It's Sunday afternoon, 3/30.  Most of us have returned home to the Asheville area.  It was a great trip!  And we highly recommend that others go to New Orleans for a "vacation" -- i.e., a different experience which may be physically taxing at times but is well worth it for the spirit.  You'll definitely be doing, seeing, experiencing, speaking, learning about people and places which you'll remember far longer than most any other vacation!  Talk about renewed energy for life!  It's yours for the volunteering.  And, as a bonus, financially cheaper than most any other vacation you could take!

Just ask any of us:  Anne Bordeau, Russ Bordeau, Benoit Delcourt, Anna Olsen, Clark Olsen, Norris Ohrbach, Bena Shallit, Grace Shahrokh and John Spitzberg.  

Here are photos of locations where we worked, people whose houses we were repairing, park areas we were refurbishing, etc.  Plus moments of jollity and celebration.   The pictures also include many UUs who worked with us and many who stayed with us in the "volunteer" quarters located in the First Unitarian Church of New Orleans.  We nine volunteers from Asheville were joined by others from Chapel Hill, Lancaster PA, Portland OR, and Wisconsin -- a total of about 50 UUs.  

Work assignments are coordinated by a UU Service Committee staff person who serves full-time in the New Orleans office (located in the church), assisted by two Americorps members.  These people work with local New Orleans agencies in identifying the most appropriate projects (homes, parks, animal shelters, etc.) for volunteers to work on each week.

P.S.  Anna and Clark were able to visit the home of someone in the Lower Ninth Ward whose home our UUCA friends and others from the Thomas Jefferson District worked on last August.  She is a young mother who gave up a blossoming career in NYC to return to her roots and family in New Orleans following Katrina.  She greeted us warmly and said she expected to be in her newly-furbished home by the end of April!!  Last summer hers was the only home being refurbished on her block, but there are now four other homes either occupied or well on the way to completion.  All were flooded by about eight feet of water in August 2005.

It's Friday morning.  We're about to go on our last day of work assignments.  We've been working on three different homes, taking care of animals at an animal shelter, and working on reviving a large park -- removing invasive species and restoring trails.

Some of us visited the "Musicians Village" -- a beautiful few blocks of brand new, small, colorful homes built by Habitat with the sponsorship of Harry Connick, Jr. and other New Orleans-born musicians.  It was thrilling to see what old New Orleans could look like when it's rebuilt.  

We've been deeply satisfied and moved to be a small part of this rebuilding project -- a home here, a home there, amidst so much more activity than some of us saw last August.  We're coming up on the third anniversary of Katrina.  So much work yet to be done!!  But at least one sees evidence of progress.  On one block where we've been working in the Lower Ninth Ward, there are now five homes occupied, where a year ago perhaps only one.  

Still -- so many vacant lots and piles of rubble to be dealt with.  People mowing the lawns where their homes once stood because city ordinances allow confiscation of property where the lawn isn't mowed:  the reason being that if the lawn has grown up to weeds, it can be interpreted that it's been "vacated" and "left abandoned" by those who once lived there.  

We've been working and living in the church dorm with UU's from Portland, Oregon; Chapel Hill; Pennsylvania, etc.  Good company!  We've shared cooking meals and daily clean-ups.  Not a complaint to speak of.  We're all tired from the physical work, but exhilarated and thrilled to have worked together.  

You can hardly imagine the depth of this soul-satisfying work without being here yourself.  Plan to come sometime soon.  The work will have to go on for years to come, but sign up soon!!

More photos available soon!

Monday at work in New Orleans 3/24

Greetings from New Orleans - Monday evening 3/24 -- We've spent our first day at work in New Orleans.  Some of us worked outdoors in a park, removing invasive species of bushes and trees.  It was a gorgeous, sunny, cool day!  Others of us worked in a home that was flooded badly but is now nearing condition for occupancy by the owners, who managed to flee to Baton Rouge the day before Katrina struck and are anxious to get back into their home and be near other family members.  We finished painting of five rooms, and tomorrow will start minor repairs on the siding and then painting the exterior during the rest of the week.  Some us will also be working at an animal shelter, while others will hang interior doors and do other work at another home that was not flooded but suffered serious damage from a large tree that blew over onto the roof.

We are physically tired but in great spirits!  New Orleans remains a huge blemish on our country's willingness to respond to human devastation, but we are encouraged by signs of re-building, recover and the wonder of spring in the midst of almost three year-old wreckage.

 We are here with almost fifty other UU's from across the country.

Here's the group, KC2, back to front, Norris, Benoit, Clark, John, Bena, Anna, Grace, Emme, Russ & Ann. Unitarians headed out to rebuild in New Orleans. Tune in. There's more to be said! At this point we are still in Asheville. But soon to be detectives searching out the clues to our existence. Share our inner-most thoughts on this blog. Join us for the ride.

Katrina Crowd 2

This is a pictures of water lillies. A reminder of the Louisiana wetlands. It's a few days before our group, Katrina Crowd 2, from the UU church of Asheville, NC takes off for the Big Easy. We're thinking water lillies.

Before the Blog

Here's a case of UU ingenuity for you. I'm minding my own business this afternoon and Judy Ream calls me to find out how to do a blog. Well, I didn't know either, but now three or four passwords later, here we are bloggers! The thing is we figured it out for ourselves. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville NC Katrina Crowd 1 group leaves for New Orleans this coming Saturday and Katrina Crowd 2 leaves March 22. You'll be hearing from us both soon! So check out the Katrina Crowd blogs again near the next full moon.