What A Day....

Yesterday was a bunch of fun! We got to build in Musicians Village for Habitat for Humanity. The Village looks like it is going to be a really neat place to live once it is all completed. All of the houses have been painted different colors and many of them are very bright. When we got there we got our orientation. The man that led it was a true New Orlian. He had an obvious passion for the work he was doing. We got our assignments and we were off. The group that I was with had to staple mesh to the undersides of houses to keep the insulation from falling down. My knees are, needless to say, quite sore. After a hard day of work we were off to see the Lower 9th Ward. The destruction there was incredible. We got to see Brad Pitt's vision for the future of the Lower 9th, which seemed to us to be not worth it. The models for the houses were very modern and wierd looking, but I guess donated time and money cannot really be frowned too much upon. After cold showers and fresh clothes we were off to the French Quarter for some sight seeing. Getting to see the city was life was a good time. People watching was quite interesting. For dinner a few of us got Po-Boys and seafood gumbo. The best meal so far!

Today, after struggling out of bed, back to Musicians Village we went. This time we were going to get to put up trusses, oh wait, they decided that they already had enough help for that and so we were back to putting up mesh. This time we added installing insulation to our resume. The rain had started in the morning, but it was only a light sprinkle so work continued as usual. Then the rain really came down. After thunder was heard we were instructed to pack up and head out. So, we did just that. Lugging ladders and tools to the containers is normally an easy task, but when it is pouring down rain and everything is slick the task is much more difficult. All but 3 of our group headed out to the van to leave, but without a key. Eh, we can wait... so we waited. And waited. Finally a search party went back to the site to find a key and the rest of our group. I went ahead and found them and a key so we could now sit in a nice warm van.

Showers and a couple peanut butter sandwiches later we are all feeling a little better :)

-Lindsey