Missing Nawlin's already

Another Spike is officially over as I am writing this from Vicksburg, Mississippi back on AmeriCorps South East campus.  After arriving back yesterday (Friday) afternoon it's still sinking in that I am no longer in New Orleans. Truly an amazing city consisting of people who really love New Orleans and want what's best for it.

Mudding the ceiling

Putting up sheetrock

Measuring sheetrock with a Rosemont volunteer

Darren Sharper and Roman Harper

Darren Sharper

Union volunteer group with Roman Harper

Roman Harper signs Jim's nailgun

Last weekend in New Orleans

Yet again another Spike fly's by as my 2 month journey in New Orleans is coming to a close. Next Friday my team will be heading back to campus in Vicksburg, Mississippi (which as always is bittersweet).

Alright photo time to recap the week

Kari, Will and a Union Volunteer discussing sheetrock

Guns found inside house we're working on

Let the sheet rocking begin

Will secures the foundation

Jen hangs Sheetrock on the walls once ceilings are done

Sgt Johnson, an injured military officer whose house we're working on stops by during our lunch break

Union Volunteers with Sgt Johnson with the Flag that made it through Katrina

Sheetrocking the walls > Sheetrocking the ceiling

oh willy

Charter school ISP, Taylor and I hung all the "motivation" signs

Roman Harper signed my Protein shaker!

Roman Harper and myself

Cutting out insolation

Will, Jen, Kari, Ruth and I with our Union volunteers

Clearly it's been a pretty hectic week.  PNOLA had 17 Volunteers from Union college come down for the week, working with us at Sgt Johnsons house all week.  This house was a high priority project as the Saints invested a very generous donation towards this house being completed.  Roman Harper of the Saints made a special appearance at this site in his way to give back towards the community.  Articles about Harpers contribution at this site, as well as other Saints can be seen @ http://unitedwaynola.org/hope/ as well as http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2010/12/new_orleans_saints_safeties_da_1.html. 

Although we have to work tomorrow, I do not mind at all.  Besides the fact that more Saints players could be making an appearance (here's hoping), I have learned new skills this week including sheetrocking, mudding, and taping.  Hopefully we will be able to prime the walls before the end of next week so we can see this house really come together....

Some other fun pictures I found from our last Kaboom build

PNOLA + AmeriCorps

Team leader Chris Money

PNOLA site supervisor Chris

PNOLA Grace

Jim helps a fellow volunteer build a bench

Team Giraffe oh yes

Oh and muy importante! I found out where I will be headed after Christmas break! January 19th River 7 will be headed to work with The Nature Conservancy in Charlottesville, Virginia! Essentially our project will consist of the following:
    Teams will assist in a variety of important conservation and natural resource projects on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, to include removal of tree shelters, planting of native shrubs, preparing sites for tree planting and habitat restoration and supervising community volunteers.
We will be there for a month and then relocate to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to work with Recover, Rebuild, Restore Southeast Mississippi from 2/24/11 until 3/29/11.  This project consists of:

Rehabilitation of a historic 10,080 square foot boarding house to be used as volunteer housing. Team will also work with R3SM clients, the indigent, elderly and disabled, in minor home repairs.

So there you have it, Spike #3 is a split round and I'm pretty excited to be in Virginia and closer to the family, can't get much more north than that!

Edit: While in Virginia I will not be staying in Charlottesville, instead I will be residing in a cabin at one of the state parks closer to the shore.

Sick day

Siding completed

Mas siding

Remember that first house we demo'd?

Carpentry

Look at that foundation... stable as a rock!

December 1rst in NOLA

Church siding on roof

Church 2nd floor

Church 1rst floor

Carpentry work in church

Will nailing up house wrap

Myself holding up house wrap for Will to nail

Perfection

Pink wood for closet

A lot has went down after returning from Thanksgiving break.  I have been working at numerous sites trying to accomplish as much as possible to finish up these houses for PNOLA before Christmas break.  I've done a good amount of siding this week at different locations as you can see the church and house siding is just about complete.  Also I have been getting to do some carpentry work such as stabilizing the foundation and building closets with my boy Cain.

Taking a quick peek back at my JMU volunteers, I have acquired some new photos of working with them last week.

Volunteers anxiously awaiting paint in their trays

Crazy kids!

End of the day

Celeb spotting! Steve Zahn

Yesss my list of celebs continues to grow as Steve Zahn was gracious enough to come take a picture with us between filming Treme Season 2, an HBO documentary.

As the title suggests, I am sick today... So I'm taking my first sick day as my throat and head are killing me.  Who would have thought it would be possible to get sick down here when the weather is still so warm?

Monday the next group of volunteers arrives and works with us for a week which we are all looking forward to.  Apparently putting up sheetrock will be the major task for the upcoming week which will be a new experience for me.

Turkey Break!

Colin and myself

River 5, 3, 1, and 6

River 5 in NOLA!

Huuuuuge Train

Where River 7 is from

Honeybee's

Ribbon cutting

KaBoom finished

Train next to River

JMU volunteer Alyssa

JMU volunteer Kelley

JMU volunteer Lindsey

JMU volunteer Chelsea

JMU volunteer Misty

JMU volunteers at work!

My first Po-Boy

NOLA/Solar Panel

NOLA XMAS

French Quarter

As always, had an awesome time with River 5 coming to NOLA for a short weekend.  After catching up Saturday night we spent Sunday walking around downtown on a beautiful day (and some saw some monster trucks along the way).

Prior to their arrival Saturday was spent at another Kaboom build where about 300 volunteers showed up.  Clearly by now we are pretty pro at these Kaboom builds as we have 2 under our belt...  Instead of art easels and chalkboards we constructed a slide this time (and by construct I mean bolt together plastic).  After securely adjusting the bolts accordingly and confirming the safety of our future generations I was able to converse with fellow volunteers from Teach for America and City Group who were working in the area.

Monday I worked with 5 JMU volunteers (Go Dukes!) and impressed them with my knowledge and love for their school which I described as my "college away from college" after visiting friends there so frequently.  We painted as per usual which continued into Tuesday.  One more day at this work site and it should be completed (hopefully).

I'm pretty excited to be seeing my family tomorrow for Thanksgiving break.  Although it won't be long enough it is a much needed break and I will be able to see my twin sis, parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousins, and many more people I dearly love!

Special Thanks to Jim Jim Coningsby the Executive Director of PNOLA for driving me to the airport at the absurd hour of 4am making my travel accommodations possible.

Oh and sorry Ma I did buy a Bree's Jersey... I don't want to hear it after Eli's performance against Philly!