Sweat, blood and tears amoung other things.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2.


Well, i did finally get to go out and start gutting a house. There was a large portion of it done, so we came in at the middle point. A few things were still left over from the flood in there, including some lovely smashed cans that smelled to high heaven. EW. There was also a squatter there and they had left some food, blankets, razors, etc, as well as lovely deposits in the toilet. Someone's dog was also loose in the house and luckily the bathroom hadn't been gutted yet, so there was a place that we could put him.

After we established jobs and got all the gear on we broke into two teams. Each team was on either side of the shotgun house. Mike and I were crew leads because of our expirience so we had our own crews!

Here's where it gets interesting. My crew was going through and we were working on pulling out nails and baseboards. Most of the gunk in the house was already out and we were doing some of the end work. It was very hot that day, and while in gear there was a lot of SWEAT. I was working on cutting wire that was holding 2 pieces of wood together. I was using a super pocket tool with a wire cutter, knives, kitchen sink, etc when i happened to slice my hand.

I screamed calmly to Mike (who thankfully is an EMT) "I stabbed myself" where we then went outside and everyone was looking at the amount of BLOOD coming from my hand. It didn't hurt at all. I was strong, and of course being the cool kid i am not so worried about it but rather intriuged. Mike bandaged it up very quickly and i sat on the porch for a bit. When lunch arrived, i was brought back to St. Mary's where we are staying and had the medic here look at it and clean it. Which is where the TEARS started to flow. The adreneline had worn off and I was in pain. I then got sent to the Algiers free clinic (2 clinics in one week!!). There it was decided that the cut was shallow enough to just escape stiches. YAY. Sad news though is that i am out of gutting until Saturday (but since today is Friday, I'm ok with that).

So for the past 2 days i have been sitting at the front desk, which has been almost as cool. Here I am able to meet all the new volunteers and also meet the residents who come in to sign up to gut their house. It gives me a chance to get to know these people and hear their stories which are amazing. Yesterday, i met a woman who lives nextdoor to a blind man with a seeing eye dog. She came in because his house had been gutted but there was still mold and it needed to be cleaned up (usually was is needed is to pressure treat the mold). The major issue is that the man has a goiter that is now growing on his neck and his dog is getting sick. So she's been trying to get him help. During the storm they were stuck together and swam to a little store. She said he knew exactly where stuff was. They were up to their neck in water and he would say, go to the third row, 2nd shelf down there should be cans of tuna, and he was right. She felt that she should help him now since he helped her then. She got a crew of a few people to go and pressure treat the house. It was quite amazing.

After the work day, we have dinner and then a community meeting. At the community meeting we bring up topics we feel are important to dicsuss. One of the boys from NY brought up something about the Race/Racim Caucus that really upset them. I guess during caucus they split up in to race groups. The group from NY is very diverse and have many races within them including one who is of caucasian appearance (I say appearance because you don't know his back ground). When they arrived to the segregated meeting, the group asked the "white" boy why he was there. It ended up being an issue that he was at this meeting and cause quite a stir. What stemmed from that meeting and brining it up was an amazing coversation about power, privlidge and race which most of us decided was a social construct. It was a very cool disucsion.

After that a group of us went to Bourbon Street so i could get my official Hurricane on bourbon. We also got Cafe Dumont Beignets. It was a great time had by all and we had a great nights sleep.

Plus:
Package delivery from Marian
Discussion around "Solidarity not Charity" - what does that mean to you?
Possibility of going to HOUMA
Going to the French Quarter
Meeting some GREAT people

Delta:
Electricity going on and off
getting frustrated with the food so early on
i have over 100 mosquito bites and nothing helps
the Gumbo Gatos left, and i am terribly sad.

Wish List:
a trash compactor
wooden push brooms that won't break.
grapes/apples/strawberries