Orleans after a tiring weekend, all of us were all happy for our progress, for seeing our friends, and for the simple smile of Miss Mary's that said so much.

~ Keegan