In Union Beach and throughout all of my Sandy work, I have been constantly breaking things down. I found myself completely ripping people’s life away as I saw and discarded damaged goods that simply can’t be replaced. I adore my job site and my site supervisors in Nola. While it was heard to demolish in Sandy, it comforts me that eventually, everything can and will be built up again. Every Bonner on my site has worked really hard, and I love showing the freshmen around the city.
Today, I met my homeowner- Ms. Loraine. We are mudding, sanding, priming, and texturing her walls this week. The hope I saw in her as she saw her house in the finishing stages was unreal. Her heart is so big and we could all tell her genuine personality as she told us about the struggle of finding a house after Katrina. She allowed four different homeowners to break the contract with her, allowing them to keep their house. Even though she was already in the process of closing on the properties, she said she understands that people want to hold onto the memories. This is the second time around rebuilding her house with SBP. Unfortunately, after three weeks of living there the first time round, she found out that she had contaminated drywall and has now been out of her home for another two years.
The Americorps members have been telling me a lot about their position and the program, and I can’t help but see myself living in New Orleans for 10 months after I graduate and having my own house to build. I absolutely love this city and the warm culture! It seems too good to be true to be able to live here. I guess I will have to see what happens.
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