Building a House!

Today was the Alternative Spring Break (ASB) team's first day on the job. Yesterday, we toured the county or parish, as they are called in Louisiana, and visited a high school that had been virtually destroyed by Hurricane Rita. In my earlier blog entries I spoke of Hurricane Katrina, however, it was actually Rita that did the most damage in south-west Louisiana where we are working. We saw a house out in the bayou, when Rita hit in September of 2005 it blew the house off its foundation and out into the swamp where it remains today, unsalvageable due to water damager. Many houses were reduced to ruble, or simply blown clear away. When the residents returned to the area, they were told that to collect insurance money they would have to go out and find their homes. Many ventured out into the bayou and across the parish, and when they finally found their homes, often miles away from where they were built, the owners spray painted their name and address on the front so the insurance companies would know.
All that remained of the school we visited was the brick gym, the rest of the building, the classrooms and all, was gone. Now, the students use temporary trailer-like buildings for classrooms. However, even this is a recent achievement, before the temporary buildings were built the students were bussed to another school district that had not been as badly hit by the hurricanes. During that period of time, the students from the two districts split their time at the school. One group would go to school for the first half of the week, and the second group, for the second half of the week. Two and a half days of school proved trying for the students, their parents and the community. Parents were forced to get additional child supervision or change their work schedules. During the tour, we listened to speakers from the Red Cross who have been helping in south west Louisiana since the hurricanes hit (and even before). One Red Cross volunteer told us about how the refugees staying at the church-turned-shelter in Lake Charles became a close nit community, and how some of the children became sick after eating the candy in the relief kits because their families had never been able to afford such luxuries as chocolate and soda. The woman from the Red Cross also told us how she was frustrated when some women from the shelter left to gamble on the river boats, neglecting their four and five year old children who were left to wander around the church.

Today, we were up at 6:45 am. I sprang out of bed, rushed through a bowl of fruit loops, ate an orange, and stuffed a trio of mini muffins in my mouth, just in time to hop into the van with my team and roll out to meet the Habitat for Humanity team we will be assisting this week. We went through a brief orientation, learned about the Habitat program, were give some quick pointers and safety advice and were off again, this time to the work site.

Our project this week is to complete two houses which volunteers have been working on for the past three weeks. The houses are side by side, and are identical from the outside, but have slightly different floor plans. The contractor, project head, and our boss, Chester, a native of Louisiana, and staunch LSU fan, guided us through the finer points of trimming widows and doors, hanging cabinets, and putting on door knobs. He also provided us with hilarious stories about his life, and the lives of his coworkers, that could be summed up as being in line with our perceptions of “backward southern living.” And no thats not being narrow minded on my part, we heard the story about one of Chester's coworkers who caught his wife cheating with her brother in law. No, wait, that story was about Chester himself! But what's not to love about Chester, he's got a sense of humor, a heart of gold, and is about as lovable as a little puppy.
The Habitat for Humanity house that we worked on today costs $65,000 to build. Its a seven room, single story home, with three bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, and bathroom. The house is small, yet cozy, and provides a nice living space for a medium size family. This particular house will go to a single mother with a young daughter, and a son who is in a coma.
Chester predicts that this house would cost $150,000 to build. It costs Habitat significantly less because the labor is volunteer, and some of the materials, including windows, doors, and stove and refrigerator are donated. The recipients of Habitat homes are obligated to pay for their house, through a no-interest loan in an amount equal to the cost of the house. The mortgage on the house we worked on today will cost about $300 a month for the next 25 years. The home owner is also obligated to complete 300 hours of volunteer work, either on their own house, on another Habitat home, or at a community organization.

I'm back at the United Way center now, blogging and waiting for dinner. I also need to shower, I'm sweaty and muddy, it rained hard for part of the day.
So far I'm having a great experience meeting and working with my team of 10 students from colleges across the US. We jokingly make the comparison between ASB and a middle school overnight camp. The Cajun dance last night was fun, the band was rockin' we all got “honky tonky,” but when they slowed it down for “Tears in Heaven” people made a dash for the side lines. We have lunch lines, and elementary school style lunch trays, and little juice boxes and milk cartons. There is no eating in the lounge, only in the cafeteria that doubles as the gym. At night we play heated rounds of card games like spoons, last night we stayed up past “lights out” for some exciting bonus rounds of Scategories. Alcohol is strictly prohibited, even though many of us are over 21. Apparently two students from last week's session were sent home for having a beer at a restaurant. We we loaded the vans at 7:00 am this morning, one of my teammates, Sarah, said that she hadn't been up this early without drinking in a long time, implying that if she's up at 7 am its because she hasn't gone to bed yet.
Honestly, I'm having a great sober time, on spring break no less, and we're doing it for a good cause. For every hour we work, the State of Louisiana gets $18 deducted from their FEMA debt, which is many millions of dollars more than the people of Louisiana can afford. Tonight, it's round two of Scategories. What's “something that makes you late” and starts with an A? I know, ANTS IN MY PANTS!