I spent four days volunteering at ARNO (Animal Rescue of New Orleans) before the UCC group arrived, and, as usual, they are amazingly busy. The whole operation is run by volunteers, and the ones I worked with are amazingly committed to their cause.

It's incredibly tiring work and the time just seems to fly by -- there's always another dog to walk, or cages to clean or dishes and kitty litter pans to wash. I'd start at 7:30 in the morning and when I next looked at my watch it'd would be after 5 at night.It was tough work, but every action you take feels like you doing something tangible to help the life of one of the animals.

I work side-by-side with one of their full-time regular volunteers, Jeff, and after four days, we were working together with efficiency and had built up a camaraderie that usually takes months to create. I find this happens anytime I volunteer -- people just naturally bond as they work.

The same has been true with the rest of the UCC group, now that they've arrived. The four others that I'm working on are amazingly hard working and within minutes we were joking with each other and working together as a natural team. I've been wholly impressed with how John, John, Dave and Roy have jumped into some amazingly technical and large-scale work rebuilding the foundation of the house, and myself have just been sticking with simpler tasks like running wires and cutting boards for the subfloor.

Today we all were able to share in a great event -- we were able to watch as the 210th famliy served by the St Bernard Project came home. They had a small ribbon cutting ceremony and we were able to walk through the house just before the family moved their furniture in. I found it very moving as it brought to life the changes were are bringing to the area.

It has been amazing to me to see the differences in the neighborhood in the short year since we were last here -- there are many, many more volunteers helping St Bernard Project, businesses are starting to come back, many of the derelict houses have been removed by the parish, and more and more houses are appearing, even in the Lower 9th Ward.

The scope of the problem is still humbling, but it is exciting to see change coming to the area, bit by bit. I am attaching a picture of our team with Liz McCartney, one of the founders of St Bernard Project and the winner of the 2008 CNN Hero of the Year Award.

-Jim Arnow

New Pics from New Orleans

Carl & Roy

Lee

Dear First Congregational Members!

This is one of the correspondents here in New Orleans that you commissioned at the worship service on April 26. We have been here from Saturday till today and have 4 more days to go. We are engaging the culture, the people, the stories, and each other. Your blessings on us have yielded even more blessings on our journey.

On Saturday a group of us went to the usual Kenner’s Seafood Restaurant which is near the airport. They greeted us with open arms for we have been going there since we started coming to New Orleans to help in the rebuilding. That is 7 times. In fact, one of us had on the Kenner Seafood Hat! It was tasty as usual and was immersion into the New Orleans culinary experience. The crawfish, catfish, fried eggplant, broiled oysters, and okra.

On Sunday we went to church, since this were we are staying, the St. Matthew’s UCC. We were almost enough to double the size of the congregation although one of us joined the choir which made the men’s section 3! We missed you all.

After church it was time for the full day at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. It was an overcast day with an abundance of musicians. All of us appreciated the variety. Highlights included the Los Lobos, Ellis Marsalis, Neil Young, a trumpeter named Jeremy Watkins who called one of his students who is 11 years old onto the stage and then loaned his own trumpet so the young man could play. The kid wailed on it. Brought the hundreds of people who were there to their feet. The slew of music settings were almost as diverse as the kiosks of food. The sweet potato pone was among the best.

Sunday night two groups went down to the French Quarter and enjoyed more music and the New Orleans cuisine. One of the groups went on the St Charles streetcar to the French Quarter.

When we arrived to the orientation for our first work day on Monday, we were ushered into a large room in the new St. Bernard Project building. There were at least 110 people there. 30 or so were Canadians. We heard the story of Frank White again, the man who stood on the roof of a bank with another couple hundred people for 6 days!!!! Until the Canadian Royal Mounted Police arrived in boats to rescue them. Frank, a Vet, and fireman, and a loyal American was profoundly upset that it took the U.S. team to arrive on the 7th day to help! It has taken years to build up trust in those who were deeply disappointed for the response to Katrina and the following rebuilding.

Then off to the work sites on Monday. We split into three groups to work in three different houses. Each group has different stories. However, the same theme is heard over and over. “Thank you for coming to help and thank you for not forgetting us.”

Especially as we drove that afternoon through the Lower Nine (where the Make It Right program sponsored by Brad Pitt has built creative, imaginative buildings) we could still the major devastation in the area. As we saw in St. Bernard Parish where we are working, there are now very few homes that are not yet mucked out, no huge piles of all the possessions of the home on the street, and although of the 27,000 homes that were totally flooded, barely half of them are being inhabited. This is almost 4 years since Katrina. St. Bernard Project with whom we are working, has rebuilt 207 homes to date. They are working on 30 of them right now. Since the CNN coverage and the Hero of the Year Award presentation to Liz McCartney one of the directors of St. Bernard Project there has been much more volunteer help and therefore more Americorps and staff have been hired.

There are more stories as you would imagine. It is still so very powerful to be here and see the work that has been done, AND the work that is yet to be done. Zack, the other director, indicated that it will be at least another 5 years before the work load for rebuilding will see the light at the end.

We have had some Cajun catfish for dinner the other night, prepared by one of our cooking crews using spices from Boulder! Like taking coals to Newcastle.

This is the first installment.

There are some photos, just of some of the group and our tour and our work!

Grace and peace,
Alan

Jean

Carl

Carl and Alan hard at work!