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I'll be trying my best to keep a blog going this summer while I'm in New Orleans,
LA doing hurricane relief in an internship through the United Methodist Church.
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Sunday, July 5, 2009:
Well friends, it's been really interesting
since the last time I posted something. This one might be a long post :)
I think that because I've been doing
so well down here, because I've been able to do so many good things for other people, and so many good things have happened
for me, I've begun being tested and challenged. While I know nothing will come to me that I can't handle, somethings have
just been pushing me to the edges.
One of the clients I've been helping
has started to become very challenging for me. She's a wonderful woman that i've come to enjoy the company of and I have been
touched by her story time and time again. As of late, she's begun pressing on me things that she would like to have done,
things she wants, and this, that, and the other thing... It wouldn't be so bad if I could simply tell her "we're gonna do
the best we can, but we can only help you with certain things" but she presents every little request with a burden of faith.
She'll talk to me about how the Holy Spirit has told her to make this hers, exactly what she wants. She'll quote scriptures
saying that "God will provide"... Honestly, I know... you don't have to tell me... but it's just hard. A lot of you that know
me well know that I have a giving heart that becomes glad when I can make other people happy. I want to do everything that
I can for her… ok I want to do everything for her… and I just can’t…
So the struggles I’ve been dealing with have been to try to talk her into getting what I can get done for her
done, get her in her house, and enjoy the AC. If I talk to my co-workers about any of this, most of them say that “you
get those kinds of clients from time to time and you gotta just do what you’re there to do and let her deal with it”
but that’s hard for me… I don’t like people to dislike me, especially when my intentions are completely
good. I’m making it… I’ve gotten to where I try to keep some small things that I’ve gotten for her
house, and when she asks me about getting something different for her house, I sort of say… “well we’ll
see, I’m doing my best to try and take care of you, OH YEAH! And look! I got ya something!” and she usually becomes
overjoyed once again… I hope I can keep that up long enough.
On the other side of things, I have
another client that would be absolutely happy to have anything at all that we can do for her. She’s a very nice and
sweet lady. And I love working on her house. I’m excited for how her kitchen is going to look. Going to be tile and
I hope that I can make it look good! J
I’ve decided that my GOAL is
to finish these houses by the time I’m done this summer… that goal was challenged right away when I found out
that we don’t have hardly any vols this week. 13 total and they’re all going to sites that need the work more.
I’m gonna try my best to do a lot of work myself this next week on at least one of the two sites. I’m hoping that
Len will be able to shoot me some good, skilled people soon though.
Another hitch in my step for that
is that I’m going to Lubbock next week the 15th-19th to move into my new apartment. So that give
me this week with no volunteers, 2 days next week, followed by 2 full weeks. I got a lot of work that needs to be done in
that short a time… we’ll see how it goes.
There haven’t been volunteers
staying at People’s the last week and it’s been cool. There aren’t any this next week either. So maybe I
can live with it all till I leave. With going to LBK next week that really will only give me 2 weeks with neighbors, if there
are even any staying here. I’ve hung out with Jim a good bit more too. In fact I’m having to drive up to Baton
Rouge here shortly to help him out with his truck messing up.
There’s been a lot of death
recently… not just the famous people. One of my first friends at Lake Braddock died recently, I had not been close to
him in several years, but it was just sort of an odd feeling… that and friends parents and grandparents being sick and
all, all the deaths in the media… it’s just an overall depressing time I suppose. Had a rough few days, but I’m
through it I hope.
I’ve been seeing some ways that
I think God could possibly be pointing my life… It’s very exciting! I hope that I’m not setting myself up
for disappointment, but I can’t wait. I’m excited to get back to school and start rolling with all the different
things I’ve learned about myself this summer. I’m ready to hit the ground running. I’m so thankful for everything
and everyone. Keep your prayers coming! God Bless!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009:
WOW! Ok so it’s HOT now!!!
The temperature got up to 101 today and the heat index got up to 108… humidity never went below 50%... IT…. IS…
HOT!!!
With that said…
I love it here! I’ve been
getting great volunteers through here, and doing a ton of good work. I now have 3 houses that I really have full responsibility
over. So far I think I’ve been doing a decent job at it. Trying my best to keep everyone busy. I know that the volunteers
don’t come down here to sit around. They came down here, paid their money, sleeping on bunks, to WORK. So I do my best
to make sure they have everything they need, tools, supplies, water, instruction……….. wait… where
does my instruction come from???
I’ve been learning as I go,
and today and yesterday were the first days that I’ve felt overly frustrated with what I’ve been trying to do.
They trained me well on flooring… I got that down… base trip is pretty good too… as for installing cabinets
and steps and tiling bathrooms and countertops and fixing windows and installing doors, especially when the situations at
hand aren’t even close to “ideal”… not so much… and when I get a group of volunteers that are
eager to work and get things done, but need to be told how to do things… and I can’t tell them without asking
someone else… and the best I can get at the time is calling someone who can’t see the given situation… yeah,
it just gets to be a little frustrating… BUT… we’re getting there!!! The afore mentioned heat doesn’t
exactly help everyone’s nerves either!
Living with the volunteers lately
has started to wear on me too… at first I figured, I’m a real social guy, I can stand 3 months of getting to know
new people. In fact, 2 weeks in, my boss said something about finding something better for me, and I told him I liked living
with the volunteers and would kind of miss it… Well… a month later… I’m getting kind of tired of answering
the same questions each week, and I wish I could lay down in my bed with the sheets making a sudo- room and not have people
bothering me anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I CERTAINLY still love the volunteers and the interactions I’ve had with
them! There have been a LOT of good people come through here that I’m SO happy to have met! But I’m just starting
to miss the little bits of privacy, or the ability to sit down and hang out with my good friends that don’t ask me where
I got to school each week or how I ended up down here or how do fix this elevation change between the kitchen and the bedroom????
But like I said… I still
LOVE being here. Just getting tired and worn out for sure. I haven’t gotten to play near as much as I would have liked
to… but that’s been more because I’ve been so purely exhausted, I haven’t wanted to get my horn out
and lug it down to the quarter. I’ve made friends with a few of the musicians around here though. And definitely heard
lots of great music! I’ve also had to be careful not to go to the quarter and spend my paycheck on the awesome food
and drinks while I’m there, money is gonna be tight when I get back to Lubbock! Well everyone take care! Keep the prayers
coming! And pray none of the volunteers drop from the heat and not drinking enough water! I hound them to do it, but they
don’t always listen! No promises on when I’ll write again… I’m finding it hard to sit down and write
anything of length and finish it without getting interrupted. God Bless!
-JTH
Monday, June 01, 2009:
WOW! It's proving to be harder and harder to make the time to write a blog! Cool people keep
coming through and keeping me busy. My first week I got to work with Iowa people... some where Iowa State fans... then last
weekend I worked with some Aggies... last week I worked with Longhorns... and now this week I'm working with some Corn Huskers...
Eventually we'll get the whole Big XII in here!!!
Len and them have started to trust me to work some of my own houses now. It started last week
running a house that the longhorns helped fix up. It was a LOT of flooring! I think I'm all but considered a flooring expert
now... I feel like I should be! The people from Austin were great to work with too! I think that the college kids are just
more easier to get along with... the high school kids that have come through here seem to be more afraid to talk to me. I
think it might be because they think I'm more important than I am :) or something like that.
I got to hang out with the longhorns over at another housing facility we have where they were
staying. It's another church close to the quarter. I like the idea of being next to the quarter for sure, but I like this
actual facility better. Bigger kitchen and all that fun stuff. I basically got temporary membership into their group, even
got added to a "possie" (small groups they broke up into during their "God time" and also divied out the cooking/cleaning
duties to) In this possie I heard they had a challange going on between the two groups as to the better dinner that was prepared.
On Wednesday night the other group had prepared a pot roast family style dinner that "couldn't be toped" naturally the challenge
was accepted... I couldn't help but join in when they talked about doing a 5 corse italian meal! I cooked my now famous "Pasta
Milano" inspired from a dish served at Macaroni Grill, but now has become something unique and, I think better! :) it was
a blast and the possie won the battle hands down! The "God time" bible studies they did were very helpful and nice as well
and I greatly appriciated the time I had with them.
I've been blessed to keep in touch with a number of people from the Iowa group. A couple I've
pretty much talked to every day. The friendships I'm building with the volunteers, other workers, and homeowners are a true
blessing!! I'm very happy to be here dispite how tired and worn down I get! Keep the prayers rollin'!!
-JTH
oh and one more thing... an inside joke for a few of you out there... the votes show, I'm cuddlier
than Double A :) But... I propose that in the end, as long as we cuddle with the one we love, neither of us can lose and so
the vote doesn't matter as long as we get the vote of that one special someone, whomever they may be :)
Saturday, May 23, 2009:
SO much has gone on!!! I’m
starting to get into the swing of things down here and feeling more comfortable every day. The job has turned out to be more
physical labor intensive that I originally expected. I was thinkin’ I’d be just driving supplies around and what
not. However, currently we’re in the slow time for volunteers and as site managers, we only are working one or two homes
each. Since we’re not having to look after a whole lot we can get in and work with the volunteers, making it more like
being on a typical summer mission trip building houses. However, once June and July hit, we’ll be packed with volunteers
and we’ll be running around a lot more. Maybe by then I’ll have a truck to drive and my own house to work on!
New Orleans is a crazy place. I’m
getting to know it a little better each day. I’m living in the central city, a bad part of town. There is an 11pm curfew
for everyone staying here because the crimes, murders, bad things, mostly happen after 11pm. There are tons and tons of people
that still need help here. It’s sad that so many people have forgotten. I’m sad to say even I did to some extent…
once it’s out of the media, it’s out of mind. As of December, we’ve helped over 1,000 homes get rebuilt
from gutting the initial damage to handing the keys over. It’s great to be a part of that.
The volunteers have been awesome
so far. The first group was a small group from a high school in Indiana. They moved in the day I did and were here for a little
less than a week. Then the group from Iowa came on the first Wednesday and just left this last Thursday morning. They were
AMAZING people and I’ve friended all but one or two on facebook and have been keeping up with them (only a couple days
apart! Oi!) they did amazing work on a house and completed stuff we thought would take two days in just one. They also took
me in as one of their own, fed me while I was here, took me out on a swamp tour, to the French quarter on the weekend, and
invited me to lots of stuff I wish I could have done when I was busy working. They taught me a new card game called “Pitch”
and we created our own game called “hot foil” I stayed up too late
every night (got up every morning anyway :-P) They’re all trying to convince me to transfer to Morningside up there…
or that they should have kidnapped me. I will not be forgetting them anytime soon. I have many stories and many memories that
I just don’t have to time to write out for now…
I’ve been working with jim this entire week. He’s a great guy
and teaching me a LOT. I’m almost ready to build my own house! J
We have crew in from Dallas this weekend so I worked all day today and will work all day tomorrow to. I get Monday off though
for Memorial Day!!! Hopefully I can catch up on some sleep then!! I’ll write more too with some details on one of the
houses I’ve been working on lately. Keep the prayers coming! God Bless!!
-JTH
Friday, May 22, 2009
SOOOOOoooo tired. There has been a LOT that has happened and I'm sorry for not keeping up, was
hoping to get some stuff written up this weekend but looks like I'll be working with a group that's coming in at midnight
tonight... I PROMISE to get something more written up this next week, maybe on memorial day. Lots
of stories including some cool people from Iowa!
A quick note to say that the reason there hasn't been any updates is because this has turned
out to be more physical labor than I orriginally expected... I LOVE it though!!!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
So I actually got
out and did some work today. Yesterday wasn’t all that exciting, started out going to Baton Rouge and did all the paper
work, met another college intern that graduated from Ole Miss… naturally conversation went to football… was nice
to talk about that, off season’s been killing me J
I then drove back to New Orleans and got drug tested and met up with Len, a good man that I’ll be working under for
awhile. He’s a real good guy and I’m going to enjoy working with him. He talked to me for awhile about the basics
of what I’ll be doing. The different processes they go through to work
on a house and get people back in them. He told me the goal they have around here is to work their selves out of a job…
I really liked that idea.
Today I got
up and met up with Len about 8:30 to go out about 9 or so and measure a house. Basically what that involves is us getting
a call from a case manager that tells us there is a house that needs work, we then go out and take a look around the place
with the owner there to do an assessment of the house. Check the square footage, the state of the framing, if it’s got
termite damage and to what extent, find what we’ll have to gut out, count doors and windows, and so on and so forth.
The “owner” of this house met us there in his nice new looking GMC suv dressed nice in shirt and tie. We asked
several times if he was the owner of the house before Katrina, he responded roughly yes to the question each time, yet, when
we asked about his water, where the pipes came in… or where the dishwasher was going to be… or if he had gas or
full electric… they were difficult questions for him. This was pretty peculiar and when we came back to the office to
call for other estimates from professionals (scheduling an electrician and plumber to look at the home for wiring and plumbing
estimates, sending measurement info to flooring, cabinets, and such for written estimates and all that) we looked up the home
owner for the address and it turned out that the man there claiming to be the owner wasn’t even the current owner, much
less before Katrina. The man had also said that he’d have $5,000 to put into the project… that might cover the
labor for the electrician…
If someone
asks for help on their home and they were the owner pre-Katrina, then the case can be run by Salvation Army for funding. If
not, the owner has to pay, we’ll still be able to do the work, but they’d have to get loans and try to find some
way to finance it themselves. Either way, the person showing us the house will
still have to show proof of ownership, it’s possible he recently bought the house or inherited it. We will also have
to have a check in hand before we start any sort of work what-so-ever. I’ll touch on my feelings about all this in a
bit…
Between going and
measuring the house this morning and the office work, Len showed me around the upper and lower 9th ward (where
a lot of the damage happened and is still around… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_Ward_of_New_Orleans ) He showed me the “Musicians Village” where a lot of
the local shop owners and businessmen who thrive off music and successful musicians themselves (like Harry Connick Jr.) have
given money and have rebuilt and fixed up several homes for the local musicians. I thought that was really cool. I’ll
try to go back by and get some good pictures later.
A new group from
Indiana just pulled up… more later…
Sunday, May 10, 2009:
Well, I wanted to
say that at least the driving was done for 3 months now that I’ve safely made it all the way to NOLA, but I have to
drive to Baton Rouge in the morning. I’ve got all my stuff settled in my little nook. The place I’m staying is
People’s United Methodist Church. It’s being used by UMCOR as little camp basically. Volunteer housing in the
form of 3 large rooms with several bunk beds in each like this:
I’ve tried to get as cozy as I can. Right now I’m able to take up 4 bed’s in my corner.
Chances are that when we get closer to June and all when they start to get busier here and pack ‘em in, I’m gonna
have to consolidate.
I’m excited
to figure out exactly what all I’m going to be doing while I’m here. I still don’t totally know specifics.
They told me enough to calm my nerves but excited for the day to day stuff now! I’ve been told that it’s going
to be a mix of stuff, getting as much experience in the various aspects of disaster recovery as possible in 3 months time.
I’ll be starting as a site manager, working with one of the experienced ones they already have, moving around from site
to site in a company vehicle, attending occasional network meetings and such. (brought my “business clothing”)
As the summer progresses I’ll get to work in the office to learn the volunteer coordinator position, some case management
and financial accounting.
I hope I get a chance
or two to make it out to the French quarter and soak in some good music while I’m here too! As far as my own music goes,
it’s not looking too bright on the practice/performance side yet. Since I’ll be in close quarters with lots of
weekly volunteers and what not, my best bet is to maybe get to practice on the weekends when they switch out and what not.
I’ve brought my guitar, bari, and clarinet (trying to learn) and I’ve
played with the guitar some, I don’t it will be as big a deal… unless I annoy everyone like I did my roommates
playing the same thing over and over again! :-P We’ll see and I’ll keep you posted! Keep me in your prayers that
this will be a blessing of a trip! God Bless!
-JTH
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