Tuesday, 5/31

No real blog tonight.  It was 95 degrees today and we all ran out of energy.  Mr. Bray stepped on a nail and had to get a tetanus shot (after everyone, including Ms. Cothran) harassed him endlessly.  Mr. Mattoon arrived in New Orleans for the first stop of his tour of the domestic trips.  He'll work with us tomorrow. 

It's supposed to hit 100 tomorrow, but we'll make sure to post a blog.

We miss everyone.

Days 6 & 7, 5/29 & 5/30 - Play days

Sunday, 5/29

Written by Rachel Latterich and Andrea Watson

Today was our second free day here in New Orleans. We started off the morning by attending a late service (since we always have trouble waking up in the morning) at a Catholic cathedral. Not all of us are Catholic, but nine of us still went into mass.

After mass, we walked next door to the the Louisiana State Museum, which featured a Hurricane Katrina exhibit, a Mardi Gras exhibit, and dozens of shocking hurricane images.   The Katrina exhibits were particularly moving, as they gave voice to the people who fled and those who remained.  The main exhibit was actually focused on hurricanes in the New Orleans area, and how they have magnified over the years due to the degradation of the wetlands to the south of the city.  As the wetlands have decreased, there is nothing to slow the hurricanes or to absorb the huge tidal surge from the winds.  There was a terrific video presentation that showed the pain and loss of the residents, and also their resiliency and pride in their community. 

Next, we went to a restaurant to get take out and ate local food such as Gumbo and Po-boys. We ate our lunch while standing in line, waiting for Steamboat Natchez, which is an extremely old riverboat that takes you on a tour of the Mississippi River.   We took a two hour ride on the Natchez, heading down stream and hearing about the importance and size of the Port of New Orleans.  Some facts we were given: 

·         New Orleans is the largest port in the world, based on the volume of goods that flow through it.

·         The main export is grain and scrap metal

·         The main import is steel

·         The deepest part of the entire Mississippi is in the port (over 240 feet deep) as the river does a sharp turn around the Point of Algiers (that turn is why the city is nicknamed “The Crescent City”

It was a long day; however, it certainly did not end there. Once we got back, some of us took power naps while others wrote in their journals. We got a surprise wake-up call when Mr. Bray came and told us that we would be seeing Kung Fu Panda 2 in honor of Kevin.

At 9:00 PM, after the movie, which is set in China, some of us were craving Chinese food so we ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant on Magazine Ave. In other news, the girls (Rachel, Alexa, Andrea) overthrew the boys and now have complete authority over the first row of the van, which grants them control over the stereo selections. This means that we are no longer listening to “bad 80’s music”! Yay!!

After working with hammers, nails, and other tools earlier in the week, Andrea jammed her finger – only not from working on site. Instead, she jammed her finger after tripping over a backpack while trying to turn on the AC in her room and ended up having to wear a finger splint. Great job, Andrea.  [chaperon’s note:  She seems to be improving – amputation has been postponed]

Pictures from the day:

 Personal statement from the museum

 One of the levees as we went down river.  The river levees are regarded to be much stronger than the canals, as they are tested by flooding every year.  The flood level is just below the amount that would go over the levees.  Notice that the houses on the other side are 10-15 feet below the top of the levee - New Orleans averages 6 feet below sea level, with a lowest point of 14 feet below sea level.  The highest point is only 3 feet above sea level.

 Scrap metal being loaded onto a freighter going to Nairobi

 All the old houses have some form of this writing on the outside.  Before people could return to New Orleans, the city had to be checked for safety.  They checked each building.  Local and private organizations took part, and this writing gave information.  Each quadrant of the X holds different information:  12 o'clock tells the date the house was checked; 3 o'clock told of anything that was living in the house (in this case, two cats); 6 o'clock told of any dead found in the house (in this case, a dog); and 9 o'clock told which organization did the inspection.  These X's are all over the city.  Every building that wasn't rebuilt or repainted has one.

As we entered the museum, this gives us a look at why the disaster occurred.

 Our noble steed - the Natchez.  It's the only true paddle steamboat in New Orleans.

 Local artists sell their work attached to the fence surrounding Jackson Square (named for Andrew Jackson, whose likeness is on a very tall column in the middle of the square - they like their statuary in New Orleans)

 The original filling station.  There are a lot of horse-drawn carriages in the French Quarter, and they all line up to get the horses water after each ride.

 St. Louis Cathedral

This boat was found by a New Orleans resident, who then used it to help others.  He and the boat were commandeered by the National Guard and spent several weeks rescuing people and animals.  They wrote on the side, "This boat helped rescue more than 400 people."  They also rescued over 100 dogs.  It was sad to see how honored the rescuers were when it's held in contrast with how Abdulrahman Zeitoun was treated for doing the same thing.  Reading Zeitoun has had an impact on how I've viewed everything on this trip.- Mr. Bray

Monday, 5/30

Written by Katie Carmody and Alexa Causey

Landury- We woke up late in the morning and rolled out of bed to take our dirty work clothes to get cleaned. Some students chilled and watched Star Wars in the waiting room, while others napped at home.

Subway- In preparation for our 3-hour bus tour for the areas most hit by Katrina, we stopped by Subway to get our lunch and to get our muscles moving.

Tour- The bus tour took us to all different parts of New Orleans, and it showed us how and where the canal walls broke. The guide kept telling us how much parts of the city were underwater and that even after 6 years New Orleans still isn’t the same.

Tulane- After the tour we took a van ride to visit Tulane University, where we stopped by the Gym and had a small tour of the building. After walking through the pretty campus, with trees and grass everywhere, we headed to dinner.

Dinner- Not many of us were hungry, but none of the students could turn down food, especially if Mr. Bray was paying for it.

Streetcar home- After dinner, Mr. Bray ditched us to go to the store to get food for the week, and the rest of the group walked to the streetcar stop to take it home.

Reflection on the trip – Once we got back, we dug right down into reflection of what travel means to us and what we have learned so far. We concluded that New Orleans is a town full of faith, and the community does not give up in a time of need.

This morning was iffy; We were tired from the previous day’s adventures so a bit slow getting up, excited for another day out on the town, yet also reluctant to rise and shine knowing it was our last free day before back to work with hammers, paint brushes and heavy lifting in the 90-100 degree and humid Nawlins weather. We were all up and loaded with our plastic bags full of dirty work clothes by 9:30 for the trek to the “washeteria.” As we waited for the Tide to work its magic (which, unfortunately it really didn’t- PAINT DOESN’T COME OUT) many of us returned to the guest house to catch any last Zs or bask in the AC while others kept an eye on the wash and hung out with the local laundry doers. Once done with our laundry we all made our way down the street to subway where we ordered sandwiches in preparation for the 3 hour Katrina bus tour we embarked upon later that afternoon.

The bus tour was unique in that it focused on driving us through and teaching us about the wards of the city most devastated by 2005’s hurricane Katrina. It was eye opening to see and hear of all the desolation that still exists and affects every New Orleans resident and business today, five years after the disaster. We were told that the hardest hit areas of New Orleans were 14 feet under sea level and that the rest of the city resides around 6 feet below sea level. Each of us learned where and how every canal and flood wall burst and where and how every surge of water crashed contributing to the disaster. [note:  it turns out that NONE of the levees failed – it was all canal walls or levees that were simply not tall enough.  All the levees held]  For all of us, the fact that really hit home was that as of this week New Orleans has only 50 % of the active Grocery stores it had before the disaster including large chains, street side markets and private shops. I don’t think any of us realized that even after 5 years, New Orleans still has so much rebuilding to do to return to its former glory, and that Katrina still has an impact on everyone’s life every day.

Following the bus tour, we headed out on our own tour of Tulane University. It was nice to see numerous expanses of green grass, the college commons, in contrast to all the clustered homes, fences, streets and alleys of the city districts. Tulane had a great campus, proud, smiling students who offered to give us campus tours and even a bunch of soccer players who a few of us were quite tempted to join. It was great to take a break from the typical touristy stuff for a bit and explore potential college campuses, not to mention we actually saw kids close to our age! Many of us have noticed there seems to be a lack of teens here in New Orleans, then we remind ourselves that they’re probably still in school…

[note:  at this point, I made everyone go to bed, since tomorrow is going to be another long workday in the heat.  Getting everyone to sleep is harder than it should be, since they’re all tired.  They like talking to each other too much]

Pictures from the day:

 Waiting for the streetcar

 "Hey!  Look what just showed up!"

 A marauding group of zombies that shambled by us while we waited to be seated for dinner on Saturday night.  Just to add a touch of surrealism to our trip...

 A lot of the public art in post-Katrina New Orleans is heavily influenced by the disaster.

 A new pump and gate system put into the 17th Street Canal to prevent flooding and collapse.  It is an impressive structure.  One of the problems that the engineering created was that the gates system closed to prevent flooding, and the gates all held.  The problem was that other areas failed and the gates were closed which prevented water from exiting various areas.

 The lighter colored cement is the area of the 17th Street Canal that failed.  The pressure from the top due to the water weight, combined with the destabilization of the earth below caused a huge section to simply crumble.  This breach was responsible for flooding in the Lakeview region, and was over 450 feet long.

 The red x means that this house is condemned (I wonder why).  The city won't tear it down until they contact the owner, who has not returned to New Orleans.

 A sculpture in the 9th Ward (a Ward is simply a voting precinct).  The blue posts represent the heights of the water in various areas.  That tallest post is 14 feet tall.

 One of the houses built by the Make it Right project, which is fronted by Brad Pitt and other celebrities.  At the time Katrina hit, 70 percent of homes in New Orleans were owned outright.  The goal of Make it Right is to give people back a home without having them go into debt to make it happen.

 Another of the man-made waterways that caused the disaster.  These channels allowed the tidal surge to reach far into the populated areas.

 Tulane University, which looked super cool.  They have a very interesting service program, and every student is required to do service for their first two years.  Additionally, they have two days each year when the entire school does service projects (just like our Middle School!)

Tulane's neighborhood

Day 5 - Saturday, May 28

Posted by Mr. Bray

Finally a day to sleep in!  The cumulative effect of getting started so early, working a full day in the heat, and doing evening activities exhausted everyone.  Many of the kids didn't get up until after 10 today, and we didn't leave the guest house until around 11:30.  Today was a "see New Orleans" day.

We started out with a quick "stalker" moment, as we went up to Dart Street to see the site of Zeitoun's house.  The address is from the listing from his painting company, so we're not really sure which one is the house talked about in the book (and we didn't want to seem too strange by looking around), but we saw his neighborhood.  It's hard to imagine this city under 10-15 feet of water.  The pictures we see around the city, and the stories that people tell us (when we get a chance to slow down) paint a surreal picture.

One of the next two pictures is our guest house.  Can you guess which one it is?

 Which one is the guest house and which is the building that needs to be torn down?

After our journey to peek at Zeitoun's houses, we ventured across the Mississippi in search of Mardi Gras World, the location of Kern Studios, the company that makes and stores 80% of the floats and props used in the parades.  By utilizing our deft navigation skills and keen senses of direction, we only got lost 3 or 4 times on the way, but we made it!  The constant lack of street signs, coupled with a mystifying labyrinth of on & off ramps and one-way streets, makes driving around quite an adventure.  Fortunately, the students are willing to tolerate the van as long as they are well fed and the stereo constantly plays bad 80's music.  Keeping them exhausted also helps.

Once we got to Mardi Gras World, we discovered that they had moved the part that they show to the public back to the other side of the river!  We wandered around the warehouses and looked at a bunch of old float pieces for a little while, and stood on one of the levees looking back at New Orleans.

This had a bit of a Planet of the Apes feel to it (when Charlton Heston saw the head of the Statue of Liberty at the end of the movie)

The rodents are really impressive in New Orleans...

Kevin and Basil hanging out with a "retired" float piece

This sign, once grand and now lying forlorn and ignored against the side of a warehouse, made me think of Percy Shelley's Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
half sunk,a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
tell that its sculptor well those passions read
which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
and on the pedestal these words appear --
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
look at my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing besides remains. Round the decay
of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
the lone and level sands stretch far away.

After our brief visit to the Land of Dead Mardi Gras Floats, we traveled back to the north side of the river and went to the new Mardi Gras World.  We had a lovely lunch next to the river, which flowed by with astonishing speed.  There isn't much room for any more water, but things have pleasantly settled in at "full, but not overflowing."  We've all decided we can live with that as a river height.

The view of the river and the bridges we crossed.  We're on the New Orleans side here, just next to the New Mardi Gras World.

This tug is moving upriver, and was pushing against a very fast current.

 This lovely covered swing area made for a wonderful lunch site.  We had our usual sandwiches, but also had leftover grilled chicken and corn from last night.  

Mardi Gras World was definitely worth the journey required to find it.  We saw a short film about the history of the Mardi Gras parades and floats, and then went on a tour of the work areas and active warehouse.  The pieces were stunning, with terrific colors and details.  The size and artistry of the floats and props is truly impressive.  We got lots of good ideas for making decorations for school dances!  Here are a few pictures, and I'll post more later.  It takes a very long time for the pictures to upload for the blog, and the connection wasn't particularly cooperative tonight.  But we have lots of neat float & prop pictures coming.

Me:  "So, you guys promise that this will never show up on the internet, right?"  

Them:  "Of course, Mr. Bray!  It's just for fun."

"I'm melting...."

That is Styrofoam covered in paper maiche. The props are either made of that or fiberglass.

They can also mix and match body parts.  Here, they have taken a wolfman head, modified it a bit, added a torso from an earlier float, and, voila, they have the Beast from Beauty and the Beast.

The front of one of their "signature floats" - the ones that get used, unchanged, each year.

We spent a little time in Jackson Square, but I'll save that for tomorrow, since we're going back.  We're going to visit the St. Louis Cathedral for mass (for those who wish to attend), and then go to the museum there, which has an exhibit on hurricanes and the Katrina aftermath. 

After stopping back at the guest house for a nap, we headed out to Magazine Street for a little evening stroll and to have dinner.  The day was nicely wrapped up with some ice cream (we learned in China that every day needs a little ice cream).  I'll get some pictures from that up tomorrow, as well.  I intend to say a few choice words to the computer to encourage it to cooperate better.

This boat rests outside the museum we're visiting tomorrow.  It was found after the Katrina flooding and used by a couple of men to rescue over 400 trapped people.  It will be interesting to see how the whole rescue effort is shown having just read about Zeitoun and the consequences for his rescue efforts.

Lastly, I just want to let you know what an incredible job the students are doing on this trip.  They have done a tremendous amount of work in trying conditions.  They constantly show good cheer and positive attitudes, and handle themselves with class and confidence.  I am proud to be their teacher and guide on this adventure and you can be proud to have them as your kids, students, and classmates.  The work they are doing really makes a difference.

We might not post tomorrow night, as we'll be running around a lot over the next two days. We'll probably combine both days into one blog on Monday.  Or, we might just be too tired, come home, and post tomorrow.  We'll see tomorrow night.  The next posts will come from students again.

Good night from New Orleans.

Friday, May 27 - Third Work Day

Okay the day has come............ I am proud to announce that not one Pacific Ridge student in the city of New Orleans has come into any contact with any f-channel. We were lucky enough to be doing some hefty  painting today. We each painted a room in a 1400 sq foot, 4-bed, 2-bath single story home. There was already primer on the walls, so we were basically just told to paint the interior of the house white-- excuse me, "eggshell".

We first went to the house where we had been working for the past few days, but when we got there, one of the staff members (Patrick) sent us across town to do a painting job.

The house where we arrived was a bit more pleasant. From what I was hearing, it seemed that people were happy to take a break from the constantly buzzing train engines. 

Ms. Grossman, Stephanie, Katie G, and Jenna painted the doors of the house. We removed them from the hinges and carried them outside. They each had a bucket, and took the day to triple coat each of the doors--just to be extra careful.

The rest of us were painting the inside of the house. The bedrooms were pretty small but it took the day for the six or so of us to paint the house. We split up into the first two bedrooms when we first got there. I was painting with Kevin, Basil and Katie C. and Andrea, Rachel and Alexa were across the hall.

Katie G., Stephanie, Ms. Grossman, and Jenna paint the doors outside.

We all got a little dirty, but it was good to take a day off from the heat by being inside painting all day (except for the door painters and Mr. Bray who were all outside doing work!--- great job guys!)

 Andrea painting the ceiling (Kevin didn't even need an extension pole to reach)

We painted that whole hallway...

 Mr. Bray doing his thing...

 and Colin doing his thing.

 Mr. Bray worked with another Habitat volunteer to put the railing spindles around the entire porch.

 Sometimes you make a permanent difference when you pat someone on the back...

One of the neighbors who came and chatted with everyone during lunch.  He gave some history of the area.  Following Katrina, this whole area was about 10 feet under water!  Everyone had to move away for quite a while.

We have been eating peanut butter and Jelly for lunch--but we also have ham and turkey. We found some shade during our lunch break. The past few days we had been eating UNDER the house in the dirt (that seemed to be the best place for shade) but this time we found an old driveway on an abandoned lot next to a tree.

While we were eating lunch some locals approached us and asked us about our work, and the Habitat organization.

After lunch we continued working on painting and one of the staff members, Andrew, invited us to see a house dedication on the other side of town. We quickly wrapped up a little before three and when we got there a guy who I had recognized from Wednesday was giving a prayer to the Habitat folks at the dedication. (The house was going to what looked like a single mother and a young child.)

 The little girl moving into the house that was dedicated today.

The dedication ceremony.  Seeing a house being handed over to its new owner, seeing that person's dream come true, and knowing the work that went into making that moment happen is a wonderful thing.

We got back to the room and a lot of us took a short nap. Everyone had an hour or so for there social time-- catching up with Facebook and emails and other relaxing things.

Dinner:

Mr. Bray cooked our food for dinner tonight. He ventured out to the grocery store while we were all in our rooms. He came back and grilled sausage, hot dogs, chicken, hamburgers, and corn and we had some Arnold Palmer with some watermelon and a few deserts. I mistakenly took the spicy sausage even though Mr. Bray told me that it was the one on the right... hahaha but it was still really good! After everyone ate, we put on some music and the girls took some pictures on the stairs of the hotel.


Consensus:

There seemed to be a lot of workers at the construction site the last few days, definitely more than you would normally see at a housing construction site. The conversation came up in the van about a surplus of workers. The issue that we talked about was that when your main resource is basically unlimited free labor than there is a tendency to have inefficiencies. As a Pacific Ridge economics student this year, I learned about the importance of efficiency and its impact. There have been a lot of questions over the last few days, like "why can't we just use a nail gun. A nail gun would probably take only 30 seconds to hang the f-channel, but instead I was told to us a hammer-- and it has taken me all day!" The answer to those types of questions I am learning is that if you have a surplus of free labor, then there is no reason to invest financially in more efficient ways of doing things. So I guess this is the long way of saying, I'm glad Patrick sent us to another house to work on.

(editors note:  the main reason we don't use the nail gun is that most people who volunteer don't know how to use them safely.  It's a bad day when someone goes home with a nail through the hand.  The reason we mixed concrete by hand is because they have to keep the volunteers busy.)

Blog posted by Colin McDuffie

Some more photos from the last couple of days...

 Katie C. encouraging everyone to read Zeitoun (it's the Upper School summer reading book!)

 On the streetcar heading to the French Quarter

 The St. Charles streetcar

 Andrea getting in touch with her inner tourist

 Only New Orleans would have a roving street band that was all brass!  They were absolutely incredible.

 Jazz on Bourbon St.

 Where we had our yummy dinner on Thursday night.

 Bourbon St.

So, girls, what do you think of installing F-channel?