Last Year's Trip

Homes in the 9th Ward

My Work Team (L to R: Micheal, Holly, Dylan, Philip, Emily, Me, Grant)

Dry-walling a living room

Painting

Our entire work group

The Lower 9th Ward

The Lower 9th Ward As Well

Thought I'd put up some pictures from last year's work trip and a piece I wrote for the church news letter to give a better idea of what's instore in New Orleans...hopefully, the city will be even closer to the end of its rebuilding effort this year than it was the last.

"New Orleans, Louisiana: A city so rich in culture and diversity. A place where jazz music beats down the streets and the jumping sound of street performers echoes across the town. New Orleans has been a symbol of the uniqueness of the United States for years.

And then you see the residential areas, after the storm. Homes damaged. Lives destroyed. The spray-paint on the walls, “One dog dead under house” or “Boy found alive in attic”. I got queasy whenever we went by the house that said “1 man dead, 2 dogs, 1 bird" and "This was home" across the top of the threshold. The lasting affects of Hurricane Katrina shown to the world.
One of the hardest things to do was imagine. Imagine what life was like before. The lower ninth ward, now just an enormous grass field, was once covered in hundreds of houses. Here, on this grass lot, was where a father scolded his young son for leaving his new jacket at the playground. Across the street, a new married couple finds their first home together. And in the basketball gym, one of the only buildings left standing in the ward, a little girl watched her big brother play ball with his friends until it became too dark to see.

Each morning we awoke at seven a.m., grabbed something to eat, said a quick prayer and headed out to work on what many think is a lost cause. They think we don’t care, that we’re too caught up in our video games and rap music. Each day we found ourselves drenched in sweat from the boiling heat before we had even unloaded the car. But we knew we had to make sure that every nail was in place, every wall was square. We knew we were not only rebuilding someone’s house, but their home, their life."