Home > Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Team Effort: The President, Anderson Cooper, and One Month to Go

Throughout the course of the week each member of the team has had different experiences that stick out at them as what made this week what it is. From meeting the President of the United States to on-site injuries and pulling long hours to meet the 1,000th Habitat house deadline… it was just another week in the Ameri-Life.

This week’s blog is going to be a little different... Everyone on the team has been asked to contribute and these writings have been compiled into a single blog. The hope is that in the last few weeks of the project the blog will be sure to capture everyone’s experience over the last week or so.

Another week flies by at Camp Hope. One month left of AmeriCorps and counting…

“So we’ve been at Camp Hope in St. Bernard Parish for three weeks now and life here is still crazy! Although our living arrangements have been settled, many aspects of our jobs still continue to change. Our project this round with Habitat for Humanity is actually split between two teams, Green 5 and also Green 3. As it is our final round, we’ve all been looking to take time off and figure out our plans for after graduation. With people coming and going between the two teams, we’ve all been shuffling jobs a little bit. I will actually be working as a fill in for field coordinator and warehouse manager for the next week while Jared is away in Arizona and Sam (from Green 3) is recovering from surgery.”
–Erin

Here are descriptions of some of the jobs the members of Green Five have this round. As Erin wrote, the team has had to be flexible to take over and double-up in positions. The team has also had to make do with limited training.

“My job during this past round has been working as a receptionist at the Camp Hope front desk. My job is to check in new volunteers, keep totals of everyone staying at the camp and answer any questions the volunteers have. It doesn’t have quite the same glory as physically building a house, but it is an important job and I’m glad to do it.”
–Jo

“I started this project as the one person that didn’t get a job. I drove around as a logistics person for a while and now supposedly I am a roofer so we’ll see if this job sticks…”
–Leann

“I’ve actually been trained as a framer. This week while Erin was training to fill Jared’s position while he goes on vacation I became an exterior person and lead a bunch of volunteers from Los Angeles in putting up siding on a house. I really didn’t know what I was doing but thank goodness the volunteers were cool. We all had a great time even though I was stressing over levels being off by a hair and all that I didn’t quite understand about siding.”
-Vanessa

“Roofing is hot. We’re out all day under the scorching Louisiana sun. I almost slipped on tar paper and died.”
-Orlando

“My job is Field Coordinator, which I really don’t know that much about, just that I am supposed to know a lot of what is going on at the houses and when Duane (the one person who knows everything) needs something, I make sure that it happens.”
—Jared

“On Monday Che and I worked 15 hours straight at Daniel Street and didn’t finish work until 10:30 that night. Some Corps Members from Andrew’s team had even been working on the Daniel Street houses all weekend. The whole situation was insane. We went back the next morning and worked hard putting the finishing touches on the house. We had just finished installing the doorbell at 8:55 am when a big charter bus pulled up with several important people from Habitat for Humanity who came to celebrate the 1,000th house that Habitat has completed in the New Orleans area. After everyone left it started pouring rain and someone turned up the music and a bunch of us just started dancing. What a perfect catharsis to the high stress situation we had endured. Duane kindly gave us the rest of the day off to recuperate.”
–Vanessa

“Absolutely surreal to think that just Tuesday afternoon I was working in my office for Habitat for Humanity, and that night I was shaking hands and laughing with the President of the United States…

I was dropped off by Chelsea at the Windsor Court Hotel, where I was supposed to meet a man named Scooter, who was going to drive me to the site of the dinner. The streets were blocked off by secret service and police cars, and I called Scooter for direction. He told me that he was not there, but a man named Scott who “has a beard and is wearing a tweed jacket” would meet me at the hotel. As I entered the hotel I was led through a metal detector and then they told me to sit in the foyer with other guests. “Scott” announces to the guests that we would be leaving, and we were to pile into two white vans. We were led by a police procession, which means you don’t have to stop at red lights, to a restaurant called Dooky Chase.

We made our way into the dining area where they had pre-assigned seats for us. I was next to Congressman Jefferson and Augie Lopez, the owner of Smilie’s Restaurant in downtown New Orleans. On Mr. Lopez’s left was Governor Blanco, who I chatted with for most of the meal, and was offered great advice on my thoughts on whether to follow a political career. The table was only for 25 people, square shaped, and we all had a really good view of each other. When we were seated, the media came in a huge rush inside to take pictures, get video, and for the President to say a few words about the great restaurant and the continuing efforts in New Orleans. Job well done, Mr. President!

Then the President said, “Mr. AmeriCorps, tell me your story.” Holy cow. I gave him the spiel on what the program is, ten months, residential…etc. And I also talked about some of my experiences, what I’ve seen working with homeowners and non-profits. I told them we still need help, that New Orleans still needs help, and that it is the work of the volunteers that has gotten the city to where it is now. Laura Bush asked me a few questions on different things I’ve seen, and that was really cool.

The dinner went basically like that. A lot of food, a lot of laughs; the President has a great sense of humor. He was making jokes basically the whole time and just having a good time. At the end of the dinner, I passed around my name card, and got most of the table, including the First Lady, to sign it. I took my menu to the President and got his autograph separately.

After a six course meal, we were all tired, and the guests were vanned back to the hotel where we first met. Overall, it was an incredible experience, one that I will never forget. When I got home it was time to prepare for the next day’s interview with Anderson Cooper…”
–Jared

“This week marked the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Anderson Cooper did a live broadcast from Camp Hope.  He came… He saw… He talked to my mom on the phone and he drank a can of FEMA water… poor guy.”
—Orlando

“I hit my finger with the hammer so hard on Thursday that it made my whole hand hurt and I had to come down off the roof because it made my dizzy and nauseous. My finger immediately turned huge and purple. Chelsea brought me over to show my finger to Duane who said it wasn’t ready to be drained yet. Orlando wanted to poke it with a needle right away. I told Chelsea that I didn’t want to drain my finger and she said ‘It’s okay. Duane will do it. Duane will drain your finger.’ Well, it’s finally getting better so I don’t think I’m going to have to ask Duane to drain it”
-Leann

“Working as the coordinator can get lonely sometimes because I’m working separately from the team and have different work hours than they do. I went with the team to work on a house on Friday (which was my day off) just so I could get back into the feel of doing physical work with my teammates. It has been a challenge but I’m working on it. Also, I’m glad Anderson Cooper came back to do a live show because last time he was in town I was at a wedding in New York. This time I actually got to meet him and that was pretty awesome.”
-Jo

“There has also been a lot of talk about a composite team being sent to Wisconsin to help with relief from the disastrous floods. With limited information, I am sure that they are in great need of help and I think it’d be an awesome opportunity that any of us would be lucky to have.”
-Erin

After work on Friday Green Five had a team meeting at Café Du Monde. Street music filled the background as the team sat down on the steps across from St. Peter’s church. After eating tasty Beignets the team talked about how things are going for them in the project and what they hope to get out of the rest of the year. The distraction and chaos of Camp Hope has had an impact on everyone but at Café Du Monde the members of Green Five found themselves as a team again. They stayed longer than anyone expected just talking, remembering, laughing, and joking around. It was nice to get away from everything for a few hours.

“Needless to say, we are all really looking forward to our 3 day weekend this week, thanks to it being Labor Day and all. And with only 3 weeks left of project work, we are all highly anticipating the team’s road trip back to Sacramento (which will tentatively include stops in Austin, Denver, and Salt Lake City) and getting to all of the places in New Orleans that we may have missed the first time we were here, before it is time for us to depart a city that’s become a part of all of us.”
–Erin

- The Tribe