Matt's Hair Net

Day 3: The Beacon and Open Door

Today was a busy day, though perhaps not quite as packed as yesterday. Our first shift was at The Beacon, a center across the street from CCC that provides various services to homeless citizens. The Beacon is open 5 days a week, taking a break on Wednesday and Thursday for preparations and maintenance. When we arrived, we split into 3 groups and separated out into jobs: laundry, kitchen, and window washing. Laundry folks folded towels, rags and clothes for the center and for the visitors. Kitchen duty involved food prep for tomorrow (we'll actually be going back tomorrow afternoon to serve lunch), and window washing, of course, involved washing the windows. I actually got pictures of us working at this one! I also know there's at least one picture of me floating around with a hair net and apron... who knows when it will surface? However, we worked so quickly that we finished our work rather ahead of schedule and ended up with nothing else to do but head back to HQ a little early. Some of us discussed the strange frustration of knowing there is work to be done in the big sense of the problem, but no tasks to actually do. It can be difficult to want to help but to not have a solution.

After lunch, we went to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center called the Open Door Mission. We worked in the kitchen to prepare an early dinner for the folks there. Food prep = more hair nets for everyone! We served the meal out on the basketball court, and everyone there was immensely grateful and very polite towards us. We didn't get to learn too much about the organization because apparently there was a perfect storm of scheduling involving a program graduation, filming a commercial, and a board of directors' meeting. Still, it was clearly a strong community that we served today, and it was wonderful to see that.

To conclude the ongoing debate between the interns and us about Houston v. Austin food, we ate dinner at a taco place a few stops down the train. Many "this is good but not as good as Torchy's" comments were suppressed when our food finally arrived, and those who dared to try the dessert tacos gave the rest of us wimps the feeling we should have been a touch braver.

Tomorrow is our last full work day, after which we'll jump in the van and trudge through Houston traffic to get back home. We'll see you all back at the church!

~Matt

Taylor rockin some chicken in the kitchen!

Hair nets at the ready.

Noah swiftly swiping inside walls at the Beacon.

Laundry crew!

End of Day 2

Winding down back at Christ Church Cathedral right now. Can't believe it's the same day as when we woke up! 5:15 was pretty early for us, but we trudged out of beds and into our clothes without too much complaint (perhaps too tired to complain?). We took the 6am train to Palmer Episcopal Church, where an organization called The Way Station has been operating for over 40 years. This group serves breakfast to about 350 homeless men and women every weekday, and today we had the opportunity to help make that happen. Some of us prepared food in the kitchen, some prepared hygienic giveaway bags, and others sorted mail (they actually have a great program where participants may use the church address as their own for mail correspondence, making it easier to take advantage of social programs in the area). We had only been working for a couple of hours when the rain came down, and it poured for several hours, past when we were finished. It put a bit of a kink in our day plans, but since we had gotten up so early, it turns out most people were happy to rest and nap back at the cathedral till lunch. I definitely crashed out for an hour--it was lovely.

After making sandwiches for our lunch, we went to the Houston Area Food Bank, where we worked a 4 hour shift inspecting donated food. We lined up along a conveyer belt and checked expiration dates and packaging to be sure that the food being sold was up to health standards. At the end of our shift, we learned--much to our surprise--that, along with the other volunteers, we had moved 10,000 pounds of food that day, amounting to 8,000 meals for low-income families. That's quite a haul! Amazing that it didn't even feel like too much labor.

For dinner we walked down to Niko Niko, a Greek restaurant in downtown Houston. We ate wraps, then came back to the cathedral where we've been relaxing and are now watching the great epic, The Land Before Time. I think tonight might be an earlyish bedtime, as I think we're still reeling from our early morning. Thankfully, we get to "sleep in" till 8 tomorrow!

~Matt

PS - No pictures of us working yet! Didn't want to make a photo-op out of serving breakfast, and the Food Bank made us giev up our phones and cameras before going into the warehouse. Still, a few pics here and there:

Dinner at Niko Niko

Breakfast of champions!

Main rec room at the cathedral

Arrived in Houston, safe and sound

We pulled into Houston today a little bit before 7--turns out traffic getting out of Austin was a little more sluggish than anticipated. No worries, though, our hosts have been very flexible and friendly so far. We met Ben and Frances, both in their freshman year of college, who are CUSE interns this summer and will be helping us in our activities this week. For dinner, they led us over to a place called Bombay Pizza, which had (as you might guess) Indian pizza. None of us had ever eaten anything like it before, but *almost* all of us really enjoyed it (ha)! When we got back to the cathedral where we are staying, Frances led a short presentation on the basics of urban poverty, both causes and characteristics, and linked it into some of the text of our baptismal covenant, really making it clear that we're here as part of our commitment as Christians. It set a good tone for the next few days.

We also discovered Rock Band (the Xbox game), so some folks are jamming to Bon Jovi right now. It's just about bedtime, though, since we're getting up at 5:15 tomorrow morning... phew! I'll post up pictures tomorrow night of our adventures.

Till then, God's peace, y'all!

~Matt

Home again home again

It's Monday afternoon now, and we've been back in Austin for a couple of days. The last couple of days of our trip didn't get covered quite correctly because of a failing internet connection, but here's most of what happened on Friday:

We cleaned house and then walked across the street where our landlord for the week cooked up an incredible bounty of breakfast--I'm talking croissants, eggs, pancakes, sausage--it truly was delicious. After we said our goodbyes, we jumped in the van and made the long drive home. Not too much to say, except that we listened to the Tetris theme song about 3 times. There was much napping to be done during the ride. We pulled into the All Saints' parking lot around 9, cleaned out the vans, and then parted ways.

It really was an incredible week. There was a whole lot of rolling with the punches, waking up to a day full of surprises, and everyone did very well with it. One of the big things I learned is that volunteer work requires lots of flexibility; it's almost impossible to fully anticipate what's going to happen before it starts happening. In fact, that's probably part of why it was such an adventure for us. I'm quite proud of all the work we did in New Orleans, and I'm proud of every youth and adult that came on this trip.

We'll be doing a short presentation next Sunday at 10:10am in Kinsolving if you want to hear more stories!

Peace,

~Matt

Last day in New Orleans

[This blog was written on Thursday night, but the internet signal we were "borrowing" sort of disappeared on us, so I haven't been able to post it til now]

End of Day 4, last day in New Orleans

Today was our last day in the city of New Orleans, and it was indeed a good one. We went out for our last job this morning to an intensely overgrown lot. When our friend Randolph showed us the site, even he was a little surprised at how out of control it had become. We had our hands so full that I barely took any pictures (although I believe Joey did), but we made a very good mark on the lot. After a quick spin over to Home Depot, we all put on gloves and set to work pulling up the 4-5 foot tall weeds and other plants that had overrun the area. We didn't get to finish before lunch, but the next crew that works on that site will find their jobs much easier.

After we finished our work, we ate lunch at the Cathedral (chicken and couscous!), and then headed back to our house to get cleaned up. Since this was our last day in town, we made our work a half-day and set aside the rest to go down to the French Quarter to see some sights. We parked our vehicles back at the Cathedral and took the trolley into downtown. We walked several blocks to Jackson Square, where we eased off the whole "schedule" thing and poked around in various stores. My personal favorite was the Little Toy Shop, where we played around with puppets, cars, lunch boxes, and more.

Our dinner was incredible... the Gumbo Shop was just awesome. A great little restaurant around the corner from Jackson Square, this was apparently frequented by Tennessee Williams back in the day and still serves great food. For dessert we crossed the square again and got beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde. Then we walked back to the trolley along the waterfront, where we happened to see Anderson Cooper! Needless to say, we didn't get to talk much.

Tomorrow we'll be getting up bright and early and hitting the road back to Austin. The week has been tough in a lot of ways, but we've risen to each challenge and done some serious work for people in the Lower Ninth Ward. While there is always more to do, the gratitude and appreciation that has been poured out on us during our stay reminds us that every bit counts.

Peace,

~Matt

Luke sports a classy belt made of two trash bags.

Ellen and Campbell on the trolley to the French Quarter.

Joey, newly crowned, systematically taunts everyone with the most awesome tarantula puppet.

Digging into dinner at Gumbo Shop off of Jackson Square.

New Orleans lighting up the Mississippi River.

Day 3, finished!

Day 3:

Today the Jr. High group returned to the house where we worked yesterday, just to finish some lawn trimming and edging. We made quick work of it, and moved on to another yard before lunch. This house was mostly the same drill, so we were well-rehearsed and prepared to conquer another grass jungle.

We headed back to Christ Cathedral for lunch (meatloaf!) and, after some karate and academic tutoring, we swung by a Snowball stand (the NOLA twist on snow cones... if you've been to Casey's in Austin, you know what it's like). It was a much needed treat, with flavors from Georgia Peach to Ice Cream to Nectar. Also, condensed milk is a possible topping (see below)!

In the evening, we headed over to St. Anna's for a Wednesday night mass followed by shrimp creole and live music. The music was all gospel, with piano, electric guitar, electric bass, and a whole lot of singers. Father Terry preached a moving sermon, telling us that the most important work we do on our mission trip is not construction, paint or mowing, but restoring dignity to the people of New Orleans. By being here, he said, we are sending the message that they matter and are important human beings, not to be forgotten when the media hype has faded.

After we returned from St. Anna's, we briefly recouped and then walked down the street to the Lower Ninth Ward Village Community Center. It was certainly not like most community centers. It was a somewhat rag-tag building, an amalgamation of many different materials and themes, but featured a library, computer lab, open mic/living room area, and several showers for public use. The coup de grace, however, was the whole back of the building: a small hallway opened up to what appeared to be a small airplane hangar, converted into a basketball court, convertible movie theater, and art area. Mack, the executive director of the center, told us all about the birth of the center in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, how it changed his life, and his vision for a new community. He said we must learn to embrace disaster rather than hope to avoid it, and that the way to do that is to invest in the wellbeing of our neighbors so that no one's suffering is forgotten. He told us over and over again that we are his heroes, and invited us back anytime.

Peace,

~Matt

Here are some photos from the day:

Mowing and whackin' at house #2

Mowing and whackin' in the backyard

Enjoying some snowballs of strange and bizarre flavor combinations.

Georgia Peach with condensed milk.

Enjoying dinner at St. Anna's while listening to the band (they're off to the right).

Winner - Most used demolition tool that we didn't plan to have

This snow shovel did an enormous amount of work at the Thompson's house. We found it when we got there and were glad to have it every day we worked. Seems unusual that there would be a snow shovel in New Orleans, but there it was in a dark corner just when we needed it.

Water break percussion

Ellen and Derek really flying at Cups during a water break -


Ellen, Derek - looking to expand the routine? Check out the undergraduate team from Harvard.

Photos from Senior High Wednesday at the Thompson's

Our Senior High group went back to the Thompson's for a second day of ceiling and floor demolition. Today we removed all of the carpet from the house and finished pulling down the lathe. The house got much hotter as we removed the barrier between us and the roof.

We stopped work for a few minutes each hour and went across the street to the church for cold water and cool air. Two highlights were the unexpected arrival of an ice cream van, and the look of surprise on Rev. Thompson's face when he saw how much we accomplished.

We finished our work day with a late lunch at Frostop - foot long po-boy burgers!

Taquitos, Red Beans and Rice, Compline, Movie, and Bed

It is late and everyone is sleeping now. We spent the evening playing board games, watching Ghostbusters, and eating a late dinner of taquitoes with red or black beans and rice. Hannah officiated a friendly Compline tonight - a cheerful relaxed worship service. Time now to catch a few Zs and get ready for tomorrow.

Matt's first lengthy-ish update from New Orleans!

We've completed our second day here with much success! It was a sweaty time, but we're doing good work. Martha and I worked with the Jr. High group at a house in desperate need of emergency lawn care and an inside paint job. We were joined by another group of volunteers from Memphis, who were just as stoked as us to be there. We wrangled the lawn and the inside simultaneously and finished both before a delicious lunch of red beans & rice back at the cathedral. Our Sr. High group met us for lunch as well, after their morning of demolition work. After cooling off for a bit, we worked with the kids in the summer program on academic tutoring in math and other subjects for a few hours, then came back to our house for rest time and eventual dinner preparations.

Tomorrow we're returning to our worksites from today and wrapping things up there. After lunch, Jr. High will move on to another lawn, though Sr. High will probably return back to the same site as today.

I've pulled a few pictures from various activities from yesterday and today, see below!

Peace,

~Matt

PS - for the record, internet is scarce in the house so I'm posting this from the passenger seat of our van (aka, Derek Gets Shotgun, or, the DGS) where there is an inexplicably strong internet connection.

Gabe slammin some dunks behind the cathedral.

Many a ferocious game of late-night speed Scrabble.

Cooking class at the cathedral!

Playing sports with kids with the Anna's Arts for Kids summer program.

The front lawn of a house before we got to work.

Katrina effects

Most of the houses in New Orleans are marked with a spray paint survey stamp on the front of the house. Here are the attributes of the stamp.

You can learn more about some of the big picture effects of Katrina here:
http://danswenson.com/paper/katrina.html

What is a Columbarium?

After lunch Jack and I were walking from the cathedral to the van and we passed through the memorial courtyard. Jack asked me about the plaques on the wall and I explained that the plaques mark the recesses in the wall that contain the ashes of the person indicated on the plaque. Jack asked me about the unlabeled spaces and I told him that people can reserve space before they die and that the names are added when the spaces are filled.

Jack stopped to think.

He said "so, it's like calling Shotgun for when you die?"

Tuesday workday - Senior High

The Senior High group worked today in Reverend and Mrs Thompson's rain damaged home in Leonidas. We helped pull down the failing ceiling and we cleared debris out of the house into to the roll-off dumpster on the street. The work was hot, dirty, hot, fithy, hot, and rewarding. Mrs Thompson kept us company all day and insisted that we take water breaks in the chilled air of the neighborhood Baptist church. I am extremely pleased with the dedicattion (all heart, harsh conditions, and no complaints) that our team displayed today. A huge amount of work is done and I am looking forward to joining the team for more if the same tomorrow.

Here are pictures if the team pulling down the ceiling with prybars.

Tuesday workday - Junior High

The Junior High team painted, cleaned, and did yard work today for a family in the north end of the Lower 9th Ward.

A note from Campbell:
"Hi this is Campbell and today was painting day. It got super duper hot while we were painting and i almost died. Over all I guess that i could give today and yesterday a five but o guess o couldn't pick a favorite. But I guess that I have to keep in mind that this isn't play all day in new Orleans but more like fix houses and help children."

Derek Gets Shotgun

Derek has named our van "Derek Gets Shotgun". This leads to - "alright everybody, let's get into Derek Gets Shotgun". And yet, Derek has yet to get shotgun.

Breakfast meeting and Hurricanes

We are about to head out to our work sites. Lots of questions about Hurricanes this morning. Today's menu includes demolition, painting, and yardwork. 20 minutes till we load up...

Big words in Scrabble

It turns out that you can play a 25 letter Speed Scrabble word.

Walking the levee in the Lower 9th Ward

We took a walk along the levee this afternoon. It felt strange to walk uphill from the street to that water. From the top you can see hundreds of shipwrecked houses and rebuilt homes. There is a tremendous amount of work to do here. I think we are all looking forward to our workday tomorrow... And dinner :-)