39 Phelps Lane South Hero SHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

What have we been up to? Last weekend we traveled to Vermont for Easter to see Mike and Peg, Charles and Julia, Dau and Tom and the nieces and nephew. Before we left, we had decided to casually look for a retirement property. This is so like us, we both found this property, independently. We drove to it with Mike on Saturday and looked with the realtor on EASTER SUNDAY. We are reviewing the purchase and sale on this Thursday. I guess the message is that we know what we like when we see it, and we both have very similar tastes on the big stuff. That is why we are happily married after almost 21 years. So until it becomes final, mums the word, don't mention it to anyone if you believe in jinxes, which I don't. I never thought we would live in South Hero, but is it only 25 minutes from Burlington, on the lake and we can afford it. It is also very close to NY, which will drive the male contingent of the Russell family and Chris's girlfriend Meg, crazy. What is not to like about that?

What is Your Favorite Season?

In staff meeting this week, my boss kicked our meeting off with "What is your favorite season?" I could not go with a convential answer, WHAT A SHOCKER!, so I said late winter. Not spring, not winter, but late winter.

WHY? Because once it is very clear that the days are getting longer, my depression lifts and I become the hamster that most of my family and friends know and love.

We discussed this in women's group last night and I realized that those mid-winter nights, when I sit on the couch, do SUDUKO, knit and watch TV, are for a reason. I do not have to be a bundle of activity 365/24/7. Although lately I have gotten close to that. My dreams are hard work after all. Just sitting is a necessary non-activity.

Daylight savings time helps, and it was 2 weeks earlier this year, but it really is mid-Feb that is my favorite time of year.

Did I say yet that I love my boss? She starts every staff with a question like this. Even when are agenda is jam-packed and abbreviated, this part is not forgotten.

NOLA - Last Day

We woke the youth up at 3am, to get ready to leave St. Jude's at 4am.

I felt sad leaving. This community center had become our home for the week. I hugged the cook Janice, who was up at 3am to serve us donuts.

To the airport. The 4 drivers dropped all of the gear and did a few circles of the airport trying to find the rental return place. It was not the same place that they picked up the vans.

Checking in was easy, security was easy, and all boarding passes were accounted for. Only one was left in the airplane in Atlanta.

Dan met another group in the airport from Concord MA. 45 youth and 6 adults who worked on a house from slab to roof during the week. They had a very different experience from ours and there are pros and cons to each. We switched around on projects all week, never feeling like we could finish one. They worked on one all week. This group had the exact same flight schedule as we did. 4 hour lay over in Atlanta and then to Boston.

When we found our departure gate, we told the youth to be back, one hour before boarding. They all ventured out to get breakfast, but returned to hang out in the departure area.

While there I saw one of the Concord youth had a shirt from a school that my niece had gone to last fall. It turns out that they were bunk mates. It is a very small world.

When we landed at Logan, I was bubbling over. The parents who greeted us, were overwhelmed I am sure. It was sad to break the group up after 1 week. I could not give enough hugs. I don't think I hugged anyone who was not from the group, or a parent driver. Not sure though.

This is the end of my NOLA posts. I want to go back next year, and I want to spend a few months when I retire, doing enough work to feel like I have made a difference.

Learnings:

• We do take care of each other



• It is not about what we want to do, it is about what the home owner wants



• Many people we saw told us how much they appreciated us coming down and were touched that they had not been forgotten. Who is helping who?



• Youth are very smart and teach me daily



• Hold the mirror up when someone is pushing one of your buttons



• Community building is how we can make a difference in the world



• Groups start, groups work and groups end

A drop in the ocean is a drop in the ocean, and the faces of the people who touched us, made it worth the time, and effort.

NOLA - Saturday was our tourist day

Breakfast was late today, 8am. The group really needed a kick back day.

Rod and I drove 4 youth to see Tulane. One of them is convinced that she wants to go there. On our journey there we drove a route that went by the Superdome. I imagined what it was like for people to walk from downtown to the Superdome. Near there is an overpass and underneath is a tent city homeless community. We heard on some news that many of them are disabled. Our car was quiet every time we drove underneath that overpass. Our return journey was down St. Charles street, which is the Garden District, and beautiful victorian mansions. What a contast!

We then left to drive to the Bayou for our swamp tour. The group broke up into 2 groups of 14 each. Apparently, it is a bit early for big alligators. We saw a 6 foot one. We saw lots of snakes. The tour guide could spot them for afar, and later I learned that they tend to be in the same spot, and that the operators tell each other where they are.

For dinner we drove to South Carrleton Street to Shaggy's. Our group last year, visited Shaggy's when they were just opening, and 2 young women pushed us all week to return to Shaggy's. Because of the financial state, our group this year, visited him on one of his last days. Bittersweet once again. He made a Crawfish Boil for us. 2 big buckets of crawfish, potatoes, and corn cooked with some hot spices. When he served them, he said "Everybody stand up and move whatever you don't want to get damp." He them proceeded to empty the two big buckets onto the center of the 4 tables. You sat and ate crawfish, and left the shells in a big pile in front of you. The higher the pile the better. It was delicious.

We hurried back to walk to Jackson Square for the Graveyard tour. I did not go on this, but one of the pictures of the group was taken that night during the tour.

The group got back about 10:30pm. The youth thought they were going to stay up all night, but we were visiting someone's community and that would not have been possible, for them to be up all night. There was no where at St. Jude's for them to hang out the way they do during our youth group sleepovers. Some of them had to unpack their sleeping bags, since they really thought they were staying up all night.

To bed, only to get up at 3am.

NOLA - Friday finishing the Gut, starting a Gut and Tiling

Friday, the end of our work week. I was sad at the time to think that this was our last day. I wanted to have much more of an impact than I felt we had so far.

We broke into 3 groups. We actually got to go back to the Gentilly gut to clear all of the trash from the house and put it into a dumpster. Having heard at circle time from many of the participants that they just wanted to finish a project, this was very satisfying.

The second Gut was an occupied house, labeled an arts and crafts house, I think. This meant that the group had to be careful because there were household belongings in the house.

I stayed at St. Jude's were we tiled the 2 bathrooms. Russ instructed us in how to tile and I am thrilled that 6 youth now know how to tile and that I do as well. It was a really fun last job. At first I really doubted my ability so I was just doing the support jobs; handing people tile, cleaning stuff up etc. Later in the day though I spread the mastik (sp?), place the tiles and overcame my fear, that I cannot do details. We took very few breaks and the youth were incredible in their learning the skills, and applying it.

St. Jude's feeds the hungry for lunch, so we tried to stay out of the way for that. Everyone gets a single portion, until the cook, Janice, determine that no more are coming in and then announces that seconds are available. People jumped up to get back into line for a second helping.

After dinner, we walked into the French Quarter for t-shirts, souveniers and of course BEIGNETS. One grouped organized by Mariah and Jamie, went to the Preservation Hall for some jazz and blues. I have never seen some of the youth so inspired. We had many musicians among us. Some of them, I AM SURE, are going to move to NOLA to help out and then be able to do their music.

Apparently, our group the day before, bagged enough food to feed the low income for 3 weeks. There was some tension between the people who work at St. Jude's and us, because they had no place to put the 3 weeks worth. We offered to help move it.

NOLA - Thursday - guts and Rock and Bowl

Thursday the rain continued. We could not go finish Janice's painting job and many of us were disappointed by that. Operation Nehemiah tried their hardest to find an assignment and at about 9am they said they could get us tickets to the Aquarium and we would have 2 jobs in the afternoon. 2 GUTS!!!!!!

I needed some quiet time, so stayed back at St Jude's read and NAPPED (even though there was hammering and construction going on just outside the women's dorm)

The wet group arrived back from the Aquarium in great spirits. I think the morning off was good for everyone.

The gut I went to was a one story in the Gentilly neighborhood. 1 in 5 houses is occupied in that area. On our way we drove by a Senior Citizen housing project of maybe 1200 units that is completely empty. It looked like they are tearing it down. I have to wonder where those 1200 families are living.

When you gut a job you have to wear, safety glasses and a mask. With my glasses and the mask, both my regular glasses and safety glasses fogged up quickly. My job was to remove nails and more nails from studs. When we first got there we were just removing nails, but soon the demolition of the ceilings started. The youth loved this part. Sledge hammers and crow bars in the hands of teen age hormones is a fabulous sight to see. When this started it was near impossible to continue the nail work. You cannot see anything when there is fiberglass insulation and ceiling materials in the air.

It was a really good afternoon and we put the work materials into the trailer owned by Operation Nehemiah just in time for the rain to come down.

We did not clear the material out of the house, since you cannot just put the trash on the curb any more. Last year you could, but this year if you do that they FINE you. You have to call to have it picked up. Next door to this house is trash from them cleaning up their house. I wonder how much their fine is by now?

When we first got to NOLA, Fred told us about ROCK and BOWL. In fact, because of his connections, we got in for nothing, but bought lots of soda and fries. It was a bowling alley which was going to go out of business when some musicians said "Can we play at the bowling alley?" A wonderful Zydeco band was playing that night. It is a very successful business now.

Our group paid for 1 hour of 4 lanes and bowled. There were some very unorthodox bowling techniques. They were having such a good time, they continue for the second hour in 3 of the lanes. Some of our youth bowled, ran to the dance floor and a runner would grab them from the dance floor when it was their turn to bowl.

And the picture for today is of Beignets, cafe au lait and a wee bit of powdered sugar.