Day Nine

Wow! We’re reaching the halfway point almost! Time has flown by. The Fab Five were our videographers for the day, so click below to see what they experienced.



We are no more efficient at getting out of our NOLA home in the morning than we were in those very first few days, but we are WAY better now at kicking in on the jobs that we are doing. We left a little later than we expected to depart after this morning’s pancake breakfast and most of us headed back to St. Raymond Catholic Church and School to finish off the rubble pile from our demolition job yesterday. By the end of the day, the space where the house had stood was just a patch of dirt with a bit of grass around the edges and one single water spigot sticking up in the middle. A dump truck came to pick up the first load from our massive pile(s) of debris at Catholic Charities; the operators said that it would take at least nine more to eliminate this mountain of debris.

About a third of us expected to begin the day finishing jobs at Don’s house, but we couldn’t separate off when we were ready to do so because Justin and Shane (fortunately) noticed that the tongue of the trailer was about to rust through all the way. Before it actually snapped off, we called the U-Haul 800 number and got emergency assistance. The driver arrived very quickly and okayed the idea of swapping out our trailer for a different one; it meant that we had to drive almost to Mississippi to get the new one, but it was worth the trip.

Our inability to divide into totally separate groups meant that everyone joined in on the clearing of the rubble from the demolished building. Things moved incredibly fast as we dismantled the roof, the remaining studs, the floorboards, the subfloors, and even the concrete blocks that had supported the structure before we brought it down. Megan Rodriguez was especially impressive in wielding a crowbar and a sledgehammer (Jed says that the tool she was using is technically called a “maul”), which helped her to win the Blood, Sweat, and Tears Award for today along with Lindsay Swoboda (another gallant worker who just never, ever quits) and Vince Sison (who manages to look great and show off for the camera even while he is totally engrossed in his work). They each got Turtle Fur ear warmers, which will come in handy on the chilly mornings in NOLA.

After lunch, we finally managed to divide up and send some folks to Don’s house to continue the floor sanding job. We got a more aggressive sander and the job is finally going quite smoothly (if you’ll pardon the pun). This new sander just mows off the top layer of the floorboards so that we don’t have to try again and again to remove the finish. Along with the floors, Justin and Shane also put some finishing touches on the texture of the walls at Don’s, so we might be able to paint inside tomorrow. If the weather holds (it can stay cold, but it can’t rain), we will paint inside Don’s house and repaint the trim outside at Sarah’s.

The Knucklebusters were our dinner crew and they had a tough act to follow after the excellent lunch prepared by Mannschaft: couscous with rehydrated broccoli, powdered cheese, and minced garlic. Even though most people thought it sounded terrible, they ended up eating seconds. Mannschaft followed up with a culinary quarterback sneak: they pooled their money and got Popeye’s Chicken for everyone. Our dining tent fell silent as we dug into the chicken, biscuits and sides, as everyone worked really hard today and we were ready to eat and enjoy our food.

We brought some of the wood from our demo job back to our camp so that we could start a little warming fire in the barbecue that we found on the lot. Lots of us gathered around it to stay warm and we were joined there by Shawny’s sister Sherry and our (and her) friend Jean Fahr of Parkway Partners. Sherry picked up letters from our students to her students at Happy Hollow Elementary in West Lafayette, Indiana. Sherry’s eye is getting much better already, though she can’t see out of it quite right yet. She is confident that it will improve quickly and will heal completely.

Speaking of healing, Kellie (our elbow patient from yesterday) has improved dramatically though she is still wearing her sling just to be careful. Julie’s back has not improved much yet so we are pursuing a range of options to help her get some relief. She spent the day inside today helping to manage our existing video footage so that we can keep track of what we have so far. Kellie and Julie are both hanging tough for now; we’ll keep you posted as things progress for each of them.

We headed into the bus for our nightly meeting a little earlier than usual tonight to escape the chill. We talked about our community and how it’s working, we celebrated our great work on the demolition job, and we read our messages on the website. We ended with our musical selections from NOLA 2006 veteran Dave Blanchard. He worked up ipod playlists for every day that we are in New Orleans to help us unwind, reflect, and plan our journal entries for the day. We really love this moment of conversational silence each evening, even though we don’t always use it as a transition into sleep. Thanks for this great gift to all of us, Dave!

Phase One: Where to start is never a problem for this group. As said before, we can do anything. The strategy and motivation makes us unstoppable as we continue to prove those wrong who doubted us.



Phase Two: “If you say something can’t be done, don’t stop those actually doing it” We continue to work in the cold weather for the goal of completely clearing the plot of land that once contained a house and continues to become a clear and clean piece of land.



Phase Three: Step back and take it in. We finished the job. You all thought the most exciting part of the job was when the building went down. For us it was when the last piece of lumber and the last brick was removed where there was once mold, rats, rot, and cockroach infested food bank left untouched since the storm 16 months ago.



Tommy Bell shows the group how to get the job done. He was one of the hardest workers on the job site.



Macho woman Megan rips into one of the roof beams of the demolished building.



After dismantling the roof, which was a job in itself, we started pulling apart the floor. Groups worked from opposite sides using flat bars and hammers to pry up the wood panels.




Bus driver Leo works hard stripping the roof of the demolished food storage building.



Juan and Jed happily carry away the last piece of debris from the worksite bringing the day and the project to a close.



During lunch many group members enjoy a game of horse in the parking lot.



After we pulled the roof apart everyone started to work on dismantling the floor. It took the rest of the day to clear the floor and frame. By the end of the day everything was gone and we were excited to say that we had dismantled an entire building!



With everyone’s help it was possible to clear and dissemble the abandoned food bank. With two hands you can change the world. Start small and grow to something great.


Teamwork! Courtney and Emily work together to pick up debris. The NOLA Crew can work hard and have fun while doing it.



After ripping up the floor and foundation blocks, we found literally yards of garbage. One of the “artifacts” that we found was this light switch cover.



Working hard (with only one arm), Kellie keeps it safe by picking up stray nails.



The rehabilitation of Don’s house has been a long but worthwhile process. Vanessa is seen sanding the floors as she takes off layers and layers of paint and caulk on Don’s floors.



A lone sledgehammer stands in the corner of where the food bank once stood, while several of us finish up work on the site.



We were fortunate to see city workers picking up the pile of debris this evening. The quote on her hard hat gave us a sense of hope for this particular neighborhood.



An abandoned row of government-funded housing stands just a few hundred feet from our job site. These units have been unoccupied since the storm, and very little planning has been made to reopen.



After a long day of long work at both Don’s and Catholic Charities, we feast on dinner from Popeye’s. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and biscuits were inhaled as soon as they arrived at camp.



Saria, Chris, and Aaron stand by our newly created fire while trying to brave the bone chilling weather.

Day Eight

Today we continued to work for Catholic Charities to demolish a building on their grounds that served as a food bank. The day got an unusual start (which we will elaborate on later) but first click below to see Team Mannshaft capture the days highlighted event; the building COMING DOWN!



Morning came late today! Okay, well, morning came whenever it usually does, but we didn’t face it until we felt like it. Shawny and Courtney decided that they wouldn’t wake us up at all today, instead letting us sleep as long as we could. We loved it! Most people still got up just after 8:00 a.m., but some slept until almost 10:00. Two people who shall remain nameless slept until almost noon!

Courtney did not enjoy the delayed wakeup as much as the rest of us, because she decided to spend the day doing our laundry so that we could save some money from our huge drop-off laundry bills last year. She collected everyone’s load individually, washed it separately, and folded every piece. It took her ALL day. Now we love Courtney even more than ever!

One reason for our late morning was the weather. It was a cold and rainy morning, making it difficult to jump up and do the things we usually do. The actual temperature wasn’t all that cold (40s or so) but somehow we felt like we were freezing.

The second reason for our late morning was that we switched bus drivers today. Dan flew out to return to Indiana and Leo flew in to take over the driver’s seat. Because the switcheroo happened at about 10:30 in the morning, we needed to leave either early or late. We chose late.

The third reason for our slow wakeup was the fact that we are all just really tired. We don’t get quite enough sleep, we work really hard every day, we eat weird food, and we live in a constant state of eager anticipation, hoping not to miss anything. It’s exhausting. So we slept in.

We had expected to finish the roof back at the Habitat for Humanity house where we worked on Saturday. They couldn’t take us, though, because they had 1000 volunteers scheduled for today and there was no way to give us exclusive rights to Natasha’s house to work on the roof. Besides, it was raining. Even before we knew it would rain, the Habitat folks predicted that with today’s inexperienced volunteers they could not do roof work anyway, so we hope to get another opportunity to return.

We considered several other possibilities, but we kept circling back to the one that fascinated us most: knocking down that building back on the St. Raymond’s lot. We talked about it over a late breakfast and decided to go for it. A few people who really didn’t relish the idea of working in the cold rain decided to go sand floors at Don’s house. The rest of us gathered round to make that building fall DOWN.

Shane had cooked up the overall best plan, including cutting the studs on one face of the house, then making diagonal cuts on the studs along the side. All of us would pull the building down with ropes that we attached before any cuts were made. Once we determined that this plan could unfold safely, we gave it a try. It worked. We cheered up and down the block, giving high fives all around.

The Catholic Charities folks said that they were “astounded.” They couldn’t believe how far we had gotten yesterday and today they got a big kick out of watching us plan and execute the big drop. So did we.

We hadn’t started until 2:30 or so, leaving us with very little time to remove the lumber from the site after the house fell. We worked until darkness approached, then packed up until we can return tomorrow.

Unfortunately, one event that precipitated our departure was a phone call from the crew at Don’s house letting us know that one of their team was hurt. Julie had a pre-existing back problem that got aggravated badly enough to require medical attention. As Justin drove her to the church so that Shawny could accompany her to the hospital, we learned that ANOTHER team member was hurt: Kellie. She was pulling nails with a crowbar and somehow twisted her elbow in a direction that it shouldn’t go. She joined the car that was headed to the hospital to make sure that the injury wasn’t serious. We found it a bit funny that after knocking down a house with not so much as a stray splinter touching any one of us, we were suddenly taking two people to the hospital with injuries totally unrelated to the demolition. Both Julie and Kellie report that they are okay.

These two injuries are not the first that we have experienced, as we have also watched our Habitat for Humanity staffer, Alicia, get cracked on the head with a hammer that was accidentally left in a precarious place and we also watched Shawny’s sister Sherry return to visit us with an eyepatch after having gotten some debris in her eye on Sunday. Alicia recovered quickly right on the spot, but Sherry had to go to the emergency room one day and to two specialists over the next two days to improve her situation. She, too, reports that things are improving quickly. Still, she has extended her NOLA stay for a couple of days to give herself a chance to recover.

All of these injuries – even when they are not life-threatening – help remind us to take seriously the safety measures we all have discussed and to wear our safety equipment whenever we are on the job. So far everyone has remained very committed to following the agreements that we set out before we even arrived in Louisiana.

We still have work to do at St. Raymond tomorrow, so we will no doubt start our day there. More then . . .


This was taken yesterday when the building still stood…



This was taken today after the building was demolished. The pile yesterday consisted of the contents of the inside of the building. Today the pile grew as we placed wood from the outside of the building.



Setting up ropes…
We attached ropes to the main supports of the building. We then went in the street in groups of two or three and pulled the ropes to bring the building down.



Once we pulled the building down we began taking the roof apart with hammers and saws.



Crazy Emily…
At the request of Catholic Charities we tried to save all the salvageable boards that were from the building. Emily chose to wear shorts while removing nails from these boards so as not to get her jeans wet.



Aaron shows us how it’s done, using a sledgehammer to break down the remaining pieces of the house.



Team Knucklebusters capture a three picture sequence of the Nola group pulling down the house at Saint Raymond’s School. Despite the cold and rainy weather, we all managed to pull through and bring the house down.







This is the rubble leftover from our day of work. The rain forced us to retreat back to camp, but we hope the weather clears up and permits us to return and finish our job.



Sleeping before a long day of work, Emily of team Mannschaft (which is German for team) is catching up on some much needed sleep after yesterday’s exhausting effort clearing the house for total demolition!



Here Chris surveys the house before demolition begins. Deciding our final plan our action, cut, pull, and safety first (let it be known that no one was hurt in the tearing down of this structure).



This picture shows “projects” located behind the school where our job site was located. There are no occupants in these homes and there has been no effort to reopen and relocated people into these homes. This community is literally desolate and forsaken.



SUCCESS! The building has come down. Despite popular unbelief the SMC NOLA crew came together to clear, salvage valuable parts, and ultimately level this structure to the ground. With a few relief cuts and some strategically applied force, the building came down with a few quick tugs. Proving the great and powerful versatility.



KING OF THE MOUNTAIN, Justin with a heart full of pride and joy over the successful demolition of the house. With Justin and his brother Chris leading the way, we came, we saw, and we conquered.



Feke sits in our kitchen tent and enjoys the delicious dinner the Fab 5 (Vince, Megan, Yessenia, Kate and Jed) prepared. On the menu tonight was angel hair pasta with shredded chicken and marinara sauce.



At our make-shift kitchen sink, Janeva cleans up her dishes with a smile.



Strike a pose! Kate sure does love her water!

Day Seven

Today we worked for Catholic Charities to demolish a building on their grounds that served as a food bank. The building had flooded, the stockpiles of food had molded long ago, and the time had come to create a clean slate. Click below to see the Transformers’ take on the day’s events.



Another French toast morning (we needed to use up our surplus of bread) came along pretty early, as we decided to get a quick start on our day because we knew we faced a huge challenge. We ventured a little west of our usual zone in the Ninth Ward to work on the grounds of St. Raymond Catholic Church and School. This property is also the staging area for volunteers who come from all over the country to be organized and trained to participate in relief work. Our Easter Break crew spent many early mornings in that parking lot as we sought our assignments day by day.

The plan for the day was to get as far as we could in clearing and gutting the building, in hopes of eventually leveling it so that the space could be better occupied by a safer storage/distribution space. They didn’t want to bulldoze the building, as they hoped to salvage lots of items out of it, including the wood siding on the exterior. Our contact at Catholic Charities thought it was unlikely that we would even manage to clear out all of the food and office equipment inside in one day’s time. Of course, knowing that a task seemed impossible made it even more appealing to all of us. We went into the day with an incredible level of determination to succeed.

When we arrived, our Catholic Charities hosts let us know that we might witness some protests in the neighborhood in honor of Martin Luther King Day. St. Raymond is very close to “the projects,” low-income housing that was damaged in the storm and that remains unoccupied 16 months later. Many locals are torn by the competing arguments about how to deal with this issue; some believe that more low-income housing must be made available immediately while others argue that the entire premise of government-sponsored housing should be rethought. The large complex stood empty, though it seemed to be in usable condition; we could see why families who had lived there before might wish to return.

We became even more aware of the desperate needs in the neighborhood when we began to address the rotting pile of surplus food inside the structure we were clearing. We had been asked to save any food that was still consumable, but we had trouble placing any of the food we found in that category. The pile was infested with mice and cockroaches, there was mold growing up the sides of the boxes in the storeroom, and even the canned goods were covered with rust. We consulted with one of the staff who finally made the call: ditch it all. We transferred the food from the storage space into the enormous trash pile that we were creating outside. As we did so, we were surprised to see residents of the neighborhood coming from all directions to see what they could glean from the pile. Where we had been certain that the goods were worthless, others apparently found them to be quite valuable.

Once we had emptied the space, our next job was to prep the house for demolition. We tore out every possible piece of drywall, baseboard, and trim, along with the toilet, plumbing, heating system, and anything else that would take us down to the skeleton of the place. Even before lunch, we had accomplished more than we (or Catholic Charities) thought possible.

After lunch, a crew went onto the roof to try to dismantle it. Justin, Shane, and Jed were in the first wave, while Julie, Aaron, Chris and Tim took up the second shift. By the time that the second shift took the roof, however, we had decided that it was going to take way too long to complete the demolition in this way. We all regrouped and strategized to figure out what to do next. We had three competing options: 1) continue our first strategy and go back onto the roof, 2) find a way to bring the house down by cutting the sides and letting it collapse, and 3) forget the whole idea and leave the skeletal structure for someone else to address.

We went around and around about which option was best, as we all recognized that each of the three options was appealing in its own way. As we began to move in the direction of #2, big black rain clouds rolled in and it began to sprinkle. Once we decided that the next step would have to be delayed – no matter what it was – we committed to returning on another day and finding a way to demolish the entire building once and for all. Depending upon the weather, that day might be tomorrow.

We headed home with a special treat planned for the end of the day: our first collective trip into the French Quarter in honor of our driver Dan’s last day with us (Dan flies out on Tuesday at the same time that our driver from last year, Leo, flies in). We took our time primping and getting our project work organized so that we could go into town without any responsibilities dangling over our heads.

We all started at Café DuMonde so that we could have a beignet or two, and then we split up: some went looking for a real dinner, some went after a bit of entertainment, and some went home to catch up on work or rest. The Transformers stayed home to edit their video for the day. No matter what choice each person made about how to spend the evening, we all got to be transported far away from the land of mold and mice and into the land of laughter and leisure. Our 11:00 curfew kept us from getting into any real trouble. A long but lovely day and a fitting end to our week with our good friend Dan. We welcome Leo’s arrival, but we will definitely miss Dan. Thanks for everything, Dan!

Armed with her hard hat, protective glasses, and face mask, Bree shows off her tough tenacity by saving the siding for another building.



Courtney shows her NOLA pride while dumping a bunch of a old sheet rock.



It’s dark and cloudy, but Justin excitedly prepares for the roof to come down.



Aaron offers Soraya some aspirin to alleviate the pain from her injury. The Oneder works hard, but injuries are just part of the job. Go Soraya!



Justin, Jed, and Shane give directions to the rest of the group from on top of the roof.



Emily Robbins wedges a crowbar between a nail and a stud. Even though it is meticulous, it pays off at the end of a hard day’s work.



Today everybody contributed to our enormous amount of work. We removed all of the trash, moldy food, and eventually the drywall from the entire house.



Tim Huey heaves remnants of sheet rock over a fence and into the dump pile to be hauled away. We salvaged what we could, however most of what we found was beyond saving.



Justin Verrips briefs the crew before strapping up and getting to work.



Although the attempt to take the roof off the house failed, everyone put in 100%. Here, Julie and Jed pull shingles off the roof so the Verrips brothers can saw and hammer out the plywood.



Getting the moldy food out of the house by far the worst job of the trip. You can see that it took everyone as a group to complete the task – you couldn’t imagine how many cockroaches and mice that came crawling out of those boxes.



The most eerie thing we found today was a chalkboard in the elementary school that had still remained untouched - as seen by the date (August 25, 2005) on the board. The irony was added by what else was left written on the board.



Here is a before pic of the storage house in all its glory – if only it knew that the SMC kids were coming for it!



A view from the rooftop of the house, you can see the elementary school to the left and the projects – to the right. Neither has been open since the storm. A protest was anticipated in reaction to the fact that the projects are still closed.



Here is the skeleton of the house that we left behind, it was hard work but we got it done!



After much sweat (and even a little blood) we were successfully able to strip down the entire building. This job could not have been accomplished without a full effort from everyone here!



We placed all of the debris from the building into a pile on the street. All of us were taken aback when local neighbors came by and started collecting the debris and tainted food for personal use.



Megan is hard at work shoveling out the stripped down ceiling.