Reciprocity, March 2007

Spring break typically brings to mind the madness of South Padre Island, the family holiday in a National Park, a trip to a major city for dancing and dining, a week of chores around the house, or a couple strolling a village street in Central Mexico. Along the Gulf Coast of the United States spring break included all of these traditional elements while incorporating an activity known as "Voluntourism". Voluntourism is what it states; using ones personal time to be a tourist as well as a volunteer to do good work. Although this is not a new phenomenon it is one that, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, has grown exponentially in the U.S.

During March 10th - 16th Houston area Unitarian Universalist (UU's) "voluntouring" in New Orleans numbered 19, 12 organized by myself through Bay Area UU Church and 7 led by Laura Nagel of First UU Church of Houston. The UUA coordinators in NOLA, Marilee Baccich, Chere Coen, and interim coordinator Linda Cooper, organized or assisted at least 100 volunteers that week including UU's from Texas, Indiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Oregon, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and students from Columbia University, NY and Rhodes College, TN. Keep in mind that our coordinators did this all month and I do not know the full tally of volunteers and good deeds done. Additionally equal or greater numbers of voluntourist were organized by Common Ground (300 during our stay), All Congregations Together, the Episcopal Diocese of N.O., Habitat for Humanity, and many others.

Arriving Saturday our group, staying at the First UU Church of New Orleans (FUUNO) volunteer center, was joined by others from TX, MN, MA, IN, OR, and Columbia University, NY making the total number of boarders 44. The first floor of FUUNO was gutted 2 months after the Hurricane and had stayed that way for 16 months. How wonderful it was to walk in and see that all the classrooms had been wired and sheet rocked. The week before a group of contractors were in town for a convention and had contacted the Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) looking for a place to work for one day. You may recall that UU's have been helping the NHS retrofit a couple of homes to serve as community centers. My friend Shana Sassoon (NHS coordinator) directed their efforts to the Freret community and FUUNO. The group put 100 volunteers to work at the church and rocked & wired it in one day. Another 100 were put to work in the surrounding community. It is a circle, it is the web. You can call it Reciprocity, Karma, or The Golden Rule. This is the law governing the gulf coast and powered by Gulf Coast natives and "voluntourist" in the area.

On Sunday Marilee and Linda divided us into work groups and scheduled our task for the week. Our Houston folks formed a gutting crew to work through Common Ground (a secular volunteer organization that draws most of its volunteers from college campuses) and two others that did a variety of task in the city and outlying areas.

Volunteering
Monday at 7am the gutting crew gathered their tools and gloves and drove to Common Ground. They were partnered with a group from Duke University and pointed to an address in the ninth ward. The first phase in gutting a house is mucking-out. The residence had about seven feet of water in it for 3 weeks and all the families' possessions had been left a jumbled mess for 18 months. All of this must be removed and sorted for pick-up prior to gutting. My group was sent to the Freret Street Community Center, developed by the NHS, and we are to clear out the backyard. The back yard had roughly 100 years of paved layers of oyster shells, brick, and concrete. We dug, picked, and hammered about three yards of material for disposal and salvaged about 2 yards of brick for future paving. Ideas for the back yard are a playground, patio, or community garden and will soon be decided upon by the community. The center held an open house to introduce the facility in January and will be hiring staff this month. Strong UU backs have provided most of the labor used to improve the property. Laura Nagel and her group went to the community of Violet in St. Bernard's Parish. There they were helped do the final clean up of a FUUNO member's home before the rebuilding can begin.

On Tuesday the BAUUC gutting crew and the 1st Church crew joined forces to work at a city park for the New Orleans Recreational Department. They and other volunteers formed one large crew and began resurfacing a field for a new baseball diamond. After lunch the crew was joined by even more volunteers. Although the work was completed, there were more hands at work than was needed. This happens sometimes when the number of volunteers overwhelms the many groups organizing them.

My crew was sent to the city of Lacombe, LA across Lake Pontchartrain to help a fellow named Rodney, a man with multiple disabilities who has been unable to maintain contact with the right relief organizations. In addition to a severe spinal injury, he has trouble making sense of the bureaucratic maze and the many forms required to receive help. This can be a daunting task for people with no disabilities. He is living in a FEMA trailer that was placed on his property next to his mobile home that had not been cleaned up since the storm surge flooded it a year and a half earlier. Our job was to muck-out the property so the mobile home can be replaced, assess his needs, and find a local relief organization to be his advocate so he will not fall off the relief radar again. Marilee had stressed the need to spend time talking with Rodney and above all listening to him. Maryah Converse, a fine UU from Bloomington, IN., spent 4 hours with Rodney, recording his story and his needs. His is unfortunately a common tale of many lower income people with special needs who cannot keep track of the many things they must do to stay in the relief loop. He and many others live in constant despair feeling forgotten and hopeless.

That day I contacted Bill Murchison, a UU minister in Lacombe and one time summer interim at BAUUC. Bill put me in touch with North Shore Disaster Recovery, Inc., a group organized by many churches and businesses in the area to meet needs not covered by relief systems such as FEMA. They assigned a case worker who will go to his home to assist and keep regular contact with him. *

Wednesday the gutting crew was back at Common Ground to continue their work with the guys from Duke. Dressed in dust hazard suits, good face mask, and armed with hammers and pry bars they began the actual gutting of the house. This house is old style plaster interior with thick walls and molding, much more difficult to remove than sheetrock. All molding goes first, in addition to the doors and frames, then all cabinetry. Plaster is applied to strips of wood that are nailed to the wall studs and removing it is similar breaking up 5000 sq/ft of one inch thick sheets of concrete. A mountain climbing Duke student entered the attic where he began stomping out the ceilings and fixtures. This went on all day.

The "Pray the Word, Say the Word" ministry run by Pastor Josephine (Josie) Phillips is located in the Fifth Ward and this is where we were assigned to work. Josie is a former airline attendant who has devoted her life to her local community by feeding the hungry, ministering to children and youth, and performing grief recovery counseling. Her church on Columbus Street has been closed for services since Katrina, as has the large Catholic Church next door, leaving the people of the community with few places to meet and worship as well as the loss of support a faith community provides. She is a determined woman and although her building is not fit for services, she continues to feed the needy and maintains freezers and foodstuffs in a 6' x 10' trailer in the parking lot. She lost part of the roof during the hurricane which leaked into the building and damaged some of the interior before it was repaired. Additionally the old siding is cracked and leaks into the sheetrock. We are there to remove the damaged part of the interior, several makeshift walls, patch the exterior siding, and report on what is needed to get her open again. As we began working a group of 15 students from Miami University of Oxford Ohio arrive at the church. They had heard through the volunteer grapevine that some help may be needed and we gladly accept their help. They divided into two groups, one for demolition and the other to create signs for the exterior per Josie's specifications. Suddenly we are a crew of 20. Together we remove damaged sheetrock, walls, and old curtains. Our Southwest District President and the UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Fund project manager, Joe Sullivan, had joined us for the day. Amidst all the activity he says something to me about loaves and fishes and I can only look on in amazement. Josie was operating out of a trailer for a year with no assistance and by the end of one day the bulk of the damaged interior is removed.

Thursday is our last full day. The gutting crew returns to work with the Duke students. By days end the house is 95% gutted and will have to be completed on Friday by another group. I return with my crew to Josie's and we remove carpeting, caulk and patch the exterior, and paint the rear storage shed. Some of the Miami U students return to finish the signage that really brightens up the front of the building as well as Josie's spirits. I make a list of all the things that need repair and Marilee will continue to send help **

Tourism
The previous Sunday my friend Shana invited our group to a Second Line parade in mid-town sponsored by the "Keep-n-It Real" Social Aid and Pleasure Club(S&P). S&P clubs were originally designed to aid members with small loans and assist families with funeral services. Second line parades are small community parades, as opposed to main line Mardi Gras parades. Parking on "neutral ground" (the median) on Orleans Street we watched the parade go by. It consist of 8 or 9 S&P marchers followed by a great brass band (members of the Hot 8 no less), all cordoned off by club members bearing yellow nylon ropes. A crowd of a hundred or so community members march before and after the second line. I spy Shana following the parade and she grabs me and yells "What are you doing?" I say "Watching the parade". "No John you've got to get in it. Is this your crew?" she says pointing to the rest of our group. She motions for us to jump in and march and we proceed down Orleans.
We turn right on Broad Street and the crowd swells to 400. A half mile down Broad the march slows and the band transitions from full tilt New Orleans funk to a traditional rendition of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" Shana explains that the marchers are passing the home of a member who has recently died and the dirge is the tradition of respect for the family. The parade picks up the tempo again and we march for another mile and a half to the first stop. The Band is really warmed up by this time and the parade numbers double again. Tail gating vendors sell Bar-B-Que, soda's, and beer.
Shana explains how the second line is more than dancing, music, and food. It is a community re-affirming its position in New Orleans society while taking pride in, and ownership of, their neighborhood. The community is complete with their own royalty, King, Queen, princes, and princesses. During the stop the S&P members transform, wearing white marching uniforms accented with large orange and white sashes, white beret's, and swing large feathered fans also of orange and white. The king emerges crowned, donning huge feathered wings and mounts his throne in an open convertible. The members are joined by their children, also in uniform, who lead them during the next leg of the parade with 4 more stops to go.

This is just one of the many reasons why I and so many return to New Orleans. In helping to rebuild we help to preserve the many cultures and traditions that make this city unique. Preservation is self serving because the art, music, style, food, and attitudes that flow out of the city enrich the lives of all Americans.

I will end with a letter I sent to all of the volunteers I worked with in March:

I want to thank all of you for taking the time to help the people of N.O. and the Gulf Coast. When looking at the scale of what needs to be done it can seem over whelming and our action futile, I can assure you it is not. Every hour you work or goal you accomplish is something that, the moment before, was left undone. Every person you speak with or listen to may bring hope where before, none might have been. Every dollar you spend is part of the greater economic recovery of the area.
Think of the time you spent doing these things, then multiply that by 90, which is a conservative estimate of the volunteers Marilee and Linda put in the field last week. Now look at the month of March where this has been happening each week and it is easy to see the impact you, personally, have had on that region. Each of us must decide alone to take a step and make a difference. Then moving as one we help our brothers and sisters. No principle, creed, or doctrine is required when we allow our hearts to guide us.
Mike with the weekend warriors ends his mail with "Love is the religion...".
My love to you all, John

*
The week after we left Marilee sent a couple of social worker UU's from MA to Rodney's. They helped him straiten out all of his paper work and put him with the right relief workers. The North Shore Disaster Recovery continues to help.

**
Email from Ginger Gouveia regarding Rev. Josephine's church. "We returned there and gutted the entire building and moved all of the dirt from the back and even cleaned up the back yard too so that she could hold services out side. The next day, the electricians came in and rewired everything with no cost to Rev. Josephine. She was elated! I was so absorbed by the needs in NO, that I have decided to return in three weeks and volunteer for another four weeks. There is so much to do, so many needs !!! I can return because I am retired and therefore, I must."

Voluntourist

The Gutting Crew: Tom and Rachel Price, Clif and Terry Grim, Will McCorquodale, and Heather Hanson and Maryah Converse (Indiana UU's, Bloomington), Ginger Gouveia (Oregon UU)

1st Church Crew: Laura Nagel, Tony and Christine Collins, Zach Joiner, David Long, and Sara Scrod.

Freret Street Crew: Mary Lynn Grimes, Tim and Carolyn Miller, David Long, Liz McCorquodale, and Jenna & Erick, relatives of Shana's from Virginia.

Lacombe LA: Tim and Carolyn Miller, Heather Hanson and Maryah Converse, Allie Banks (First Parish Church of Stow and Acton, MA)

Pray the word...: Mary and Bob Worner (Minnesota UU's), Ginger Gouveia (Oregon UU), Joe Sullivan, Maryah Converse, and Zach Joiner

Food Goddess; Liz McCorquodale