1st day

I am on a two-man team — just me and a great team leader who is an architect in NYC in his other life. We are working on a house for a couple who both work for the sheriff's office here in St. Bernard. I met them both today, and they are wonderful. As I said in an earlier post, they stayed through the storm, working and protecting residents through the surge that destroyed every home in the parish.
I was screwing in drywall and putting spackle and tape over the cracks. I learned I need to work on my powerdrill skills (all my powertool skills, actually) and I discovered there is a cool machine for spraying texture onto walls. Good times.

Finding disaster

This short blog entry won't fully explain all the reasons — selfish, generous and indefinable — we came to the New Orleans area. But one of the reasons is to be part of rebuilding New Orleans. This begs the obvious question: Should New Orleans be rebuilt? National Geographic asked the question, pundits aplenty asked the question and many of our friends and family asked the question.
Many believe the city should not be rebuilt because it is likely to be hit with another severe hurricane. I don't buy that argument because so many places are subject to natural disasters.
Our home town of Denver faces deadly snowstorms on a regular basis, and is subject to other potential disasters (and I'm not just talking about the Rockies' World Series performance).
On our drive from Denver to New Orleans, we saw the aftermath of several disasters. Colorado brought us the remnants of damaged buildings and livestock deaths in last year's severe blizzards. Greensburg, Kansas has a wide swath of destruction from a horrific tornado.
In Oklahoma City, we saw the devastation of the terrorist attack in 1995. This was not a natural disaster, but that makes it no less tragic, sudden or terrible.
Tragedy knows no address, so it seems unfair to blame Gulf Coast residents for the storm because they chose to live in the path of disaster.
Moreover, the New Orleans area — and St. Bernard in particular — was abandoned in a way that other disaster areas are not.
I met a couple who both work for the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office. They stayed through the storm surge, as did most of the Sheriff's office, they said. They said church groups and volunteers were the first people into the parish to help stranded residents. This is both disturbing and heartwarming.
On one hand, how can the richest government in the world fail its most basic responsibility?
At the same time, I remain inspired by the volunteer effort. That comes back to the reasons we are here. I was inspired by my fellow volunteers and I remain inspired by everyone I work with, and everyone here at Camp Hope.

With Hope

It should not be surprising that, in a region still very much in recovery, all things are very much in flux. Our original plan - to take up residence in a co-op house run by a local non-profit - has been complicated by the fact that the house has moved (or disappeared) and the non-profit may or may not have dissolved. This may all be a blessing in disguise, as one woman we spoke to today implied that the co-op never had much in the way of luxuries. Like water.

It should not be surprising that, in a place that has had to hold itself together with hope for the last two years, we should find our way to Camp Hope. We will be staying here for the next week while we begin our work with the Saint Bernard Project. I am confident that we'll find a more permanent situation soon. In the mean time we will be surrounded by other volunteers in our comfortable, air-conditioned bunk rooms. And we have water.

We landed

Here we are in St. Bernard, Louisiana, to start our volunteer stint. We arrived in Louisiana yesterday and took our time getting across the state.
Last night we stayed in Natchitoches (locally pronounced "nack-a-tish") and had some good cajun food. The town dates to 1714, and is the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. It's a beautiful old college town, and it was homecoming weekend for the local college.
I'll write in another post about a couple other sights we enjoyed on our way here.
My first impression of St. Bernard is that everything is cleaner, more upbeat and more populated than it was in April, when I was here the first time. There seem to be more cars in driveways and on the streets, and more people in general. A few more businesses of many kinds seem to be operating as well. It's nice to see, and validates our work here.
Camp Hope, the volunteer camp, is also greatly improved. The whole camp abandoned its old site with no permanent walls in favor of another school. Overall it is a great improvement, as far as we can tell so far.
As a chronically impatient person, I am anxious for the workweek to start. With our housing and other details in limbo for now, I think I will feel much better when I am holding a hammer or a paintbrush on Monday morning.

Getting started

My name is Steve Graham. My wife, Christine, and I will move to St. Bernard Parish, La., next week to start an extended volunteer stint rebuilding homes destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. We hope to provide a glimpse at life in this area full of hard-working people struggling to rebuild their lives after a tragic catastrophe.
I spent several days in the area in April, and was inspired by the people and the extensive need in the area. It was also wonderful to be around hundreds of other volunteers. I have been anxious to return since then, so I am excited to get back.
We arrive Friday in a co-op house, and we start construction work Monday.
Thank you for reading our blog. Email me with questions or comments, and come join us in this effort.