What an amazing week with amazing people: volunteers, paid staff from Habitat and of course the amazing people that come into the store. I haven't had so many amazing moments happen to me in such a short time frame in my entire life as they occurred this past week. This place is magic.
I only worked on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with them, but I feel that I was able to make some kind of small and subtle impact. The fondest memories are from my interactions with the people there. Everyone who comes into the store is so open and friendly: they want to talk and shoot the breeze. That is one thing I absolutely love about this place and these people: they take the time to Live Life.... and live it well. Tuesday was the first day for both Fred and myself- how I shall miss that guy! I didn't go in Friday because I knew that I would be heartbroken every time I looked around and didn't see him, busy, somewhere within the warehouse. 
The two high school aged girls in this photo who helped us paint are involved in this one program that helps teens who have either fallen by the waist side or have been in trouble in some respect with the law, and because of that have not been able to graduate high school. This program helps them get their GED and helps them learn various life skills that will further their opportunities in their future lives. The group total is about 10 to 15 younger adults, who all come in for a day's work on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week. They are very hard workers and I am really thankful that there are so many programs around here that really try to get them back involved and back on track. (As I talk with the people from Habitat I am learning just how many Non-Profit and Not-For-Profit organizations have sprung up within the last few years, all because our federal and local governments were NOT going to be there to help them out. Thus amazing -and I mean amazing in all it's depth and richness- groups dot the city all over the place! That is truly the "power of the people" right there! And the fact that governments are sometimes more harmful than helpful.)During my first three days I was able to accomplish the following with Habitat:
* Help out on the pick up route and get donations that people and businesses gave to Habitat Restore. We only did two pick ups that day, but the things we ended up getting really were in good condition and would help a lot of people.
* Clean up the flooring and tile area, for this week's huge donation of tiles coming in. It now looks so pretty. This is where Fred and I first bonded. = )
*Carry in all the donations, clean them, place them in their correct locations, price them accordingly and help people find them. It was kind of like being on that show, Price Is Right (with Bob Barker or that silly replacement new guy), because we weren't really educated on the laws of the land and so we priced the things best we could. And based off of other similar objects that were already priced. I was pretty liberal in my stance: I usually marked it a bit lower than I think my older and more experienced counterpart staff worker would have labeled it. Little things to help out, you know?
*Make some amazing friends. All of the staff seem to be just all around talented and creative sorts of individuals: the main "boss man" is the drummer in a band who is about to go on tour across the states, the main cashier is a very talented singer who opened the previous weekend for Yo Yo Ma (!!), one of the other paid workers is a drummer whose style I can't get enough of: true New Orleans Cat, and another one is pretty much the main guy for the local green movement and expo going on next year sometime. Amazing right? And these are people I am getting to hang out with on a daily basis now. (I think I am the truly lucky and blessed one here, no? Oui. Oui. That photo up there is Fred and myself on his last day, Thursday, after a week of wonderful magic. In that photo we were wrapping up the end of the afternoon spent painting the wall behind us a pretty green colour. During the week, after work, we were able to catch some good jazz music around the French Quarter- something that is essential to any one's trip and introduction to this fare city. There were about a team of five of us working on it and this being one of the only photos that I have that wasn't completely blurry. I am so proud of this photo and the memories and moments it represents to me from my very first week here in New Orleans.
*And so many other smaller details, such as painting the building to really make it POP, to cleaning up the trash bins, to taking a trip to the recyle center to dump off a truck FULL of empty boxes.
Small steps, but all towards the right direction. And a good direction it be.
Peace and Nola Love, k. <3
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