It was pretty typical to not get our day's assignment until right before we left. Sometimes Operation Nehemiah knew what we were doing a few hours before, or the night before but not always. At about 8am we found out that we would be deployed to 2 jobs, gutting a house or a "warehouse job". Last year a group of the kids, because they were too young, did not get to gut a house. Last year they were know as The Acorn Group, which was the name of the group they worked with last year. The gut job was definitely more popular, so as a group we decided that The Acorn group, would be first on the list. Then we decided that seniors, who might not have another chance if this was our only gut job should go next. As it turned out, we had 2 more guts during the week, but we were not sure of that at the time.
So, 10 youth and drivers headed to the gut job, and the rest of us with our mapquest directions in hand, drove to the warehouse not knowing what to expect. The address was a closed Walgreens, with two 18-wheelers parked at the back. Walgreens's was renting the warehouse for $1/month to Operation Nehemiah. They had built another new Walgreen's down the street. James said he always shops at Walgreen's now.
James was waiting for us and he drove the fork lift for most of the day. Our task for the day was to unload the 2 trucks which had all kinds of equipment from another one of their warehouses that had been sold. We unloaded: showers, fridges, washers, dryers, 100s of beds, mattresses, trash cans shrink wrapped with shovels, tiles, metal roofing, springs for beds, tables, insulation, air conditioners, tools, garden tools, wheel barrows, cement mixer, carpet, clothing, etc. A lot of the stuff had been loaded onto pallets and stacked and then shrink wrapped. The stacked pallets were about 3 inches too tall for James to be able to wheel them into the warehouse so we had to break them down and carry the stuff inside.
Again, a drug store transformed into a warehouse for construction and demolition equipment. One local resident came by and asked if the Walgreen's was opening. He had such a hopeful look in his eye, that the neighborhood was gaining a drug store.
It was hard work. During our circle time that evening, many of us remarked that we did not feel like we had done anything for the actual residents. One very smart youth commented "Someone has to do that kind of work" Youth are often so wise beyond their years. Each evening we had a circle time, and 2 or 3 youth were selected to lead for the next day. We also asked those youth to decide who would go on each work project, and who would drive in each car. We really tried to empower the youth to lead whenever they could.
The gutting crew came back very dirty but they seemed happy to have met the owner, Ernest Smith. His parents lived right next door in the house that had been completed first.
I did not choose the gut job since I was being cautious with my knee. Carrying heavy debris down stairs and into the dumpster did not seem like work I could do.
Dinner was at St. Jude's and then we walked into the French Quarter, had beignets and coffee and walked along the Mississippi River for a little bit.
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