Miss Paula

We went to Miss Paula's house yesterday. Our group of 18 worked on her house last summer and yesterday we got to see it done. It is beautiful. And completely fitting of Miss Paula. Here are some pics for the other 14 who couldn't make our return trip. Miss Paula says thank you to you all and wants you to know you've always got a place to stay in Louisiana.

I Heart New Orleans

I am officially in love with New Orleans. This place is amazing. The food alone could be the subject of a 300 page novel. My dear lord do they know how to cook food in this town. Every meal I’ve had has been a culinary treat. And it’s not just the taste, but the presentation as well. These people love food, and it is very clear in their cooking of it. I, as it turns out, love food as well. And it is very clear in my eating of it this week.

When I came here in the summer I wasn’t a huge fan of New Orleans, because we were staying on Bourbon Street. And Bourbon Street, as you might have heard, is a bit of a drunken frat boy. Not really my type of street. The funny thing about Bourbon is that everyone on it instantly becomes a drunken frat boy, whether or not they are actually a frat boy, or if they are actually a 85 year old woman with a cane. Everyone is drunk and stupid. Is really is a beautiful representation of our fine country.

But this time we are staying in a cute little neighborhood outside of the French Quarter. It’s where real people live, instead of the people who come here to be drunken frat boys. A few blocks down there is a street called Frenchman’s where you can find the locals hanging out. And you can hear some of the best music you’ve ever heard. Because it is music the way it is supposed to be. Musicians who just love playing and people who just love music. It’s awesome. Here is a video I took last night in a bar called The Spotted Cat. The Spotted Cat still has fake spider webs in the window from Halloween (maybe from Halloween in 1960) as well as Christmas lights. I knew right away that I was going to enjoy this cat.



Look at the people dancing in this place, I felt like I was in a speakeasy. I think the thing that is so awesome is that you will never find any bar in the world where you see the eclectic mix of people that I saw in this place. There were young kids all the way up to a random 50 year old woman in a long sequins-ed dress. And they all just moved to the music and drank their beer.

At one point a tall black woman in a red dress stepped up on stage and just started belting out a song. No microphone, just her voice, rising above the jazz and the dancers and the smoke. It all felt like art in motion.

I really like New Orleans.

Fun with Videos

Today I put siding on a house. It was fun and a little scary that I can just put siding on a house with no real supervision. I guess it’s not brain surgery, but still. I shouldn’t be allowed to just put siding on the side of someone’s house. I’m a graphic designer for god’s sakes.

I took some more videos. I’m sorry that they aren’t very good, but I’m taking them with my photo camera and they are about as good as they are going to get with that little thing.

Here is a video of our condo where we are staying. I am enjoying the spa, to say the least.


The work this time does not seem as bad, because it is not 12453 degrees outside like it was in June and I’m mixing cement by hand like I was in Honduras. Comparatively speaking siding a house is pretty easy.


Not much more to write, I have to go eat some more food. I do enjoy the food in New Orleans, my waistline is not enjoying it very much however. Oh well. Totally worth it.

Traveling is Fun

I really wish someone would get on that whole transporter thing. In which we just get into a tube of some sort and think or something and then end up where we want to be. No planes, no TSA, no layovers, no crying babies. And you can take your luggage in the tube with you, so it doesn’t get left in Texas. I would enjoy a transporter/teleporter thing, for sure.



We have made it safely to Louisiana and can I just say that it is a lot cooler in November in Louisiana than in June. Who woulda thunk it? Shocking really. It’s as if there are seasons that can be predicted or something.

Our volunteer housing this time is actually a condo that we are renting and it has a pool and spa. We are enjoying this volunteering housing slightly more than the cots we are usually sleeping on while volunteering. We are staying in about the cutest neighborhood ever, right outside of the French Quarter. There are actual cafes on the corners of our block, little places that you can’t even see in, they just have tiny signs that say café or restaurant. Then you go in and there dining areas and patio areas and bar areas. And everyone knows each other. Adorable. And delicious. New Orleans knows how to make food y’all. My good lord their food is good. I’m a little worried about the consequences of eating all the good food this time and not sweating out 4 gallons every three minutes. I think the sweat was the only thing that kept me under 200 pounds last time. Ruh ro.



When we got off the plane in New Orleans (and while we were waiting to fill out our lost luggage report) I was surprised to see so many people coming off the planes in groups. They were groups of volunteers, still coming to the city. Most of them are church organizations, most older adults, maybe retired. It’s nice to see that people still care and are still coming here. And it’s nice to see how much life there still is here. And more importantly - how much good food.

Dreams

I’m happy to report that I made it through a night without dismantling my shelves. This is progress. I was still pretty sure they were going to fall on my head though, so my dreams were a bit violent, but at least the damn things stayed on the wall.

Oh, didja you guys see Oprah today? The part where Jon Bon Jovi went to Bon Jovi Lane? That was where I spent a week getting heat stroke this summer. It was cool to see the houses all complete. I’m looking forward to going back in November and really getting a chance to catch up with the families and see them all settled in. They didn’t spend enough time on it if you ask me, they were too busy giving us countless shots of Bon Jovi’s too-bleached hair. And why is this the one time in 9 months that Matthew McConaughey had an actual shirt on? Come on Matt! These Katrina victims need some cheering up! Take off your damn shirt.

I love that Oprah is now outsourcing her good deeds to other celebrities. She doesn’t have time to go to all these places and hug all these crying people, so she sends pretty famous people to do it for her. Oprah is too busy saving the entire world to worry about Bon Jovi Lane. I mean come on.

In exciting news today I went for my first session at a place called Dream Dinners. Have you heard of this place? I think I love it. You basically go and prep a gang of different meals, then you take them home, freeze them and eat them throughout the month. I’ve been looking for a place like this so that I could have real food in my house to eat. Something that is a bit fresher than the Lean Cuisines I live on. What I’ve really been looking for is someone to prepare the food for me and bring it over so I can freeze it, but I haven’t found that yet. I did find Dream Dinners.

It only took me about a half an hour to prep all the food and then I was off with my arms full of meals. Now, whether or not I actually COOK and then EAT these meals has yet to be determined. I really do think I have a mental block against cooking. It is bizarre. All things domestic are just so lost on me. I could write you a poem that could literally make you cry and I could pick up a paintbrush and paint a human face, but cooking? Not so much. Today I actually dusted my stove. Do normal people use their stoves so infrequently that they need to dust it every once in awhile? (Of course I think that I passed normal by as soon as I went into detail about my sleepwalking redecorating...)

So right now, in my freezer, I have like 6 meals ready to go. Well, they aren’t so much “ready” as they are “frozen” and in need of some “actually cooking”. The “actual cooking” is what I fear may put a screeching halt on the Dream part of Dinner.

But the fact that there is real food in my freezer is a tremendous step in the right direction. The “right direction” being any direction that doesn’t lead me to the McDonalds that is two feet from my friggin’ house.

Feng Shui

I read somewhere that putting your purse on the floor is bad feng shui. I’m not sure where I read it, but I’m sure that I never forgot it. It has something to do with the money being sucked out of the bottom of your purse, or something. Who understands feng shui and all its corners that stab people and what not. I don’t know that I believe in feng shui, but I do know that I believe that I’m superstitious as all hell and haven’t put my purse on the floor since I read the article. And if I ever see someone else’s purse on the floor I immediately elevate it. Which, by the way, leads to some questioning looks from other people, who think that possibly I am stealing their purse right in front of them. But then I explain that, no, it’s just bad feng shui to put your purse on the ground because the ground sucks the money out. And then the looks get more questioning.

But for as silly as it sounds I have to say that since I’ve elevated the purse I’ve also increased my income. So there you go. But then again, I’ve also increased my workload. Which I resent. I wish someone would write a feng shui article on where to put my purse in order for it to receive unearned money. Please let me know if you see that article.

It’s a funny thing doing freelance work. Sometimes you can have literally 10 projects going on at one time and then sometimes weeks and months go by and no one wants anything made pretty. The world is ugly during those weeks apparently. Or it’s very busy taking in all the pretty I made in the previous weeks. Who knows. But I really think that my freelance clients all talk to each other and decide at the very same time to call with jobs. “Hey, I was thinking of sending Dawn a huge project, wanted to make sure you were on board with some work as well.” “Yes, we’ve got 5 pamphlets that need to be designed by tomorrow.” “Great, that’s perfect timing.”

So this week has been one of those weeks. Not that I mind. I’m a homeowner, I can use all the work I can get. But it’s a weird thing, when you go weeks with no calls and then all of a sudden you get three calls a day. Plus election season is starting to gear up, so I’m about to be buried in political mail for the next two months. It’s going to be an exciting time. Try to prepare yourself for the entertaining blogs that will come when all I do for two straight months is sit in front of my computer (and occasionally take a break to pay my mortgage).

But then you know what I’m doing after those two crazy months? Taking off to save the world again. Yes I am. I enjoy saving the world. It is good times. Although it doesn’t pay that well, I actually pay it, which is another reason I will be working my ass off for the next couple months.

Speaking of saving the world, we are going back to New Orleans for a week at the beginning of November. Then we are going down to Guatemala for 10 days of Spanish classes, volunteering and culture. If you or anyone you know is interested in going we are always looking for more people, the only requirement is that you are laid back and have a good sense of humor. Manual labor and close living conditions require that much. I’m organizing the trip myself so it won’t be very expensive. E-mail me for more details.

Or if you have any work you need me to do.

Oh, and go pick your purse up off the floor.

Welcome Home

The road is Natalie Denee. It is not yet on any map we could find. I was in charge of leading 18 people to Natalie Denee and so far my leadership efforts had only led us to a Taco Bell in Thibodaux, Louisiana. I asked the girl behind the counter if she had heard of a large Habitat for Humanity neighborhood that was going in nearby. She said no. I asked her if she had a phonebook. She said, “It’s Sunday.”

Welcome to Louisiana. Where apparently the people follow God’s lead and rest (away from phones) on Sunday.

By the time our two vans arrived on Natalie Denee we were all a bit irritable. The journey had not been a smooth one and now that we were out of the air conditioned vans it became quite clear why looks of horror had covered the faces of all who heard we were traveling to Louisiana in July. I live in Sacramento, California, where I am quite used to 110 degree heat. Louisiana humidity, however, I am not used to. Holy hell in a frying pan, Louisiana is hot.

After we all promptly soaked our clothes with sweat we took inventory of our surroundings. We were standing in the middle of a neighborhood-in-progress. Some 80 families would reside here when the neighborhood was finished, some twenty or so houses were in various stages of construction upon our arrival. We were directed to the first two completed homes, where we would be staying for the week. There would be ten people to a house, cots to hold our dehydrated bodies.

We unloaded our vans and started cramming three or four cots in each room. Then we started questioning our vacation choices. What kind of person pays for the privilege of traveling to Louisiana in the summer to engage in manual labor and close living conditions? My kind of person, as it turns out. I’d organized this trip, randomly assembling strangers from throughout the country who could think of no better way to spend a week than to go to Louisiana and help bring a little hope to an area that seemed in desperate need of some.

Shortly after our group arrived we gathered together with other volunteers and some of the families that would inhabit the homes we were building. One by one these families stood up and told a little bit of what is sure to be a very long story. They each thanked us for coming to help, they each thanked God for a new beginning, they each made the heat and the sleeping conditions seem not so bad after all.

These people, these stories, they were why we were here. You could see that their stories were starting to take on a happier tone, that smiles were returning to faces that might have been missing them lately. Those smiles were the reason we were here. And from the moment we saw those smiles we never again felt like we were giving anything. The word “giving” implies putting out more than you are taking in. Nothing we could ever give would match what we got from those faces.

One by one the volunteers stood up and introduced themselves. They were young and old, from all points of our country’s map, all so grateful to be here. To be able to do SOMETHING, because just watching from a distance wasn’t enough anymore.

The 18 people in my group were traveling with Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program. Normally this program involves groups traveling to various destinations throughout the globe and working with families to build homes and futures in faraway places. I had participated in the program before and found it to be one of the best experiences of my life. It was a way for me to meet some great people, do a little good, and really see a country, instead of just bing a tourist looking for my next photo op. Working with Habitat and alongside residents gave me a unique “in” with the locals of the foreign place I was visiting. And seeing a country from their point of view seemed like the only way to bother looking at all.

This time instead of traveling abroad I wanted to go help people in my own country. And more than anything I wanted to see things from their point of view. Every day on the work site I talked to a new partner family who was there putting in their sweat equity hours. I heard their stories of survival and of starting over. There were different levels of loss in their eyes. Some had lost all of their possessions, some had lost so much more. And yet here they were, fiercely moving forward, defiantly ignoring anything close to self-pity or defeat. Here they were both literally and figuratively rebuilding their lives.

Our group of 18 tried our best to see as much as we could of those lives. We ate as much fried seafood as our arteries could handle. We listened to some old men play their accordions down at the cultural center. Who knew people even still owned accordions, let alone three or four? Now we know. We also know that alligators have a keen sense of hearing and can be called by humans they are used to. In Louisiana even the alligators are called “Baby”. We learned that Miss Jennifer is 24 years old and has four kids, one of whom thinks he is Spiderman, “He just jumps off of things.” We learned that no matter how cynical you are you bow your head when Miss Ida prays, because if anyone has the ear of God it would be that 63 year old woman, her dark face lined with history and hope, her sunken eyes glimmering with kindness. We learned that Miss Paula likes the color green and that she hopes Nate will design around the soap dispenser her daughter bought her.

Oh, and we learned that Oprah is coming. Oprah is sponsoring some of these houses and sometime in August she will come dedicate the homes to the new residents. Before that her designer Nate will make each home beautiful and the rest of the Oprah crew will fill the house with furniture and food. We learned all of this before the homeowners did and we kept it a secret from them. After they found out they were all insanely excited, another smile added to their growing stash.

I’m happy for these families. I’m happy that they will get a brush with fame and will get their houses “pimped out” by Miss Oprah. But I suspect after Oprah exits and the camera crews move on this neighborhood will settle into itself and it will become much more than “Oprah’s Neighborhood”, or even “Katrina’s Neighborhood”. What it will be called I do not know, but that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Starting again, creating a new place, a new community, a new hope. No one knows for sure what the future holds for the residents of this new neighborhood, but I think we all know it is off to a great start.

The road is Natalie Denee. More than just a collection of houses and an assortment of families this street represents hope and future. For everyone individually and for everyone as a group. Starting over is never an easy thing, yet somehow this neighborhood doesn’t just feel like a start, it almost feels like a finish as well. Finally, after months of being displaced, of living in trashed homes, of wading through the storm, it seems as though these people are done now. They have a place to lay their children for sleep, they have space to breathe again, they have a little peace and quiet. Most of all they have each other. Once scattered people, they are now free to start growing roots again, together.

Welcome home y’all.

A Team Photo

Oprah's Coming to Town

I found out last week that Oprah was sponsoring several of the homes in the neighborhood where we were building. We couldn't tell the families, because it was a surprise. Tonight when I pulled up to the neighborhood Miss Paula came running up to me, "Oprah's doing me a house! You knew!" "I did, but it was a surprise. Is she going to pimp your house out?" "She IS! Y'all have to come stay, tell the rest of the team, y'all can come stay at my pimped house."

Miss Paula is about as cute as they come.

Miss Ada is a 63 year-old woman who led a couple prayers throughout the week. Even the most cynical bow their heads when Miss Ada prays.

I can't wait to come back next year and visit their pimped houses.

********

Local building blitz draws big-name sponsors
Laura McKnight Staff Writer

BAYOU BLUE - A crowd of local families discovered Sunday morning that despite a heavy national focus on the New Orleans area, the losses they suffered during hurricanes Katrina and Rita have not gone unnoticed.

At least not by Oprah Winfrey or the band Bon Jovi.

The group of families, working to gain homes through Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity, discovered Sunday that their new houses have a high-powered sponsor – Winfrey’s nonprofit Angel Network. The sponsorship was made possible by a gift from another set of stars, Jon Bon Jovi and his band.

“This just shows that our area’s not forgotten about,” said Jeanne Autin, executive director of Bayou Area Habitat.

The Angel Network is using a $1 million donation from Bon Jovi to build 28 homes at a site in the Bayou Blue community. The network will also furnish and landscape the homes through donations made by the general public, as well as pay for some add-ons like porches. The site, near the intersection of Bayou Blue and Bayou Blue Bypass roads, already includes a number of Habitat homes sponsored by various groups.

The Angel Network neighborhood is part of Bayou Area Habitat’s “Building Blitz on the Bayou,” the group’s campaign to build 100 homes in Terrebonne and Lafourche for hurricane victims by the end of the year.

Habitat leaders gathered the future Angel Network homeowners at the Bayou Blue site for a special announcement Sunday morning. The families and dozens of volunteers paused from working on homes to squeeze in front of a large-screen television.

The crowd grew still as Autin greeted the group, then leaned down to start a recorded announcement.

“Hello, hello, Houma, Louisiana,” Winfrey crooned to a stunned audience. She offered another quick greeting, then an explanation: “Ever since you all lost your homes in the hurricanes, I have been doing a lot of thinking about you, and so has one of the world’s biggest rock bands,” Winfrey said, as scenes of Bon Jovi and his band flashed across the screen.

“Yes, they’ve been thinking about you, too. So, today I have some exciting news – each family here that applied for a Habitat home will be moving into one of our brand-new Angel Network homes,” she sang, to gasps from the crowd.

“My heart just almost stopped beating,” said Ada Jones, who will gain one of the homes. “I couldn’t believe that.”

Winfrey herself was caught off guard during Bon Jovi’s appearance on her talk show last fall, when the rock star handed her an unexpected $1 million check to continue her hurricane-relief work.

After the storms, Winfrey offered a $10 million private donation to hurricane-recovery efforts, as well as $1 million to America’s Second Harvest. The star has used her Angel Network to sponsor Habitat homes in Houston and Jackson, Miss.

But so far, Houma marks the only announced Angel Network build in Louisiana, according to network staff. Other home-building projects are likely underway across the Gulf Coast, but not all have been publicly announced.

The network also set up an online home registry last fall, garnering more than $10 million in donations from the public to buy home furnishings and landscape materials for the new homes.

During the Sept. 21 episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Jon Bon Jovi told Winfrey, “The band and I want you to continue your good deeds. You can steward this so it gets to the people that need it.”

The Angel Network and Habitat for Humanity International decided hurricane victims in the Houma area fit that description.

“We’re using that check to build our next Angel Network neighborhood right here in Houma,” Winfrey said in the taped announcement. “And so in just a few months, all of you standing here are going to be neighbors.”

Those receiving the homes hail from Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, as well as the New Orleans area and southwest Louisiana, Autin said.

Habitat for Humanity International recommended that the Angel Network partner with Bayou Area Habitat because of its home-building successes since the hurricanes, Autin said.

“This area’s one of the biggest developments since the storm,” Autin said.

Construction began in April on six of the Angel Network homes and two weeks ago on the remainder. Plans call for all of them to be complete by Aug. 8, she said.

Loud cheering and clapping from Sunday morning’s audience soon turned to hugs and tears as families who will receive the homes described their surprise to an Angel Network camera crew.

After a lifetime of hard work as a housecleaner and caretaker, Ida Hawkins of the Dularge community will soon gain her first brand-new home.

Since Hurricane Katrina damaged her roof and Hurricane Rita flooded her home with two feet of water, the 63-year-old has been living in a FEMA trailer on her sister’s Houma driveway. Hawkins said she grew wishful watching Winfrey help build homes in Houston.

“I never dreamed it would happen to me,” she said. “Sometimes I think I’m dreaming.”

Though Bayou Area Habitat started working with the Angel Network several months ago, spurring rumors of Oprah and Bon Jovi-built homes, the network asked the local group to keep the project quiet so the families would be surprised. The network also asked that no pictures be taken during Sunday’s announcement.

The camera crew and other oddities may have tipped the families that something was up, but those interviewed said they were unaware that Winfrey or Bon Jovi had anything to do with their new houses.

“I had no idea. I just came here to do some hours,” Jones said. As with any Habitat build, the future homeowner must help build the house.

Jones, 73, lost her New Orleans home to Katrina’s floods.

“She said at her age, she didn’t think that there was hope,” said Jones’ daughter, Shirley Madukwe of Nashville.

After living in a shelter in Mississippi, Jones settled into a Thibodaux apartment with her husband, who is being treated for lung cancer.

“At age 73, you just can’t imagine what this will do for her,” Madukwe said. “I didn’t want her to give up.”

Sylvia Young, also a former New Orleans resident, said she looks forward to owning her first home. Young, who works with Options for Independence in Houma, moved across the Gulf Coast after Katrina’s floods destroyed her home.

She now lives in LaPlace, working in an Options office there, but drives to Houma as needed.

“Living in a house will be wonderful,” she said.

The Reason

We pulled up in a noisy van, conversations and music blaring. It got quiet almost instantly.

This is a middle class neighborhood. Almost a year later.

This is the new neighborhood we helped build. I hope it feels like home very soon for the people living here. They deserve it.

Calling Gators

We went on a swamp tour yesterday. It seemed more than a little weird that our swamp tour dude was calling out the gators names and inviting them to the boat. We were pretty sure we saw a very similar setup in the movie Anaconda. But we all survived without incident, which is too bad, because incident would have resulting in better photos. I'm sure FOX would have bought them in a heartbeat. They being the producer of all things extremely artistic when it comes to animal attacks.

So far things are going well. We are working in what will be a neighborhood of 80+ houses. It will be quite a special neighborhood I imagine. A lot of history here already, and a tremendous amount of hope. There seems to be levels of loss in the eyes of the families we are building with. Some have lost their homes and everything they own, some have lost that and people as well. Some have seen things that you see still haunts them a year later, as I'm sure it will for years to come. Hopefully this neighborhood will help them start to build some more positive memories, I think it already has.

Our team is great, I put together a mix of young and old. We have three 17 year olds, up to retired people. Of course the retired people are kicking the crap out of the 17 year olds. The teenagers were kinda over the whole working thing by about day 1.5, but they have parents here that are continuing to make them lift and hammer. I'm sure they will survive, although it is touch and go.

We are staying in volunteer housing on cots, 10 people to a house. It is very cozy, but somehow after hours of manual labor, anything seems comfortable, as long as it involves being horizontal and an A/C. Standards tend to shift a bit here.

We are having fun and have crossed over the midweek hump. We'll be done tomorrow and then we'll go our separate ways. I'll go into New Orleans and work at a food kitchen next week and try my best not to offend anyone with my meager cooking abilities.

Tonight we go on a nighttime gator boat tour thing. We will be on fast boats. There will be many a gator. I'm thinking the teenage boys may finally enjoy one of our activities. Although I may enjoy it even more. Frankly I enjoy any activity that doesn't involve sun.

peace out.

Expert Painter

I am a very good painter.

My main strategy is to put as much paint as possible on the roller then just move it around the wall.

No one else looked like me, so I'm thinking I'm the first one to think up this strategy.

It will catch on, I'm sure.

Painting is inside.

It is still pretty friggin' hot inside, but not as friggin' hot as outside.

Today we will go on a swamp tour after work.

Apparently that is the thing to do.

Sounds misquito-y to me.

Then we will probably eat something deep fried.

Why the people here aren't all 634 pounds I do not know.

They enjoy a deep fryer here.

Which really makes it my kind of place.

It is Hot

I'm in Louisiana.

It is very hot.

I haven't died of heat stroke.

But the week is still young.

Drank roughly 2 gallons of water yesterday.

Did not pee once.

It is hot.

It isn't even 8 a.m. and I've been up for 2 hours.

Why can't saving the world happen at night?

"Vacation"

I'm off on "vacation" to the New Orleans area. I hope to save the world. Or at the very least not be shot at/arrested by the National Guard. You never do know - I'm not so good with authority figures.

I'll blog when I get the chance/internet connection. I'll be in the U.S., so I'm hoping my efforts to remain in contact via the internet won't be as futile as they were in Honduras.

Peace out, y'all.