Cape Cod Community College

Blogs

KATRINA - Day Eight - June 2, 2007
By Lori Crawley, On 6/2/07 9:10 AM

Hello:

Well we started packing the van to head to the airport at 5:30 a.m. We arrived at the airport at 7:00 a.m. As we approached the ticket counter with our tickets we were told that our flight reservations were cancelled in April. The woman couldn't figure out how we had tickets for this flight. We ended up waiting close to two hours before knowing if we were coming home that day or not. I had to get our travel agent in touch with the airline to figure it out. We finally were told they were putting us on another airline that departs at 11:10 a.m. and would connect in Philly and arrive Boston at 5:30 p.m. We were seated all over the plane, but we were all just thankful to get all ten of us on the same plane and headed home.

Some of our students decided to bring some crawfish home that was cooked in creole seasonings. We called ahead of time to find out how we needed to pack them, and basically they said to pack them on ice in a cooler that can go on as your onbaord luggage. Going through the security we were all sent to be searched again. They made us empty the ice out of the cooler. As we entered the plane the stewardess put more ice in the cooler to keep the crawfish cold. As soon as our connecting flight left we noticed some commotion up front of the plane to find that the cooler was leaking and leaked all over the passenger below. Thank goodness it was one of our own students -- Josiah. We had a good laugh about it after we arrived in Boston and he now bears the nickname "Crawdaddy."

Usually with such a large group of very diverse individuals there are times when it can be tense. I cannot say enough about each and everyone that went on this trip. They all got along so well. I am so proud and appreciative to have such a great group of students to travel with.

Categories » New Orleans

KATRINA - Day Seven - June 1, 2007
By Lori Crawley, On 6/1/07 9:10 AM

Good Evening:

Today was the first day of hurricane season here in New Orleans. It is also Camp Hope's 1 year anniversary on this site. This week there have been 306 volunteers. It's such a small world as we met four students from UMASS - Dartmouth, and they know Renee Lopes-Pocknet. One of them is a young woman from Dennis.

The students have mixed feelings being their last day. They have really enjoyed their time here, but can't wait to get back home. We returned to Musician's Village to work on the handicap ramp we were building. By the end of the day, we had the whole ramp done. I believe I had already said in an earlier blog that we met the man "Smokey Johnson" whom we are building the ramp for. Today after our workday was done, we walked wo where he is and all took a picture withf him. He was very appreciative and thanked the students for coming. He said he would love for the students to come again when they have the dedication for Musician's Village.

After the workday ended, we decided to go for a ride in the lower ninth ward and see if we could get closer to the round houses (from earlier blog). Sure enough we found them and they were unbelievablel. They were not even touched by the storm. We were able to talk to a lot of locals today and here their story.

We all ate dinner at Camp Tonight.and took a ride to get a Snowball. We have to be up very early tomorrow to get to the airport on time. We shall see you soon. Can't wait to get home.

Lori

Categories » New Orleans

KATRINA - Day Six - May 31, 2007
By Lori Crawley, On 5/31/07 9:09 AM

Good Evening:

Most of us this morning were moving really slow. I think the week is finally catching up with us. On our way to the worksite at Musician's Village it began to downpour. Well Habitat for Humanity works no matter what the weather is. Needless to say we were somewhat wet by the time we parked and walked to our worksite. The rain usually does not stay long, but this morning it did not stop until 10:30 a.m. During this time we were unable to work on the handicap ramp so they had us tear down a wall in the bathroom to make it larger for the wheelchair.

It was a little discouraging at the beginning as the weather did not cooperate. Once the rain stopped out in the back we went to set the site up to work on the ramp. The whole yard surrounding the house is this soft sand so with the addition of rain we actually were working in mud the whole day. We had lots of fun and learned to work with many tools we have never used before. The math department would be happy to know that we have used our math skills extensively through this whole build. Mary and I weres in charge of the circular saw (wait to you see the pics) and cut all the 2X10 and 2X6 boards. The students screwed in all the boards to make the three platforms for the ramp as well as drilling holes At the end of the day we cleaned up our worksite and then left.

By the way, I don't think I ever mentioned that the camp lunch is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and they have fruit also. So we have lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for this past week. We also have to make them ourselves, so each morning the students take turns and make 20 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Tonight was our group dinner. We were all excited as we have talked with a few locals and they all said we must go to Tony's before we leave. So off we went tonight. They had warned us to make sure two people share the seafood platter if we get it. So a couple of us shared the seafood platter which had oysters, shrimp, catfish, softshell crab, and hush puppies. The plate really could have fed three people. It was delicious. I think we had all wished we had found this place earlier.

I must say our students have quite the charm. They are already the favorite with the security women. There are three women who share different shifts on security and our group has just made a connection with them. Tomorrow evening they want to take us all into the city to hear some real jazz and blues. We are all excited as they no the city and they are taking us to see one of their friends, "Big Al Carson."

Tonight we were all playing games and didn't finish playing until 11:45 p.m. I couldn't have asked for a nicer group of students to take. They are all so different, but have not had one argument. They are so willing to take on any task and they work together so well. It has really been enjoyable being with them.

Well tomorrow is our last full day here. We can't believe it is almost over. They are already asking if we are going to come back another time. We we shall see you soon.

Lori

Categories » New Orleans

KATRINA - Day Five - May 30, 2007
By Lori Crawley, On 5/30/07 9:08 AM

Good Evening:

Day five did not begin with the alarm clock, but with the sound of torrential rain on our tin roof. It was louder than any rain we have ever heard. It also didn't rain continuosly, but in small intervals. One minute it would be coming down in buckets, and the next minute it would be a light mist. Five of us were painting at the Battered Women's Shelter, while the other five were going to be building in Musician's Village. After seeing the downpour of rain, we all decided we would paint at the shelter.

Upon arriving at the shelter, we were given buckets of primer, rollers and brushes to begin prepping the walls for color. We primed all the walls and the ceilings were primed with two coats. By the way, there were 11 rooms!! Once finishing with the primer, we then began to paint the rooms. The staff of the shelter also came to help us paint, which was a wonderful opportunity for us to talk with them and what they offer the community.

The shelter was two stories. The bottom were all of the offices, while they had five bedroom apartments on the second floor for transitional housing. They showed us pictures of the building during the aftermath of the storm. There building was submerged with water to the second floor. The Director of the shelter told us Wheelock College was there the week before us. She is also going to send us pictures by email when the shelter is completed. They were really happy to have us there helping and appreciated our enthusiasm and spirit. By the end of the day we were all splattered with multiple colors of paint from head to toe.

We were exhausted by the end of the day, and decided we would treat ourselves to a local favorite called "snowballs." They are finely shaved ice with a ball of ice cream in the middle. You can get about 80 different flavors with any topping you can imagine. Everyone of us tried a different flavor and enjoyed it thoroughly.

On the way home, we took a short detour to swing by Chalmette Battlefield. This was the sight of the last battle of the War of 1812. We learned how the U.S. Army, Marines, Navy, Choctaw Indian warriors and free black soldiers defeated the British in the last major battle of the war.

All in all, we were very tired after painting 11 rooms four times each. We stayed at camp and called it an early night. Tomorrow we will be back at the Musician's Village to finish the handicapped ramp we started. Good night.

Lori

Categories » New Orleans

KATRINA - Day Four - May 29, 2007
By Lori Crawley, On 5/29/07 9:08 AM

Good Evening:

5:20am: the sound of the first alarm clock goes off, telling us it?s time to rise and start our first day on the build site. We had all divided the morning chores amongst ourselves the previous night, in order to make such a terribly early day a little bit easier. Some went off to the gym across camp to fill the cooler with ice, while others put together a bagged lunch for our group of ten consisting off two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches each.

We had breakfast, which turned out to be our most satisfactory meal in the Hungry Jungle so far. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, French toast sticks, grits, canned pears, blueberry muffins, and cereal. After breakfast, we hurried ourselves to get from camp to the build site, which was about 15 minutes away. When we arrived, it was raining and cloudy, but ended up being a wonderful, sunny day. We were surprised by the number of volunteers we saw ready to work along side of us who we had not seen around the camp. Many people had come from other organizations and schools across the country to help out.

We were helping to build a small community called Musicians? Village, which was a few square blocks of beautifully colored raised homes which Habitat had built. We gathered with the other volunteers around a storage trailer and the organizers from Habitat and Americorps welcomed us, told us a bit about the site, safety and then divided us into groups and sent us on our way to start building! Our leader was Pete. Pete led us to a bright green home where we were going to be building a handicapped ramp for a nice old man who was working with us, named Smokey Johnson. He played with Fats Domino for 28 years!

The first thing we had to do was lay out the plan for where our ramp would be. We had to measure and place flags where we wanted the 4x4 posts to be anchored in cement. Once the flags were in place, we grabbed post hole diggers and went to work. We had to sink each hole 16 inches deep in order to stabilize the posts. When we started getting deeper down, about 10 or 12 inches down, we ran across a layer of crushed shells, and then after that a layer of very dark and thick clay. This proved to make the digging process very difficult, as our shovels would not easily penetrate the shells. We literally got down on hands and knees and dug them out with trowels, crow bars, hammers, and even just our bare hands. When the holes were ready, we fetched the 80 pound bags of cement and started mixing.

It was a joy for me to watch the students, who come from such diverse backgrounds, come together in order to help out those in need, and have such a wonderful time and laugh through the entire day, while working on such a laborious task. Everybody got involved and took their own turn trying out each stage of the build, whether it be mixing, measuring, leveling, digging, or nailing the boards.

For lunch, at 11:30, we went back and met up with some of the other groups on one of the recipient?s of a Habitat house?s front yard. He was a Brazilian musician who played the guitar and wrote his own music. He sang for us throughout our lunch break, and encouraged us to sing along with him. After our feast of melted PB&J, we crowded around an ice cream truck which happened to come down our road. Then we returned to our ramp to finish a few last posts before we had to leave early and head to the Community Center and serve dinner to residents.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Ari, who runs the community center. He informed us that we were not only serving, but also cooking the entire dinner, because their cook was, in Ari?s words ?Missing in Action.? This was quite a surprise for us, as we had about 2 hours in which to scour the kitchen for any food we had to work with, create a menu with the food, prepare it and set it out to serve for people. When we entered the kitchen and began looking for food to prepare, we were flabbergasted by the lack of proper equipment, utensils, appliances, and most importantly, food, to prepare a dinner for 65 people. We were able to find ravioli, chili, peas, corn, four bean salad, rolls, a variety of chips, and vanilla pudding. We sent a team out to the grocery store to get rice, and butter. They also got a fresh watermelon to slice and serve.

Somehow we were able to pull it all together, making home made garlic bread, and a massive pot of rice, and two large jugs of juice; pink lemonade and a concoction of raspberry, strawberry kiwi, lemonade, and pink lemonade mixed together, which actually turned out to be very good!

Finally, the residents started arriving. In a swift attempt to cover our culinary folly of burnt rice and chili, we decided to tell them it was ?Smokey chili? and that it was a local favorite of ours from back north. People loved it so much they came back for seconds, and even to-go bags of it. The evening turned out very well, we were able to talk with more survivors, and hear more fascinating stories from around the parish. It was a very nice way to conclude such a busy day of service.

We have another very early day again tomorrow. Good night.

Lori

«« [1] 2 »»