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Published: March 27th 2006
Hello all! After a 17 hour drive we made it safe to New Orleans on Sunday the 26th at about 1 pm! It was an eventful trip with two vans and 21 people! Many potty breaks, snack attacks and just necessary stretching....but all in all we had a great time! Thanks to Rick and Rick's creative genius we had walkie talkies to play trivia games with each van so as to build unity among the two groups (which were almost divided evenly as a boys van and a girls van)! We named our vans as well, Silver driven by Susan and Amybeth was called Kewl-Aid and the Red van driven by the two Ricks was named The Do-gooders!
It was a jovial trip until we hit New Orleans and then the vans became somber...we all wondered if we were still in the US. It appeared as though this was a place that was once full of life but now it's just debris everywhere. Almost all the homes (except 2, I believe) are unlivable and residents are either gone or living in FEMA trailers. It's funny what we noticed but we did make notice of every McDonalds being boadrded up yet Walgreens was open and operational....there is virtually no place to eat except we found a litle stand where we were able to get dogs and burgers. The workers had come down from Texas to do business and as you can imagine are doing well for themselves because they are one of a few - I think their patrons are all volunteers. When we get a chance to go into downtown New Orleans we expect to see more open businesses and such since that is a tourist location.
When we got to St. Bernard's we found Camp Premier. This compound is being run by the government and sadly there is rumor that it will be shut down April 11th -- we don't know why but I'm sure we'll hear more by the end of the week. Anyway -- it's very secure! We have to show our name badges everywhere and there are guards 24/7. Lights out/quiet is 10 pm and if you leave camp you must be back by curfew (midnight) or you will be locked out for the night! Very strict and serous here..no photography whatsoever allowed in the camp! Think of MASH and you have a good idea what kind of environment we are staying in. There is a huge mess hall which houses the cafeteria, a big screen TV and some pool tables. The food is good so far and there is plenty! There are about 500 people here working for at least three organization we know of (could be more). They are Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan's Purse and Americorps. We are satying in HUGE tents under and even bigger tent! They are big and spacious and each has 14 cots. The ladies tent was a bit cold last night but our men were quite warm and comfortable!
Today, Monday........all of our crew except Amybeth and Spencer, headed out at 7:30 am to begin debris removal on a couple houses and theri work day will end at 3:30 pm. Our task is to take EVERYTHING out of the house to the curb and just leave the structure standing. It could take a few days or all week. We went through a safelty orientation last night and the two memorable bits of advice was not to handle any dead animals and do not feed the aligators! Sounded like good common sense.....right! Well as of yet there haven't been any run ins with alligators but it's good to know that feeding them is prohibited!
Spencer and Amybeth will be workng in the Soup Kitchen today -- we leave at 10 am to cook and serve lunch to the displaced residents and then we'll come back to clean helmets and then return at 3:00 to prepare and serve dinner. Last nigth three of our crew, Ramon, Emilie and Carissa worked the Soup Kitchen and aid they had a great time -- even thought they are not scheduled to retutn this week they volunteered to go and help anyway! It's a great opportunity to meet the people of New Orleans!
Well that's all for now -- we're working on getting pictures uploaded so check back often and thanks for the well wishes!
Amybeth
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Katie Hopkins
non-member comment
Glad to hear that you safely arrived, ECC team!!!
Hi Habitat For Humanity Staff and Students, Glad to hear that you safely arrived! :) I checked the weather channel yesterday and you're supposed to be in the 75-80 temperatures ALL WEEK!!! We'll be lucky to hit 60 degrees here! That's so cool to hear about the unity among the entire group. What a way to really embrace teamwork and communication skills. In fact, I really like those names on the vans. Maybe when other clubs/orgs rent out the vans, the vans should be known by their names such as Kewl-Aid???!!! He he he... Anyway, I'm so proud of all of you!!!! I wish I could've went.... Yeah, I know Rick Bailey, you're going to tell me that going to school is no excuse.... just kidding! I'm especially proud of hearing that Ramon, Emilie, and Carissa volunteered at the soup kitchen. I feel like you all are going to get something much more out of this trip then you anticipated. I look forward to hearing about all the GREAT stories. Keep the blog updated. I'll make sure to look every day! Katie Hopkins Student Life Coordinator P.S. I don't think that ECC needs to STRIVE to be the best community college as it says on your shirts. Your efforts this week raised the bar for all other community colleges in the NATION!!!! Way to go!!! I'm so proud to be an ECC alumna and staff member. Enjoy your week!!!