A second homecoming

Our first morning we enjoyed the breakfast the united saints had laid out for us and made some solid pb&j's to bring for lunch and we were on our way to St. Bernards for orientation. During the van rides I have come to appreciate all the beautiful and colorfull new Orleans houses. A graduate of Cornell gave us our intro to the organization of st. Bernards and to more indepth info about the aftermath of Katrina. I elected to be in the smaller group and me katie Regina Dj Cindy ester and noah set of to loranne hernadez's house. On the way we read her backstory which I will despense now: Loranne is a school bus driver whose rental home was completely wiped out by Katrina. She set off to buy a permanent home after the storm and she allowed at least four homeowners to back out of their contracts to sell the house to her because the houses had too much sentimental value, also because she has a huge heart :) Finally she bought a house and went through the process of cleaning out and rebuilding with the help of St Bernards and she moved into her house in 2009. Sadly she was forced to move out 3 weeks later due to drywall that was contaminated with sulfur which errodes copper wiring and causes serious health problems. So she was unable to live in or move forward with her house until she got insurance money from Isac and now me and my crew are in the final stages of finishing up the house.our two Americorp leaders are named Cynthia and Catherine and tjey are both really fun to hang out with and talk to. The first day we spackled/mudded and then sanded and today we primed the kitchen and the living room and it was so exciting to see the walls loose all of the mud spots and pencil writings underneath a nice clean layer of primer making it look like a real house! The highlight of my day was meeting Loranne she drove the school bus over to stop in and check up, she was so sweet and open to our questions and she shared everything from what she did after the storm to her grandaughters excitment for a Justin biber concert, she even made it clear that she blamed no one for the contaminated drywall and she is eager to just move in again and get settled. Personally she was just such an inspiration for someone who has lost so much more than once she is still so optimistic and happy, I hope that if I were to ever go through anything close to what she did that I would have even a fraction of her strength and positive outlook.