Wednesday/Thursday

The following was written on the plane home...

The day started with a whimper as we were awaken at 5:45am from our slumber party at Our Lady of the Air Mattress to "“pee and brush our teeth" before the city shut the water off to the church. 100 sleepy people stumbled through the back passageways of our temporary host in a daze, following orders. The actual wake-up call came an hour later in the form of Starbucks coffee and Dunkin Donuts. The team quickly piled into waiting vehicles and were shuttled off to the Lower ninth ward for our day of work.

This day was set up differently then the others. The entire population of Hands On New Orleans was working in the same block radius and we were not allowed to sign up for projects until we arrived on site. The options consisted of several gutting projects, a couple of mold-—removal projects and a huge landscaping endeavor. Barbara Bolan and her daughter Amanda Howell joined Rachael, Raena and myself on a gutting project for their first day's work.

The house was extremely small. I have no concept of square-footage but I would guess the 4 rooms making up the residence were only slightly larger in area than my studio apartment. This residence made up one quarter of a four family dwelling, each sharing two common walls only the thickness of a piece of drywall. This house had not been entered since the storm, 15 months earlier. Debris still needed to be cleared as nothing in the house was salvageable. Among the objects I found was a child's grade school picture that had adhered itself to the cement under the carpet. It was difficult, both emotionally and physically to remove and throw away.

One point I want to make is that although this work took place in an area of deep tragedy, within each project was a work crew filled with fun and laughter. Although I do suppose the hilarity of my landing accidentally in the debris pile is more of a "you just had to be there" situation. The same with Rachael yelling at the top of her lungs in the respirator mask "“BECKY!" only to have me pop up behind her, thus proving the person in the Tyvek suit she was so adamantly trying to get their attention was actually Barbara.

All the teams broke for lunch at 1:30 when we were treated to a huge feast cooked up by Miss Antoinette.

Wednesday night-—
Most of the Rhino crew took some time to escape the bunkhouse and head to the French Quarter for some seafood at Red Fish Grill. This gave us a chance to get to know some of our satellite crew member, Amy Edgar who had just arrived at Hands On. The rowdy crowd included 10 of the remaining 15 Rhinos (Drue, Jason, Michael, Faith and Quincee departed earlier that day).

Thursday, Thanksgiving-

Although Thursday was not an official project work day we had several opportunities to be of service if we so chose. Many of our crew accepted Honorary-Rhino Amanda-from-South-Africa'’s invitation to join her with serving dinner at the convention center. This is an annual meal presented by the sheriff'’s department currently in its 32nd year. The hardy souls getting up early on this day off included Amanda Smith, Barbara Bolan, Amanda Howell, James O'Toole, Rachael Bickerton, Anna & Sarah Skaggs and myself. Unfortunately for most of the volunteers outnumbered the diners. (Several theories have developed in regards to this; primarily that the homeless and underemployed populations of the city have been displaced because of the storm and have not yet returned, coupled with the fact that the Convention Center brings back too many heartbreaking memories for most residents.) Regardless, those in attendance were well fed and entertained by world-renowned musicians, including Miss Irma Thomas.