NOLA 12

November 3, 2012

The Demler Sherpa mobile got to New Orleans Friday carrying all our tools; most of the rest of us arrived here this afternoon. Before the evening gathering, Terry, Roger and Sally had visited the home where we are working this week, and had learned the family's story.

The Os bought their 150-year-old house on the edge of Treme more than a year prior to what we now refer to as "the federal flood." Their first setback occurred when the house next door to them caught fire, leading to extensive water damage to their house. They had no sooner repaired that damage than Katrina and Rita hit and, even though their neighborhood wasn't in the flooded area, their roof and other parts of their house were badly hurt by the wind and rain of the storms. There followed several rounds of attempted repairs using unscrupulous contractors and an unbelievable amount of theft and vandalism. This old, large house with 14 foot ceilings had been graced with lovely architectural details like rounded windows, Victorian trim on the porches, iron railings, multiple fireplaces, pocket doors, large mantels, and circular staircases. All these parts of the house were completely gone, taken by looters. Additional vandalism has resulted in broken windows, jimmied doors, dislocated doorframes, and garbage surrounding the house. Squatters have been a recurring problem, leading the next-door-neighbor to worry for his family's safety.

In gratitude for our potentially improving the neighborhood, he offered us use of his water and electrical current, which will help us do everything we want to do. The homeowners have continued to try again and again, even after their wires and pipes were stolen. They now have the house wired, most of the walls built (some are even painted), and they hope we can help them get a working bathroom and the kitchen floor tiled.  Their expectations are understandably modest; Terry believes that we can give them much more than they hope for.

Just for the record, we miss Donna, who would have been able to figure out how to make this blog work much more smoothly than I can.

November 4, 2012

Today, we hit the road early and made it to the house before eight. We hauled out lots of plywood that had been covering windows, old planks, pieces of discarded sheetrock. Our highest priorities for today were to  secure doors and to begin the floors in the bathroom and kitchen. Sparky established power and lights for us and put in seventy percent of the wiring devices in the house (switches and plugs). We primed the stair balustrades, stabilized doors, installing knobs and locks, repaired subfloors, framed in pocket doors and replaced baseboards and other trim, removed and began to repair the iron railings of the upstairs porches, began work on the fire escape. We made the first few of a thousand Home Depot trips.

Tonight we met the new CELSJR staff, Deanna Vendiver the Executive Director and Amina Da Da the new chef. Deanna will be ordained a UU minister a week from Monday and made it clear to us how much she loves both New Orleans and the life of the Spirit. We are the first group of "her people" to come here as volunteers since she began her tenure. She told us about the College of Social Justice programs (joint progams of UUA and UUSC) that will take place here. Amina has a long history of combining cooking her native New Orleans cuisine and making it healthy, emphasizing vegetarian dishes. That made some of us especially happy.

One highlight of Sally's time in New Orleans was the sighting - and actually meeting, after some minor stalking in Home Depot - of Rob Brown, the actor who plays Delmond Lambreau on the HBO series Treme!