Gutting: Day One

We set out this morning at 7:45 sharp (well, not quite so sharp, but we still got to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church down Canal Street with a few minutes to spare) to meet to find out where we would be working. As it turned out, we were assigned a house in Lakeview - just a couple miles from St. Paul's, where we are staying and just a street over from the levee. We worked with two women (one from Seattle and the other from somewhere in California) and their daughters as well as our team leader, Anna, and a couple other college students.

This time we really got down and dirty, removing the contents of a house while looking for valuables and then stripping the house of door frames, window frames, baseboards, dry wall, etc - in about an inch of water that the humidity would not let escape. I would like to have said that we worked along side the lady who owned the house, but the Episcopal diocese chooses families that generally lack the resources to do the task themselves.

One thing that generally amazed me was that a few of the college students have been here for a few week/months and they are still touched by every house and every story. I guess they would have left here by now if they weren't. Also, while everyone here is very grateful for our work, they are definitely encouraging us to drive around the city and get to know the city, especially the places that are up and running. The people of New Orleans know that their city has a lot of history and "Katrina" does not say it all.