Day Four: Good Karma

This morning we went to finish house number 3 from yesterday, and we did some light demolition on house number 4, a nice yellow house that had a lot of stuff. It was an easy, smooth day filled with good karma, mostly.

The only bad thing came when Clayton was nowhere to be found when we left this morning. Considering that Ashlee, Brittani, Amy, and Jessica were MIA yesterday, I figured this was an improvement. Later I missed his call on my cell phone, and by the time I realized he'd called four times and answered his next call, he'd taken a bus and was in a panic trying to find house number 3 when we'd moved to house number 4. I suggested he go back to the camp, and he spent the rest of his money on a cab to get back. Sigh. Getting college kids to be at the same place at the same time has been frustrating, but I can't imagine a group of more enthusiastic home wreckers.

The good karma started near the end of gutting house number 3, at 2132 Feliciana near N. Miro. I walked behind a house to pee (working in a neighborhood with no water has a few drawbacks) and saw a woman on the sidewalk on my way back. I asked her if she was looking at her house and she said yes. Her house was already gutted, and she had come down from where she was staying near Chicago to think about the next step. She told us about the neighborhood, about the families she grew up around who are now scattered across the country. But she expected most to return and rebuild. As she smiled and spoke, our video student Melissa asked for and interview and set up her camera. She got over an hour of great footage.

The next nice surprise was meeting Reverend Stevens, the owner of house number 4. He was working on his house just off St. Bernard Avenue where they have water and power, when we arrived. He showed me the work--removing some panelling and warped oak flooring from his lovely 60s ranch home. He showed me around and said he had done the trim and drywall before and he would again. After gutting houses that looked they were a long way from restoration, it was encouraging to see a house already being worked on. I left him some paper Christmas ornaments my students had made on New Orleans themes. Maybe his family will put them on their tree.

There were other little good karma moments making connections with the locals. There was the skinny asian kid who gave me half his Oyster Po Boy and macked on our college girls, saying, "I may be small, but I'm big on the inside." There was Tony's casual comment that we "were helping people that need it." And my favorite was the gay bar owner who, after hearing we'd been gutting houses all day, told the girls with us, "I own this bar. What do you want?" They got some free Abitas out of that deal. The people down here are great--very warm and friendly.