Liz

This is the fine lady that started St. Bernards Project. She has been nominated for the CNN Heroes award which if she wins, will entitle her to a $100,000 grant for the project. Do you know how many homes that can build? Please take some time to visit the page and vote for her. You can vote as many times as you want!! Go Liz!

Season of Giving

So its been a while but i have had a lot of things on my mind lately.   The plans are underway for the next trip to New Orleans through the New Orleans Ministry at the Church of the Presentation.  I am now a member of the Core team which is very exciting, challenging and rewarding.  While I am the youngest member and one of the few females, I am very blessed to help with the planning.   With the plans underway and the thought of not being able to go due a full time job (the real world really sucks sometimes) and no money to do it. I think I am going to sit this one out and save my money for my spring break trip to Florida.  

Anyways, as the holidays rapidly approach and the threat of a struggling economy makes the headlines daily, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what types of things I am going to be doing for christmas.  I would really like to make most of my presents and have already started as the ideas come.  I have one complete. I had decided also that making something, might include making a donation.  Most people love it when you don't buy them a item to show your love but instead show you love by giving something to someone who has less then you.  I have sat in meetings the past couple of weeks with representatives of food banks who talk about their struggles.  The fact that so many times before the money didn't come in at the holidays, but this is the first year in their history where they don't have the food or the financial needs.   I have sat in meetings with organizations that talk about the devastation that is still so wide spread in Texas and yet no one talks about it.  This breaks my heart.  Daily I think about how little money I am making in my job and yet everyday I still have a house to go home to and there is food on the table.  Yet, these people have no jobs, no homes and very little food.  So I have decided to divide my means, even though it feels like so little, and I will donate to organizations that I hold dear to my heart.  Where I know, that the money will get to the people who need it most.  I am thinking that my two target organizations will be Heart with Hands  and Habitat for Humanity.  My other idea was to buy thanksgiving dinners for people who live near me.  I have to give it some more thought and maybe I could do all three. We will see.

I think that you should consider doing this, this holiday season.  It will be here before we know it and while most of us have so much there are so many who have nothing.  

Are you ready?

As the peak of hurricane season arrives on Sept 10th and we have three storms in the gulf, National Preparedness Month kicks off.  Whether you are on the florida coast right in the line of the storm, or in the Northeast where we will get soaked, are you prepared for any type of disaster?  Want to learn how you can be prepared? Ask me! Its my job!

Gustav

There is something so powerful about mother nature.  For two years I have worked to restore a city that was so devastated and yet in a matter of hours mother nature can come in once again and reverse the hard work.   If you really think about it deeply, we are absolutely powerless when it comes to the acts of mother nature.  I may now be in the field of disaster management but I feel hopeless.  I can't possibly imagine how my friends in St. Bernard's parish feel.  Many of them have probably once again left their homes with no idea what they will return too.  They hear the news media state that this is not nearly like Katrina, but it was 12 to 18 hours after the landfall of Katrina that we saw the worst destruction.  While there have been so many improvements to the levees and the cities operations, the only way to see if they are successful is to wait till the days following the landfall to see if the measures were successful.  I think that everyone is holding onto hope that we never will see anything like Katrina again, and yet for the past day or so it looked like Gustav could be a repeat.  The evacuation procedures may be different and more people may have left the city, but what if the people come back to a city with so little damage that they don't heed the warnings next time a hurricane heads for them.  I think that the next day or so are going to be very telling and that we really need to tune it to see what is going to happen.  Keep an eye on Hanna and Ike, there might be a need to help rebuild the carolinas or georgia.  

Some words to ponder...

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

-buddha

You know you are a NY tourist if...

you wear a tour badge

you travel in large groups

you only have 10 minutes to eat and you ravenously eat McDonalds in front of my building

your group takes up the doorway of three businesses in a narrow walkway

you don't cross the street when there is no cars coming and a don't walk sign

you poke new yorkers with your umbrella when it really isnt raining

you carry a large map and passport holder on your chest

you look lost

you stare at people on the subway and pretend you know where you going but then decide to ask someone (we know who you are...even if you try and blend in)

You carry gear for all sorts of weather

you wear socks with sandals

while we all have been in the tourist position..the NY tourists just crack me up. I will have an oncoming You know you area  NY tourist if section as i find funny tourists

The Unthinkable

I finished the book last night that I mentioned in one of my last entries.  The Unthinkable.  It was amazing.  Talk about getting the thoughts going.  When I ride on the bus into the city, I am constantly thinking about the hazards around me and if something were to happen how would I react.  The book looked at how people react in disasters and why.  It kind of made me feel like everyone should go through some sort of disaster simulation to know how they will react.  But, then I started to think about no matter how hard you can't absolutely be prepared for anything.  While so many people focus on the recovery part of a disaster after the initial impact, everyone overlooks the preparedness part.  Can we really be 100% prepared?  After a disaster occurs most people don't want to anticipate the next one.  This is something I have been thinking about as I have offered to do outreach in St. Bernard's Parish regarding disaster preparedness.  I just completed a 200 slide curriculum which how to be prepared in a disaster and I am wondering if the people like those in St. Bernard's would even be receptive to it.  Most of them lost everything.  My Uncle Bruce and Aunt Gini dealt with devastating flooding at their house on the Delaware and yet they did everything in their power to be prepared for the next flood event.  The man on CNN talking about shrink wrapping his house...that was my Uncle Bruce.  At the dinner table last night he was talking about how after the news discovered what he had done, FEMA had contacted him about the idea.  Little did they know that it was an example in their flood avoidance guide book.  Shows you how much they know their projects.  Being the personality type of a 2, I am always wanting to fix things.  This gives me more motivation to get further into the field.  However, I feel like I have hit a huge road block.  I need experience to get a full time job. I have lots of experience but not in what people want of course.  I feel like people are overlooking some important elements when they hire.  I hate that you have to put your personality on a piece of paper.  I am sucky at describing myself.  And to get hired on that?!  I am grateful for Lisa, who saw my abilities and how essential I was.  Now I just need to make a little money for what I am doing.  Although I now have some really cool stuff on my resume.  While employers aren't going to care that I got sent to Brooklyn by myself on the subway, they are going to care that I have attended conferences, worked on developing this exercise that we will be carrying out on July 12th and I am managing volunteers!!   Anyways, I have rambled but these are some of my recent thoughts as I impatiently await what the Lord has in store for me in the coming months.  While I really have no control over it or way to be 100 % prepared, I can take the steps to participate, not anticipate (as the Boston BFF used to say).  Pray for patience for Megan!!

polka dots

So yesterday morning the first thing that I saw when I came out of Port Authority was a polka dot concrete truck.  There was multiple.  How awesome is that.   

The last thing I saw before I went into Port Authority was the shooting of a movie.  There were gunshots and you should have seen how peoples heads turned.  It was crazy. And then these three cops came cruising around the corner.   

Umbrellas

In a city of millions of people on a normal day you may find it difficult to maneuver the sidewalks. There are those people who are walking so fast that they are almost running, then there are those who waddle along.  It makes life interesting everyday.  Yesterday things got even more interesting when the rain drops started to fall from the sky and the umbrellas started to go up.  The already narrow and crowded sidewalks on 8th ave were now ever more crowded.  Umbrellas spiked edges had to be dodged to maneuver sidewalks and you basically had to fear for your life.  Whereas elbows could normally be thrown, people now had metal weapons.  It was crazy. My umbrella got bumped many times as I walked past Madison Square Garden on the way back from my meeting.  But i almost got really stabbed when i was walking to the bus at the end of the day.  The best part of it was the fact that at that point it hadn't rained for 2 hours.  I have now decided that while umbrellas keep you dry and that can be helpful...they can be deadly too.  (besides the fact that they also can serve as lightning rods).  

I also saw an interesting sight that has not left me.  On my way to work, i think it is on 37th street and 8th Ave there are people lined up outside the dunkin donuts.   At first i thought it was for the walk up window but i later realized that they were waiting for something.  The women were always on one corner lined up, most of them of latino descent, and the men were on the opposite corner.  They all are about the same height and many of them look similar. I figured maybe they were waiting for a clothing manufacturer or textile company to open up.  Working in the Fashion District, there are all sorts of fabric shops and clothing companies so this is not an out there notion.  However, yesterday i learned what goes on at the corner.  A man comes down 37th St to the corner and says how many people he needs and what for.  He then chooses (i don't know how) who he will take for the day.  The women scramble to get picked.  The Korean man took just one yesterday when I was passing by.  I am not sure why this so astounded me.  But as i have thought about it, I am surrounded by people who dont necessarily have to struggle to earn money everyday.  And yet these women and men stand at the corner everyday in hope that they will be able to make a few dollars.   They probably don't get paid what they are supposed too, but to them it is work.   When i walk past that corner everyday i feel like i have left the united states even though i am not usually there more than 2 minutes.  This corner represents the reality of some of the lives of immigrants in this country. I would say that for me it was a culture shock, but i cant say that because at this point, after seeing so much in New Orleans, I am not surprised that this occurs everyday.   The government is not to blame for either case.  

I also wanted to share about the book that I am reading.  I have this sudden thirst for knowledge....I think it is because I know i won't get tested on it.  But, I came across this book called The Unthinkable: Who Survives when disaster strikes and why.  It is by Amanda Ripley.  You should definitely check it out.  The statistics and stories are fascinating.  I am not going to give it away but I can tell you that it is along the lines of the work that I am currently doing in a way.  If you want to know more about that.  I would love to share.   For now I have to eat dinner and do some laundry. 

IAEM

Well the second week at WCC went much smoother than the first that is for sure. On monday, while i was filing away in the heat, we got a call from someone in west africa was calling to see if we were offering relief there. The answer was that unfortunately we were not.  My thoughts wandered to think about the rest of the world and them finding our phone number to call for disaster relief.  Incredible and beyond fathomable!  The past two days I had the pleasure of spending with Lisa (the Exec Dir and Founder) at the International Association for Emergency Managers Region II conference in Fair Lawn.  The topic was Campus and School Safety but they talked about a lot of other things and I got to be a booth idiot.  Or so my father said.  I got meet some really awesome people and learn a whole lot.  The one on one interaction with Lisa also helped me to have some serious conversation about my future in the field and where I will be after my adventure at WCC.  Lisa has entrusted me to various projects for the summer and really wants to hear my feed back about a lot of things.  I had to go through some FEMA curriculum and see how it applied to the curriculum that I have been working and see where those things can be integrated.  We also discussed the possibility of teaching some sort of disaster preparedness to the St. Bernard Parish communities. I think that would be an awesome opportunity as part of the outreach with Church of the Presentation.   We had a New Orleans reflection night last night, and I was once again reminded how fortunate I am and how awesome this team is. I really hope that God will bless me with an opportunity to return to region.  Maybe it will be to teach disaster preparedness.   Lisa spoke today regarding the curriculum that we teach and she is a very powerful speaker.  I love the fact too that she wants to immerse me in as much as possible so that I can really learn.   If you are interested in learning more, our website www.worldcares.org has a lot of cool stuff and my work email is dptm@worldcares.org. But i only check it at the office!!   I almost forgot to talk about my new friend Suleyman.  He is working on one of our projects and holds a PHD physical scientist from the Naval Research Institute.  He cracked me up all day yesterday. He is from turkey and is just really funny and his favorite word is dude.  picture a little turkish man going "dude" all day. hehe. 

I also have to note that my Boston BFF has much more exciting blogs than I.  There are always fun pictures to post and her apartment looks awesome.  Anyways, I hope to have more exciting news soon.

the A

So...yesterday was a very interesting day. The meeting at OEM that I was supposed to go to with the Executive Director Lisa, ended up being a meeting I went to by myself.  They told me 10 minutes after we were supposed to leave that i was going to be going by myself.  After i almost cried and wet my pants, i got over my fears and decided that i could do it.  They were awesome about it and gave my specific directions and we looked at google to examine the area i would be going too.   I then got on the A which is the 8th Ave express headed downtown.  Some tourists got on after me and were headed in the wrong direction and realized it after like 4 stops.  It reminded me of the adventures of naive David and Megan.  Anyways, I made it to Brooklyn and back without a problem.  It was a meeting regarding reaching out the immigrant community and getting disaster preparedness information out to them.  Interesting, but i was totally overwhelmed and didnt really have the slightest clue what was going on.  it was great.  Anyways, the office was boring because the others were working on this major grant and i had a lot of questions that they didnt have time to answer.  next week should be interesting.  

Reality

So the real world started today...

I took the NJ transit into the city for the first day of my internship. I spent 6 hours in a cubicle in from of the computer learning the Disaster Volunteer curriculum and the Leading and Managing Spontaneous Unaffiliated Community Volunteer curriculum.  It looks like my primary project will be dealing with Con Edison which should be interesting and I will have to have a Spanish translator to talk to people in one of the council members office. How cool is that!!  I will be traveling with the executive director to various meetings and will have to learn the subway system.  If anyone has heard the David and Megan take the subway story you know that this is a scary thought.  I get to travel to Brooklyn on Wednesday for a meeting at the Office of Emergency Management at the Immigration Center.  We will see what the week brings!!! Stay tuned for updates.

The Reality of the Situation

The entire time that I was in New Orleans I felt like something was missing.  I couldn't figure out what that something was until I returned home.  Besides the people and the normal way of life, I realized that there was very little things green.  Green things provide oxygen and keep us safe from ozone.  Yet, for the people in New Orleans the only thing green is this Levee.  A levee that was breached and destroyed so many lives is the only thing truly green that these people see.  The warm feeling of summer can be felt in the freshly cut green grass and flowering plants in NJ, yet when we saw these rarities in NO we commented on how odd they looked.  This may have been because they were so normal. Yet, there was nothing normal about the daily operations of St. Bernards Parish.  Laborers lined the highway daily waiting to be picked up for odd jobs, shopping centers and drive thrus were either gutted or just bare concrete slabs.  Three years later some apartments and houses remained untouched.  Our group has now come back and returned to our daily routines and yet these people still live in anything but normalcy. The government will take away the FEMA trailers in July and will leave these people to return to lives where relatives are now hundreds of miles away and they struggle to pay the bills even more than they did before.  I often panic at paying my bills as I don't have a salary or career yet and yet there are these people who have been living like this for years and sometimes don't even see any end in sight.  The work that I performed was just the beginning of the process to transition to normalcy.  This is so powerful.  I would hope that if I was faced with the same situation, that I would be helped in the same way.  It is so important to me that I continue to help these people that I have grown to love in any way that I can.  And I ask that if you are able to help, to do so. It is an experience that will change your life.  May God Bless the people of St. Bernards Parish.

Chip and the Oyster fisherman schucking oysters for the first barbq

This is the house on Guerra that had all of the termite damage.  

Two people died in the house that once stood on this concrete slap.  The lady's sister could only take her and not her son.  This cross was to memorialize them.  

Our mission is complete in the parish. We worked at a house that was beautiful on the outside but a mess on the inside today. The house was about 10 houses from the levee and was totally covered in water. We installed three walls, some window headers and demolished five walls. It was a little slow moving but we got a lot accomplished this morning. Luckily because the heat and humidity set in after lunch. We had a fabulous meal at Todays Catch along with some of our other teammates. It was a popular joint that was cheap and the seafood was amazing. Before leaving the Ross house on Angelique we got to play with the puppy next door. It was a lab, pitbull and something else mix and he was the color of smoke, his name was Smokey. He was both loveable and playful. After finishing up for the day we headed down to the lower ninth ward. Eric took his picture by the levee. Up close they are huge. This was a concrete one, unlike the grassy berms near the houses we worked at. The destruction and vastness was even worse then the war zone that i discussed the other day. I don't have enough time to upload my pictures now as i have to pack up my bag and get ready for dinner at Rocky and Carlos's tonight. It is very well known in the parish for mac and cheese and veal parm. We will see how it lives up to its reputation.

I cant believe that the week is over and I am really hoping that I will have the opportunity to come back with the group. They are all really awesome and we are all here for the same person which makes it even better. I definitely would work with St. Bernards Project again!!

As I reflect on all that I have seen and experienced this week I will definitely keep the blog updated. Look for pictures either tomorrow or Sunday. I cant wait to put them all up!

Stickinesss!

Well we worked late yesterday so I didn't have time to update our adventures and I am a little blurry eyed as I got up early to update so I hope that this makes sense

My crew led by eric returned to the original house they were working on which was on Ivy place. Much of the floor had rotted out so we had to pull up the hardwoods and replace it with plywood. A relatively easy task at hand was made very complicated by the fact that the humidity was almost 100% all day. By 10 oclock we felt like we had taken showers with our clothes on. It was gross but we were determined to be finished by lunchtime. Things were moving along until Mia Toshi gave us a visit. She is the embedded reporter with our entire team. She took both still photos for articles she was writing and movies for a news story she is putting together for News Channel 12 NJ. In reflection time on Wednesday night I had talked about how I woudl someday like to be the director of FEMA and so that is what she interviewed me about. I was looking pretty rough in all of my stickiness but I at least looked like I had been working hard. It was godo to have her there and be looking for my pictures and story. I dont know when they will be published/air. So after we were slowed down by her we ended finsihing up on the slow note. We thought we were done for the day and gladly but we were reassigned to a house on nancy dr that was owned by a young couple. There we were supposed to participate in sheetrocking. It was miserable. There were too many cooks in the kitchen and most of the sheetrock was cracked which made it very difficult to be productive. I think it took us two hours to hang one ceiling in a small room. I am hoping today that I will have task involving carpentry again. I know that these are tasks that need to be completed be we were being counterproductive instead of producative because there were so many people in the house. I also kept cutting myself which wasnt good.

Last night we had a Louisiana cookout with a local fisherman whose house the church had worked on in the past. He made fried oysters that were not prepared in batter, speckled trout, local shrimp, gumbo and oyster pasta. It was all so delicious and wholesome. He also shared his story with us and some of the ways that he tries to survive and make a living since so much of the population is still missing . It was incredible to see some of his footage. He was also featured on Storm Stories with Jim Cantore which was really cool. The fisherman got no support from the government and this caused Captain George to lose all faith in our government. Another motivating factor for me!

With my fingers crossed that the stickiness has been swept away by the rain, I have to go and get ready for the day. We have been running all over the place and I hope to upload some of my pictures this afternoon when i have a little time. That is all going to depend on how late I work though.

I also decided when I was falling asleep last night that I will continue the blog throughout my disaster adventures to come. My career path originated with a hammer and nails and a whole lotta love and it will continue. I hope that this will not be my last time to St. Bernard Parish as they still need so much help. So we will see where God takes me!!

Hope all is well in the AVL and the NJ! I can't believe today is our last day of work. I am definitely going to miss my team (and the chop saw too)!

The Warzone

Today we got to meet the homeowners niece, Neisha. She had lots of stories to share with us. Including why there was a cross in front of the tree across the street next to a concrete slab where a house once stood. The Mother and Son were supposed to be picked up by the ladies sister and when she came to pick them up she only had room for the lady. And the mother didnt want to leave her son so they both perished. Now all that is left is a concrete slab. Neisha and her family evacuated to Georgia and are slowly but surely coming back as there houses get finished. Two of her aunts already have houses that were finished by St. Bernard Project and she turned in her application today to get her house finished. She had enough money to buy the materials for her house but is unable to pay for the labor. She told us about a lady three streets down who had evacuated to higher ground close by and after the storm was over went home to pack a few extra things to stay longer on higher ground and then the levee broke and she too perished. One other story she shared with us was a man who fought off an alligator while standing on the roof of his house waiting to get rescued. Story after story, they all just touch your heart. We ventured down to the levee that Neisha told us about at the end of our work day and we saw how high the water came. She informed us that only the peaks of the houses were exposed. It looked like an absolute warzone. Especially with the abandoned chemical plant.

Being here two times before I would have thought that nothing would blow me a way. And yet the destruction is just so rampid. I cant imagine having to live through the experience and then trying to rebuild your life without the people you love around you. I guess it could also be more motivation. The story that Joycelynn told us at orientation on monday gave me even more motivation to work towards FEMA top positions because a differenece has to be made. We are making a difference but there is so much more that needs to be done. Teams need to keep returning and helping out. There is so much satisfaction in the homeowners faces when they see progress even though it is small.

I have lots of pictures to post of the levee and our work which we completed at the house on Guerra today but we have reflection shortly and then we are hitting up the town. I will try and post them as soon as possible.

Love to all from the hot and sticky south!!

With the roar of the saw!

Today was another productive day. We returned to the house that we worked at yesterday where we continued to work on the floor. The homeowner Carmelite Sievers (no not from growing pains) stopped by to check on our progress. Her face lit up when she saw that the wood flooring was almost complete. After lunch and a little nap in the middle of the new laid floor, I moved over to a house on Guerra St. Owned by the Williams, we worked on repairing the termite damage. With some spots still live we were able to get the studs around one window replaced in under 2 hours. It was pure A team work. We will return tomorrow to finish up the job for the electricians to then move in and do there job. I dont know what we will do when that job is complete.

It is very helpful to have some professionals as team mates and since I moved teams I am no longer the only female. Which is a nice little treat for me. The Americorp members at the first house were females and we definitely bonded a little bit ...they were my age but they arent people that we hang out with when we are back at camp. Anyways, Eric the master, gave me the job on the chop saw at our house. So you know that I was in heaven. I think I finally have my own little system that I can follow and be efficient. It made me feel like a master today. There is a high quality of respect among team members which makes the experience awesome.

We had oysters made by John Wilkes Booth last night and they were incredible. Some kind of garlic butter sauce was placed on top of them after they were grilled for a short period. They were amazing. The bar-b-Q really allowed us to all bond. We have another bonding experience at Tony's an authentic mexican restaurant tonight. The amount of work and planning tha has gone into this trip is incredible. With all the connections we have gotten into restaurants and bonded with locals. We are having a huge Louisiana barbq tomorrow night. There are handful of locals invited to come and share their stories. It is just so awesome to hear about and to know that while it may be frustrating at times it is so rewarding.

Well I thought I didnt have that much to say and now I have typed a lot. There is definitely going to be a lot of different processing going on from this trip. I need to make a concerted effort to make more pictures. Everyone else has taken a ton but I feel like i have exhausted my camera the last two times.

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Day One complete!

Well our first day of work is complete. Although it was filled with chaos at times it was eventually productive. At orientation for St Bernard Project we got to meet Jocelyn who is the homeowner of the 100th house that St. Bernard Project built. She has a very interesting story that made some of us choke up a bit. We then went to our first location to try and repair termite damage. After inspecting the task at hand we realized that we would have to take almost the whole house apart and that was too much for us to handle. We headed back to the office and got a reassignment. We worked on Palmetto Ct with three other volunteers who were professors from different places who had come to work with the project. Three of my teammates worked on siding while I worked on installing locflooring. It involved power tools!! The pictures below show the house and room I worked on. I realized while I was working that I really was working on a lot more than just flooring. I was working on my patience. The flooring was finicky and some of my male teammates are a little stubborn. There is something still so gratifying when you finally get that peace in. There is still so much be done here and they really need our teams help.


I forgot to metion last night that I got a chance to go by the house that I worked on in March. Almost two months later the siding still is not finished and I dont know about progress on the inside. I just thought foresure that it would have been complete by now. I think Team UNCA needs to come back and show them where its at once again.

We have a bar b q tonight as an entire team with hamburgers, hot dogs and oysters. Im excited! Look for more exciting adventures tomorrow!!

Uncle Bruce always taught me that you cant have all work and no fun. So here are some pictures from our fun adventures on Bourbon Street yesterday afternoon.

The eagle has landed!

The team arrived safely in New Orleans at 9:30 central time. It was quite the operation going and getting the rental vans and cars and then caravaning to camp. Everything is so laid back and I wish that I could have come on the trip before leading a group to have a model. Although sometimes the inorganization drives me a little crazy..i will have to admit but it might be my anul leadership skills kicking in. Although we have been up since 3:30 or so many of us headed downtown for the afternoon. We hung out on bourbon street for a while, something i havent done the past few times I have been here and then dined at Felixs. There is something amazing about having dinner with 19 other people in which many I didnt know this morning. It is so fun. I have made some fast friends, but I often feel very old as I am the only female who hasnt come attached to someone and who has graduated. yes, i feel like i have to be an adult and be responsible. But I know how to have some fun too. I know that if this was a group of high school students things would be a lot different. Anyways, I am exhausted so i will be heading to bed. Me and my fire obsession led me to take a picture with a new orleans fireman...i will upload it in the morning. I can't mess with it now. They even have fireman mardi gras beads. I thought of my father, he would be proud. Look for our first work experiences tomorrow!!

The Reality of the situation

So, I haven't yet left new jersey and my wheels are already turning.  A totally new situation for me, I am excited yet nervous.  The team was blessed at mass and i got to meet some of my fellow team mates.  It is going to really be a great week and I really felt like an adult who was respected by my peers.  Sometimes being a female it is hard to gauge how the older/more intelligent males will respect a person who has done this kind stuff before.  Anyways, when Father Bob blessed us tonight he talked about a team of nurses who will be joining us mid week to set up a clinic.  This intrigued me and I have been thinking about it ever since.  4 women are going to a city in the UNITED STATES to set up a clinic because there it is a necessity.  Now I hate politics and I know that universal health care has been in the news but if you took the city name you would have thought that these women were going to another country. While I am the one who lives to help others, I think that sometimes we get so busy helping other countries that we forget our own people.  Just a few years after hurricane Katrina and these people still don't have access to healthcare.  I am a little disgusted.  At the mention of this and after some pondering I think that there is a little spark in my heart.  This spark is going to be the booster that will push me even harder this week to make a difference.  While the connections I will make and relationships formed are so important,  I think that making a difference is of equal or more importance.  I decided the other day that as impractical as it is...i would love to be a professional volunteer.  I guess I will just have to find a rich man.   Well, those are my final thoughts before my adventure begins and I need to head to bed before my alarm awakens me early for journey.   A journey that is bound to be with me for a lifetime.  

It is important for me to also thank you all once again for keeping track of me and thinking about me.  I am reminded once again that there really is no "I" in team and that without teams you can't accomplish anything.  so Thank you!

I got my assignment!!

I can't believe that it was nearly 2 months ago that I was leading the group to New Orleans for the second time.  This time I won't be the one in charge and I will be going with a group where I don't know anyone.  An opportunity that I have been waiting for, it is finally starting to sink in that we will be departing on Sunday morning for another week in New Orleans.  I received my team assignment last night when we were in the car and I think that is when it really sunk in.  I will be a member of framing team 1.  An assistant to the lead team member, our possible tasks will be handling two termite damaged homes with some replacement and one termite damaged home with some framing and sub-floor replacement.  I am humbled and honored to be one of the only females who is labeled as skilled and who is in an assistant position.  Dad and I are going tomorrow night to pick out my tool belt and a new hammer! I am really looking forward to hearing more of the stories from St. Bernard's Parish and spending the week helping those who need it so desperately!!  Look for updates throughout the week, it is going to a busy but amazing time.  I will be thinking of everyone at 4:15 am on Sunday morning when I leave for JFK...let me know if you need someone to wake you up!!!