I am terrible at remembering to blog, and DAVID IS GOOD FOR NOTHING, so here are four blogs rolled into one.
New Orleans:
Sunday/Monday
On Sunday night, David and I were generously invited to a dinner for Habitat for Humanity. The dinner was basically a welcome dinner, since all of the attendees were Sigma Chi fraternity members from various colleges around the US/Canada. This branch of Habitat is part of the Brees Dream Foundation, which NFL Saints Quarterback Drew Brees and his wife founded. Drew was a member of Sigma Chi and Purdue University, so every year he brings in groups of Sigma Chi guys from their respective colleges to come work for Habitat in New Orleans. David and I were the only people at the dinner who were younger than 20 and didn't wear polos with spiked hair and big muscles.
Monday morning, David and I woke up bright and early at 6:00 and headed to downtown New Orleans to the hotel where all the fraternity guys were staying to catch the 7:30 buses that took all of us down to the build site. Once we unloaded off of the buses, we all circled up and some cool guy with a beard and a tool belt talked to us about safety and Habitat for Humanity. David and I immediately got down to business setting up one of the houses (un-boarding the windows, etc.). One of the experienced Habitat employees taught David and me the proper way to paint walls/ceilings with paint rollers (I already knew, but David has never worked a day in his life) and we started painting. We painted literally from 8:30 - 3:00, with coats of primer and paint. The Habitat day officially ends at 4:00, but David and I befriended a photographer named Carlos at Sunday's dinner, and Carlos offered to drive us around the ninth ward and other parts of New Orleans that were devastated by Katrina. We saw new housing projects, failed housing projects, old housing projects, and soon-to-be housing projects. It was superb. We got back home at around 5:30, so it was a long day for us.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, David and I woke up at 6:00 again, got on the buses at 7:30 and worked on finishing up our painting project from the previous day. David and I had to leave at 11:00 in order to start driving from New Orleans to Savannah, which takes ten hours with no stops. We didn't manage to finish painting the last coat on the inside of the house. I think all we had left was the kitchen, but some of the other guys probably finished for us. The Sigma Chi frat guys did a small amount of standing around, which made the two of us feel like we were diligent workers. However they were working outside in the hot sun while the two of us painted inside. We made a friend named Drew Lambert who goes to Ball State in Indiana. He invited us to stay at his frat.
We then were in the car for 10.5 hours on the long drive to Georgia. We got in to the house in Savannah at 11:00pm with the time difference.
Wednesday
David and I didn't have anything planned on Wednesday, and we decided to use it as more of a transition/rest day because we anticipated that we would be working on Saturday, which I will explain later
For the rest of our stay in Savannah, David and I are/have been making trips to the Habitat ReStore. Habitat for Humanity doesn't start building houses in Savannah until early June, so the two of us used this as an opportunity to work at the ReStore, which is essentially a large warehouse/store of donated construction materials, appliances, furniture, electronics, etc. that people can come buy for discounted prices in order to refurbish their homes. Today in addition to working at the warehouse, we interviewed Charles Austin, the manager of Savannah's ReStore, and got about a good amount of really solid video footage about Habitat's contributions to Savannah and his involvement in the effort.
Tomorrow we will be working on project regardless of it being the weekend. We will stop by the ReStore early in the morning to work for a little while, then say goodbye to the wonderful staff and volunteers we've worked with over the past few days. Afterwards at 1:00, we will head off to our next wonderful opportunity: Charles Austin graciously invited the two of us to a housing dedication ceremony nearby. This ceremony is to formally announce and celebrate the decision to build four houses for four selected families in Savannah. David and I are very lucky to have been given this invitation, and we hope to get some wonderful footage of speeches about Habitat, and the sheer goodness that Habitat for Humanity is doing for struggling families and housing in the Eastern United States.
Hope everyone's project is going well.
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