They say necessity is a great teacher. Today we definitely learned on the job as we renovated several homes in the area.
Today we didn't even have time to stop and smell the fish. We started right away working on a house with the Beacon of Hope project pretty close to the church. The family still lives in the house we're working on and we enjoyed meeting them. We were able to meet a woman named Trenise, who had a very interesting story. She explained to us how hard it was to rebuild because if a homeowner owed money, the money from the insurance company and/or FEMA went right to the mortgage company to pay off the house. This made it incredibly difficult for homeowners to have money to fix their homes up and make them back to normal. Getting a loan to pay rent for a home in a different location and to pay for repairs in New Orleans was also a long, drawn out, and tedious process. This is why our work is so important to the homeowners and the city in general. We worked on the exterior of the house - chipping old paint off the walls, priming for new paint, and then actually painting. We spent a large amount of time on ladders and exploring the roof!
After our work with Beacon of Hope, we went to work with the St. Bernard Project - another housing repair/construction/assistance project. Our group split up so we could help with two homes. This time we worked on houses that were actually under construction - nobody was living in them. At Trevor, Kiara, Mark, Dustin, Melissa, and Paige's site, the owner of the home was actually living in a trailer next to the home because so many people had been stealing from and vandalizing her property. Sadly, this is typical of a number of home rebuilding projects. Most homeowners experienced contractor fraud. Those who were able to finish their homes risked someone breaking in to steal their things. SBP helps to prevent these unfortunate situations and hopes to get her home finished by mid-April, and we helped by prepping the walls for paint. The other group of Natalie, Sophia, Leah, Julie, Alexis, and Lauren also "mudded" a house. Sophia even got to make the mud! "Mudding" means to smooth out seams, mostly in the corners and ceilings, in an effort to get ready to prime and paint.
Today was long, but very beneficial to the homeowners we helped. Tomorrow we'll be at a food pantry and back to SBP for another full day of service.
ASB Love,
NO 1
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