First Work Day

“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

I didn't know it was possible to fall in love with a place so quickly, but I've been in New Orleans for three days now and have fallen in love with this city. Driving down the streets, you can see the love and the pride that this city has. Each home is different from the next, and you can just see how expressive, unique, and artistic the people are by the different colors, creative architecture, and beautiful plants and artwork on and around the properties. 

Not only have I fallen in love with the city, but also the people living here. The hospitality is nothing like I've ever experienced before. For the most part, people can tell that we aren't from around here when we're walking around. Because of this, I have had countless conversations with complete strangers who are just so interested in where we're from and they go out of their way to welcome us to their home and thank us for coming to help. Yesterday I went into an art gallery in the French Quarter, and I was talking with him for about ten minutes, and I was literally sitting on the floor of his art gallery petting his puppy...which seems like it would normally be extremely weird, yet it was one of my favorite moments from yesterday because I saw how welcoming and friendly people can be here.

Exploring the city yesterday was so incredible, and left me in awe at the beauty within the area. Walking on the levee was surreal. For a little while, I simply sat on it imagining the water pouring over the top, and breaking through the middle, and it just gave me such a deeper understanding of what the people truly had to face during Hurricane Katrina. This made me want to get started on work just that much more. 

Today we finally started, and it was exhausting...yet I loved every moment of it. I mastered (well, sort of) how to use a power screw driver and we worked on basically re-doing a lot of what a past group had incorrectly done. Now that we have prepped the walls, we'll begin mudding tomorrow and I cannot wait to learn how to. I want to get as much done at the house this week, which is why today I tried working as quickly and efficiently as I could to my ability. I may be exhausted because of it, but I loved being able to work with and learn from the St. Bernard's volunteers. I cannot wait to continue working and see how much we can accomplish by the end of the week.