Day two of landscaping

So after two days of weeding and landscaping type tasks, I feel that I can become a professional landscaper!! The tasks have been grueling and hard work as we continued to clean more areas that were filled with debris today. We worked in the lower 9th Ward at the Village Community Center and helped by clearing a lot where a two family house once stood. When we arrived at the lot, we all were stunned by the trash and overgrowth of weeds/trees in the lot. The space being cleaned was located amongst other homes that were fixed up and are currently inhabited by families. The day went by very quickly as we moved hundreds and hundreds of bricks out of the lot....on top of weeding and cutting down of trees that had grown sporadically throughout the property.

This day of work was truly humbling as I saw homes that were still abandoned and many properties that were beyond repair. This area was the most devastated area and even today (5 years later) only about 25% of its previous inhabitants have returned to live there again. The most tragic thing I saw were homes that were marked by the agencies that came and inspected the house after the flooding and actually saw that either dead people or animals were found within the home. This area truly is in need of many more years of help from volunteers as there are many homes beyond the point of any repair that are still abandoned.

On a better note, since it was St. Patrick's Day, we all decided to meet up with the Uhart Hillel group and meet at the Cafe du Monde. We watched the parade and collected many Mardi Gras beads that were thrown around Bourbon Street! We also stood on the set of a new HBO show called "Treme" starring Steve Kahn, with whom we got our picture taken. The night was a blast and a perfect ending for such a hard day of work!!