New Orleans Day Three: To work

After a quick breakfast and lunch-packing, we went off to work. Another chaperone and I took kids to work with Youth Rebuilding New Orleans, a high school based program that tries to rebuild communities by bringing people together. Actually, the whole organization seemd to be the two adults we worked with, Bob and Mary. Bob kept using "we," but it was pretty much him. He trains kids to do a lot of things, including flooring, doors, roofing -everything - though he said a lot of them already know from doing their own houses after the storm.

Bob works on houses, but he sees that as a means to the end of rebuilding communities. For instance, typically, after working on a house, Bob, will have a big barbecue for lunch ("We know how to celebrate down here.") with his crew and with other people from the neighborhood. He's trying to get people to feel that their old neighborhoods are homes again. He doesn't do that in the summer - his student crews are too small. Our group is here to help him keep the work going while his students are less available.

One of the things that he thinks is most important is a garden in front of the house. Bob said that you can do everything you can to a house (and he and his students do), but a woman won't feel it's her home until she has her garden. (Also, I suspect he was looking for work that was good for our kids' first day skill level.)

We drove a short tour of the neighborhoods so the kids who see the importance of the work. We then went to one house and added a front garden. This was a great experience, as the family was there, working with us. After lunch and some basketball at a local school, we worked at another house, planting another garden and moving the sod to a bare patch in the yard. At both places many people approached Bob about getting help for their yards or houses. Bob said one of the best things about working with kids is that the neighbors are more likely to come forward and ask for help if they need it. Again, bringing people together.

Bob had much to say - he is quite a talker - about New Orleans and about what he is trying to do. Part of his mission is to change the culture, to get the kids to take responsibility and leadership for their own city. He said some tough, honest stuff on this topic, as did the kids who work with him. They do a lot, but not with blinders on, and it seems they are trying to address even the big, cultural issues that made rebuilding tough. For instance, we left the first house a bit undone. Bob told me he did that on purpose. He wanted the kids who lived there to finish the job so they could have that pride and that sense of ownership.

Bob works as a guidance counselor at a local high school, and three of his students helped out and led the team. Two of them were recent graduates, and I asked them what they were doing after high school One is going to join the Marines, and the other hopes to be a firemen. After we came back to the hotel to shower and get some relief from the oppressive heat, they were going off to do roofing.

Our kids learned a lot about service. From kids.

So did I.

Our students seemed gratified, appreciated, and satisfied with a day of hard work. We got a lot done in a little bit of time; Bob insisted on long breaks, and he knows what he's doing. He said in this heat the kids won't have enough energy for a full week if we don't get them out of the sun often.

A good first day. Some sunburns, lots of water, one pretty serious eyeful of dirt, and a lot of heat, but we returned to the hotel with satisfied, tired, very dirty kids.

Tonight we're going to a church to watch a slide show and talk to a local pastor about the rebuilding efforts. Tomorrow I return to Youth Rebuilding New Orleans, but I think with a different group of kids. It was fun today to work with my own kid. I don't know if that will happen again (I'm not so good with schedules) but I'm glad he'll get other experiences as well.

Here's a slide show of the day: