ob tampons and communication- and a lot of my blahblahblah

so my inner hippie is now in full effect- i tried and fell in love with o.b. tampons yesterday:) (too much information? what else do you expect). well they are great and i'd like to say jim inspired me with his earth saving ways but actually i have no money and they are the cheapest! ...and the earth is cool too.

yesterday it poured in the morning. lawn crew was quickly cancelled and we ended up gutting a house instead. it's actually a bar that the owner lived in. ec has been working on this place for a while and apparantly everyone went to her family reunion this last weekend...1000ppl attended! it's the largest family reunion in new orleans. im sad i missed it- pigs feet were the delicacy. she stopped in a few times to see our progress and was able to see the potential in a place that i just see a mess. i dont have a construction worker's eyes- i dont have a cooks tongue either but my fave place is the kitchen:) in two weeks i'll be taken under shannons wing and after i get the hang of kitchen manager duties she'll get a vacation and i'll be working with folks...lets hope you dont hear about the mass starvation of the lower ninth in the month of august:)

last night at huddle (it's called huddle when we just sign up for jobs and circle when we talk about issues/concerns etc) there was quite a bit of drama.

the basic arguement was about if the site managers were running this place as efficient as possible. at ec the community center is the main priority- cooking and serving three meals a day, washing all the disches, filling the back with gravel so when it rains we dont flood, providing laundry and internet for free etc. we are a community center, for the community. if we have the extra people and resources crews are sent out to gut houses, do lawns, work on rebuilding projects etc. the residents purchase the rebuilding materials and we provide the service for free. other volunteer sites charge for service sometimes and the volunteers have to pay to stay there and to eat. so- we've got some folks from out east here for a week and they are upset because they arent gutting houses everyday because that's what they came to do. they are devaluing the work that needs to get done (feeding people) and not showing up for those shifts because they feel underutilized. the whole debate was bad because no one was listening to one another and everyone was definisive so that was an obvious problem but the bigger issue is whether volunteering is about the volunteer or the volunteeree.

my biggest observation last time i was here was that this place does not make it about the volunteer. they are happy you are hear but shit needs to be done so pick up a hammer/rag/knife and do it. yes there are 100s of houses that need to be gutted but you cant just come down here, walk into a house and start knocking down walls- and essentially thats what this group wants to do.

i feel the frustration when there is down time or when you're given little direction but i also get that people are doing the best with what we've got: very little money and crappy tools. ec isnt an organization that has the funds to support 50+ gutting crews even if we have 50+ people. we went out on a lawn yesterday and the lawn mower broke, the weedwacker ran out of fuel and the head of the rake kept coming off- thats what our resources are so we pretty much cut an entire lot with our hands. according to some of the tense volunteers this work is inefficient and perhaps just a bandaid but we are attacking basic needs, food and lawns: if you dont keep your lawn up you are fined 100 dollars a day until the fine surpasses the value of the house, then the city takes your property. awesome, thanks katrina.

anyway, i just got called to the kitchen cause some of those volunteers didnt show up... i have a lot more thoughts about this but im a south which means i cant just spit it out so i'll try to think about that over cutting the veggies!!