A lot has changed in the year and a half since the last time I was here. But I can't tell how much of that has to do with the new housing for volunteers and how much has to do with the city. Certainly the two titanic events since last time were the Saints winning the Super Bowl and the BP oil spill. The Saints victory may have marked the end of the Katrina era since it showcased a city largely back on its feet not needing the kind of urgent assistance required after the levee failure. The effect of the oil spill is hard to quantify. The gulf is still a long way down the river and the most of the shrimpers are as well so restaurants and tourism are more the concern here in town.
Volunteering here is a totally different experience this time around. Not only was the old Camp Hope demolished to make room for a new school that would meet safety codes, the new Camp Hope was taken over by BP as part of their Make It Right campaign to both clean up after the spill and employ those affected. The new housing is in a large (and largely empty) storefront church. They have a kitchen but are not set up to serve meals so I have yet to eat with another soul. Very different from Camp Hope where you were always meeting other volunteers. The Community Center of St Bernard, where I do most of my volunteering has also moved. They seem to be as active as ever but make do in smaller digs next door to their old location.
It may be that the need has passed and that New Orleans is at a point where they will have to work out the remaining details on their own. The only thing sad about it is saying goodbye to a wonderful time when people from all over America came together to do what the government could not and raise a city back up in its hour of need. It was a great moment and it inspired lots of people both young and old. A time none of us will ever forget.
The New Digs
Home sweet home is Adullam Christian Fellowship located in what used to be a Winn Dixie Supermarket.
The neighborhood behind the church looks nice except for all the empty spaces where people have not rebuilt. A silent reminder of those who are still struggling.
Mostly it's pretty typical dorm-style housing for volunteers with one exception...
Just off from the sanctuary is the dining area. You gotta love New Orleans.
Chaos & Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is generally a hectic time at a food pantry, helping families get the food they need and processing extra donations. However, the lead-up to this Thanksgiving was extra crazy at the Community Center of St Bernard where I've been volunteering. First, one of the mainstays of the organization, an extremely bright but volatile fellow got into a nasty after-hours altercation and was arrested and put in jail. And it that weren't enough, the Parish swooped in and shut us down altogether the Monday before Thanksgiving just as we were doing both a USDA Food for Seniors distribution and our Thanksgiving Turkey Give-Away. Lots of unhappy people and a warehouse bursting at the seams with donated food unable to reach its intended target. Code violations are one thing but the timing could not have been worse.
In any case the parish produced its list of demands and a timetable the next day and the rest of the week went off without a hitch. Things have settled down considerably since then. The center is plugging away at meeting the Parish's requirements and I've been trying to help get the warehouse a little more organized. After a couple of work disasters the last two years at Nature's Classroom and the hostel in Hawaii it's nice to do something I'm good at and twenty years in retail has served me well in getting stuff out to the people who need it.
In any case the parish produced its list of demands and a timetable the next day and the rest of the week went off without a hitch. Things have settled down considerably since then. The center is plugging away at meeting the Parish's requirements and I've been trying to help get the warehouse a little more organized. After a couple of work disasters the last two years at Nature's Classroom and the hostel in Hawaii it's nice to do something I'm good at and twenty years in retail has served me well in getting stuff out to the people who need it.
Snapping Turtle Soup
It was just too much to resist. We came across this while sorting through donations at the Community Center. Just as we were about to fall asleep processing all the hundreds of cans of peas, beans and corn there it was. I'm used to seeing some pretty wacky food in these parts just not in a can. I just HAD to give it a try.
I admit, when the time came I was a little nervous.
It took a little getting used to. Kind of like consumme with a different texture but it was pretty OK. Definitely worth a try.
A More Restful Challenge
Generally speaking, it's good to challenge oneself. It breaks you out of the routine and helps you realize things about yourself you might not have thought possible. The one downside is that you can challenge yourself so much that a little rest and reassurance is in order. After two years of shall we say mixed results I decided it was time to stay put for a little while doing something I feel comfortable with in a city I've come to love. Volunteering here is pretty much the same as volunteering anywhere else so as noble as it sounds to volunteer in New Orleans the truth is I'm doing it as much for myself as for the people served by the Community Center. Europe is still calling and I feel confident I'll get there as well as South America and Asia but after returning exhausted from my travels last year I pretty much jumped at the chance when the community center needed some extra help to tide them over after the holidays.
We've just GOT to Put the Sink on the Roof!!
Before Christmas is was too few volunteers going crazy trying to keep up.
Now we've got volunteers coming out of our ears and we need to switch from frantically trying to do everything to making sure we get as much of our to-do list done as possible with all this young energetic labor on board.
Some of them arranged to come ahead of time. Others were thrust upon us because they were staying with a local Pastor who needed to give them something to do. Whether you need people or not it's best to say yes and have the volunteers see your organization in action but it can be a scramble. Our recycling was never better attended to or our clients groceries carried out to their cars with more enthusiasm than today.
The most creative use of all this energy was to put a 15-foot institutional sized sink on the roof of one of our storage trailers. That's right. The ROOF!! I'm still not sure if we're trying to hide it, sell it, secure it or show it off on Google Earth.
To make life even more exciting, I got a visit from a Parish 'official' trying to land a work-for-stay arrangement for some kid from New York who went to the old Camp Hope where he had such an arrangement a year or so ago and then ended up with said Parish 'official'. Pointing the kid in the right direction would have been one thing but the last thing I needed was to get in the middle of anything having to do with the Parish and the Community Center. The same Parish folks who decided to shut us down the Monday before Thanksgiving when we were doing both our regular food pantry and our monthly 'Food for Seniors'.
It was Pastor Randy from the church I had stayed at before who had sent them to me hoping I could help, not realizing I was paying rent to the owner of the house where I was staying and not really at liberty to give out spots to strangers. Fortunately, Sharon at the Community Center gave me some good suggestions to pass on to them and it ended amicably. But I let it be known that in the future if anyone from the Parish came asking for me...tell them I'm dead.
Now we've got volunteers coming out of our ears and we need to switch from frantically trying to do everything to making sure we get as much of our to-do list done as possible with all this young energetic labor on board.
Some of them arranged to come ahead of time. Others were thrust upon us because they were staying with a local Pastor who needed to give them something to do. Whether you need people or not it's best to say yes and have the volunteers see your organization in action but it can be a scramble. Our recycling was never better attended to or our clients groceries carried out to their cars with more enthusiasm than today.
The most creative use of all this energy was to put a 15-foot institutional sized sink on the roof of one of our storage trailers. That's right. The ROOF!! I'm still not sure if we're trying to hide it, sell it, secure it or show it off on Google Earth.
To make life even more exciting, I got a visit from a Parish 'official' trying to land a work-for-stay arrangement for some kid from New York who went to the old Camp Hope where he had such an arrangement a year or so ago and then ended up with said Parish 'official'. Pointing the kid in the right direction would have been one thing but the last thing I needed was to get in the middle of anything having to do with the Parish and the Community Center. The same Parish folks who decided to shut us down the Monday before Thanksgiving when we were doing both our regular food pantry and our monthly 'Food for Seniors'.
It was Pastor Randy from the church I had stayed at before who had sent them to me hoping I could help, not realizing I was paying rent to the owner of the house where I was staying and not really at liberty to give out spots to strangers. Fortunately, Sharon at the Community Center gave me some good suggestions to pass on to them and it ended amicably. But I let it be known that in the future if anyone from the Parish came asking for me...tell them I'm dead.
At Peace With One's Disasters
I once overheard former Celtic basketball player Jo-Jo White say to a friend that he had succeeded in everything he had done. It was true and he wasn't being arrogant, just stating a fact. But it seemed sad to me. Nobody likes to fail but in my case most of the things that eventually worked out were disasters at first and the things that came naturally never fully developed. I've developed a great fondness for my disasters and take great joy in observing the disasters of others.
Like the fine state of Louisiana for example.
Louisiana politicians generally go to jail once their term in office is over (School Board, City Council, Mayor, Governor, Jail). Bribery and corruption are the usual culprits. The claim that "everyone does it" although true in these parts doesn't seem to help. But today was a special day. The day that a long serving former Governor completed his sentence and was set free. He had apparently divorced his wife during his stay in the big house (how does a convicted felon tell his wife she's not good enough?) and his completely unintelligible brother was offering up quotes to the local press pleading for dignity and closure. At first I thought the local station was giving the complete quote ahead of the soundbite to make him look like an idiot like Mike Breen of the Imus in the Morning program used to do but brother managed it all on his own.
That made my own disaster-du-jour so much easier to ride and enjoy. This was supposed to be the week that the Community Center was going to be short-handed. One of our Americorps stalwarts was going to be away and as of December no other volunteers were on the horizon. So I arranged to stay another month, called a friend in Alabama to come down and help and prepared for a week of total craziness. Instead we were awash in volunteers (mostly older this time) the number of clients in the food pantry eased and my visions of being a food pantry hero vanished into thin air. It still turned out to be a lovely week and joined a long list of disasters that worked out quite well.
Fernwood was a disaster at first. Tower Records was ultimately a dead-end. The Minor Chord ran its course and some travel experiences have worked out better than others. I wouldn't trade any of them for anything, even the ones that made me angry or that I vowed never to do again. I didn't take up traveling to make a mark on the world. I wanted to take it in and let the world make its mark on me even at the risk of a few small disasters.
Like the fine state of Louisiana for example.
Louisiana politicians generally go to jail once their term in office is over (School Board, City Council, Mayor, Governor, Jail). Bribery and corruption are the usual culprits. The claim that "everyone does it" although true in these parts doesn't seem to help. But today was a special day. The day that a long serving former Governor completed his sentence and was set free. He had apparently divorced his wife during his stay in the big house (how does a convicted felon tell his wife she's not good enough?) and his completely unintelligible brother was offering up quotes to the local press pleading for dignity and closure. At first I thought the local station was giving the complete quote ahead of the soundbite to make him look like an idiot like Mike Breen of the Imus in the Morning program used to do but brother managed it all on his own.
That made my own disaster-du-jour so much easier to ride and enjoy. This was supposed to be the week that the Community Center was going to be short-handed. One of our Americorps stalwarts was going to be away and as of December no other volunteers were on the horizon. So I arranged to stay another month, called a friend in Alabama to come down and help and prepared for a week of total craziness. Instead we were awash in volunteers (mostly older this time) the number of clients in the food pantry eased and my visions of being a food pantry hero vanished into thin air. It still turned out to be a lovely week and joined a long list of disasters that worked out quite well.
Fernwood was a disaster at first. Tower Records was ultimately a dead-end. The Minor Chord ran its course and some travel experiences have worked out better than others. I wouldn't trade any of them for anything, even the ones that made me angry or that I vowed never to do again. I didn't take up traveling to make a mark on the world. I wanted to take it in and let the world make its mark on me even at the risk of a few small disasters.
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