Wednesday - Great Day for a Gut

Hi from Chris -

On Wednesday Carla and I joined a team for a gut job not too far from our neighborhood. We were just off Claiborne Street away from downtown.

It was a tough but very memorable day. The mold in this house wasn't as substantial as the mold in the home we worked in on Monday. Flood water had affected this neighborhood only to about four or five feet. The most difficult part of this day was that the homeowners were at the house and had to go through pile after pile of stuff. Besides large furniture items, the older couple hadn't really moved anything out of their home. We took out tons of clothes, food, dishes, personal items, photo albums, etc... The gal, Miss Rose, was a definite pack rat. I counted at least 10 jars of peanut butter in her kitchen cabinets.

Miss Rose and her husband Richard left the neighborhood two days prior to Katrina. They moved in with family but then Richard had conjestive heart failure. They moved again but then had to relocate when Rita arrived. They finally ended up with friends in a neighborhood in New Orleans that wasn't affected by the hurricanes. And up untill now they have been there. Richard ordered a FEMA trailer just after the hurricanes and it didn't arrive until a few weeks ago. They hooked it up at his sister-in-laws' place just down the street. After we finish gutting they'll try to scrape together money to rebuild their homes. Amazing and tragic to think that there are so many people like Rose and Richard who have been without a home for over 9 months, with no real end in sight.

The gutting was tough, as all guts are. The heat was again difficult but it seemed a tad cooler as the sun was behind clouds much of the day. Our team lead today was Akudo, a spunky girl from Boston who proved to be a great leader. We worked hard together as a group and finished up around 3:30.





Most of the rest of the Minnesota group was at a house-painting job near our neighborhood. They were trying to improve a home that serves as a residence for mentally and physically handicapped people. The city of New Orleans is threatening to tear down the home if the owners don't prove that they are making an effort to restore it. It's in pretty bad shape. Apparently after the hurricane many people set up shop in the house as a temporary residence. And of course they didn't take very good care of it. So many different challenges in so many different parts of this city. The needs are endless.