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.