I realize I have not blogged since we got here so:

1st day of work:

After we finished breakfast and cleaned up my group of six loaded up into Jan’s van and headed to PNOLA. We were greeted by one of the two permanent employees of PNOLA, Jen, who oriented us and discussed the work that PNOLA tries and accomplishes for those people who continue to need support five years after hurricane Katrina made landfall. She also informed us that their goal was to have 14 houses built in time for Christmas. I was really surprised by the fact that there are only two members of PNOLA; it just seems that, based on all the work they have accomplished they would have more permanent staff members.

When we arrived at PNOLA, we were also greeted by members of Americorps, three of whom would be joining us later at our work site. The fact that these volunteers, from different parts of the country were giving their time and effort to those affect by Katrina makes them heroes in my eyes. I am strongly considering joining Americorps after I graduate. After introductions had been made, we left to go to the work site and we learned that the owner of the house was a victim of contractor fraud and so the circumstances fit the criteria for PNOLA’s assistance.

The first day at the work site was comprised of clearing out the debris inside the house, installing insulation, and in the remaining time, we begun putting up sheet rock. My favorite part of the job was definitely putting up the sheet rock because, although it is a tedious process, you definitely feel a sense of accomplishment once the sheet rock is up, the walls begin to look more like, well, walls. I was thankful for the help of the PNOLA members, Chris, Taylor and Cane, who assisted us during our work especially since I struggled at first with installing the sheet rock. Once I had installed the first piece, I felt much more comfortable. A lot of my sense of nervousness stemmed from wanting to do a great job. This was someone’s home I was working on and if I was going to work on it, I wanted to make sure I did the best job I could.

The speakers we had that night talked about how the BP oil crisis affected the people of New Orleans and many other areas along the coast. It is still very shocking to hear about how unsafe seafood still is to this day and it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that our government did so little both in response to Katrina relief and the oil crisis. Someone brought up a good point in the discussion that some Americans think that if it’s not immediately affecting their region of the country then they have no responsibility to help when that is clearly not true. The same thing can be said about the government or corporations, if a disaster does not affect them directly often they show a lack of interest because it may not fit in with their agenda.

The other issue is holding government accountable to some degree for a crisis, whether it is at the national, state or local level; it is so easy to simply say that a natural disaster can not be prevented or is simply too big to help victims after the fact. Katrina has definitely exposed the government’s inability to help communities either through lack of interest or a lack of committing the necessary resources. It is quite obvious that more could have been done before and after Katrina made landfall otherwise we would not be helping out five years later.

That’s all for now, next blog coming soon,

~James Cernik