Oh the people i meet at the Harry Tompson Center make my life so much more entertaining! First of all the New Orleans accent is ridiculous and the southern drawl makes me giggle inside. Everyone talks out of the side of their mouth. Its like they figure if they pronounce every syllable or every word it would be to much work and make them even more hot than they already are. So i only catch every other syllable which makes fallowing what they are saying very hard. I am also developing my own California drawl! It is going to be pretty funny when i come home for the first time and people start catching me saying words like 'ya'll' 'who dat' 'Na' 'Sir' 'Mam' and more that i don't even realize i am saying.
Oh the people i meet at the Harry Tompson Center are so unique. You will be hearing all about the guests i meet for the rest of the year, so i will start now :) Christopher is in his own world. And not like he days dreams but i mean really in his own world. He is constantly talking to himself in a very low deep voice. When you ask him a question he will answer you and snap out of his world but as soon as you stop talking to him he goes right back into Christopher world. When he in in the shower or brushing his teeth is when he is the loudest: yelling to himself in a sort of low voiced growl. Every once in a while he will yell out loud! Everyone in the center will look at him for a moment then go back about their own business.
Gladys is a 37 year old woman who must ask for about 10 things a day: everything from plastic bags to shampoo and feminine products. She used to be dating Mario but now is going with Nick. Nick looks like he is about 18 but must be in his late 20's.
Horis sits next to me all day writting poetry and helping me clean the showers when it gets really busy. He keeps me sain. He has the most calming voice and knows how this place is run so if there is ever a question i have and cannot find Emily, Horis has my back. THC would not run the same with out Horis and other guests like him, who have made their way to the top of everyone 'favorites' list. Quinten is another favorite. He has the biggest heart and the best sense of humor. If you need a smile you go talk to him :) He is also the mediator, between anyone getting heated or acting up. And then there is Luther, the strong silent type who will quietly ask if everything is ok because he knows that sometimes people just need to be asked. Ricky is the self proclamed janitor of the HTC and knows where all of the cleaning supplys are: he keeps the place looking good during the day.
William knows sign language becasue he is def. He is sharp as a nail and knows what he wants even if he cannot hear you tell him 'no.' Haha. He writes a lot down to talk with people who cannot sign and he can read lips for the most part. But he really likes to sign and he keeps me on my toes. My signing from high school is coming back but he is having to re-teach me a lot. Im loving it!
Because i was working the showers last week i was learning names really fast, which (as most of you know) is really difficult for me. But since i was seeing the people, writting their names, and saying their names it was sticking! By Friday i recognized a good 50% of the guests by face and at least 25% by name: big accomplishment for me.
I meet new people every day. Have different conversations everyday. Learn about new lives every day. And enjoy every minute of every day!
p.s. I am working on laundry this week. Sister Mags is teaching Ellie and I the laundrey system. Which is not my favorite so far.... Ill let you know what i think of it at the end of the week.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Picture Time
Here are a few pictures to give you a bit of an idea of what i have been up to.
"Cafe du Monte" with delicious french donuts and a ton of poudered sugar, Yummm!
This is my house! The front door that you see is mine and around the left side of the house is the front door to the other duplex.
This is a few of us on one of the balconies on Bourbon St.
"Cafe du Monte" with delicious french donuts and a ton of poudered sugar, Yummm!
This is down in the French Quarter in front of the St. Louis Cathedral which has a beautiful view of the river too.
We have more beads than we really know what to do with at our house so i decided to put them to good decorating use.
Its amazing what a few beads and some thum tacks will create.
:)
Monday, August 22, 2011
HTC is where I want to BE!
This weekend was a blast! We went out and did the typical Bourbon Street thing with all of the people and crazieness haha. It is a crazy place. There were a ton of bars a ton of people and even more drinking and dancing. It was something that you have to experience at least once while in New Orleans to say that you did it and prob will never do it again haha. Next weekend im sure we will find more fun and less crazy places to go. Saturday my community went into the French Quarter to enjoy the beautiful buildings, each delicious 'cafe du monde' beignet's, and walk around to see all the people. Sunday we had a bunch of former JV's over to our house for a bbq which was a lot of fun! There were also some representatives from the Jesuit Province to tell us about hurricane evacuation plans and such, which was comforting. Before the bbq my community decided that it was necessary to clean up the backyard a bit before guests came over. The clean up took about 2 hours and was hard manual labor work, but it was worth it! We have an awesome backyard now that i know we will enjoy using :)
The first day of work is never what you expect and you really have no idea how you will come out at the end of the day. My first day at the Harry Tompson Center was the best first day ever! I truly realised that the HTC is where i want to be. It is a family here made up of all sorts of people, who all look different, have different lives, and lived different experiences, but we have all come together to share in eachothers company and help eachother in any way possible. There are some guests who come in and do not talk much but simply ask you for what they are looking for and thank you politely. Then there are others who want to talk to you about anything and everything. I love them all!
I was on shower duty today. Emily was teaching me the ropes. There is a system to everything that goes on at the HTC. And the showers are no exception. A list of names was given to me right at 8:00am and from that minute on i was adding more people to the list, cleaning/ restocking each shower, and calling out names of the people next in line. Good thing i have a loud voice because there were 106 people who used the showers today and hundreds more just sitting around talking, washing, and eating. I met so many people today i cannot even believe it! The showers are not a very easy job because there are a ton of people and only 8 working showers. But if you stick with the list and keep track of who is in what shower then your good. I got the hang of it eventually but there were a few times when i had to have Emily or Dan (another volunteer on Mondays) knock on the door and ask who was inside. I worked at full pace, while multi tasking with the talkers, from 8:00am to 11:30am. It was crazy! And i loved every minute of it! I got a chance to enjoy my lunch with some of the Sisters who also work at the HTC and then after lunch i sat and talked with some of the guests who were still hanging around. One gentleman named Willy said he had lived in San Fransisco for some time and loved it but prefers New Orleans (he informed me that i would love NOLA better too).
Next week i will be working the laundry rooms and the week after that will be the phones. The laundry room will be a bit of a break from talking and interacting because you are more inside with the machines than outside with the guests. The phones will keep me busy and talking to guests though.
It has been a very long first day! And as tired, sweaty, horse, and dirty i am I cannot imagine being anywhere else :) The HTC is exactly where i want to be for the next year of my life.
The first day of work is never what you expect and you really have no idea how you will come out at the end of the day. My first day at the Harry Tompson Center was the best first day ever! I truly realised that the HTC is where i want to be. It is a family here made up of all sorts of people, who all look different, have different lives, and lived different experiences, but we have all come together to share in eachothers company and help eachother in any way possible. There are some guests who come in and do not talk much but simply ask you for what they are looking for and thank you politely. Then there are others who want to talk to you about anything and everything. I love them all!
I was on shower duty today. Emily was teaching me the ropes. There is a system to everything that goes on at the HTC. And the showers are no exception. A list of names was given to me right at 8:00am and from that minute on i was adding more people to the list, cleaning/ restocking each shower, and calling out names of the people next in line. Good thing i have a loud voice because there were 106 people who used the showers today and hundreds more just sitting around talking, washing, and eating. I met so many people today i cannot even believe it! The showers are not a very easy job because there are a ton of people and only 8 working showers. But if you stick with the list and keep track of who is in what shower then your good. I got the hang of it eventually but there were a few times when i had to have Emily or Dan (another volunteer on Mondays) knock on the door and ask who was inside. I worked at full pace, while multi tasking with the talkers, from 8:00am to 11:30am. It was crazy! And i loved every minute of it! I got a chance to enjoy my lunch with some of the Sisters who also work at the HTC and then after lunch i sat and talked with some of the guests who were still hanging around. One gentleman named Willy said he had lived in San Fransisco for some time and loved it but prefers New Orleans (he informed me that i would love NOLA better too).
Next week i will be working the laundry rooms and the week after that will be the phones. The laundry room will be a bit of a break from talking and interacting because you are more inside with the machines than outside with the guests. The phones will keep me busy and talking to guests though.
It has been a very long first day! And as tired, sweaty, horse, and dirty i am I cannot imagine being anywhere else :) The HTC is exactly where i want to be for the next year of my life.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The NOLA
Alright so I first wanted to apologize for the scatter brained last blog entry! Haha clearly I am having a great time but so much has happened in the last week I cannot even get it all straight in my head. But I'll try to stick to one or two topics per entry now.
I think you have heard a good amount about my wonderful comminutty and I haven't really started work yet (the center will open back up on Monday so I will update you then) but I can fill you in on the city so far. New Orleans is like no other city I have ever seen before. First of all the locals call it NOLA and have the craziest sence of direction I have ever heard of! If you look on a map the city is not set on a north south east west axis... It is called Uptown (which is basically west) then Downtown/Buisness district (south east and a bit north) towards the Mississippi river (basically west south and east) and finally towards the lake (north). What would be the east to west streets curve up in what looks like a smile. The people here are so friendly and inviting but the city has the funniest ways of doings things!
Driving here is similar to the europeans method of driving: cazy, dangerous, and makes no sence but they drive much slower (therefore slightly safer). Speaking of safety, the more dangerous parts of the city have been pointed out to us but so far I have felt fine everywhere I have been. There are a lot of rundown houses, and damaged buildings but the next street over might have some of the most beautiful homes I have seen. So it's a mixed city although you can deffinetly find the segregation between some parts ofthe city. We are living more on the border of the nicer/richer area and the not so nice areas. Although most of us are working in the downtown and business district areas which look shoot like downtown LA but more spread out. I am slowly starting to figure out the city's lay out an how to get around.
Yesterday we as a community all went grocery shopping and tookthe bus there and back which was an adventure but we figured it out and were pretty proud haha. We have set up a cooking schedule and are having a good time cooking for eachother and cleaning up together. It was a long day for a lot of people yesterday, being that the first day is a lot of information all at once. So it was really nice to all sit down to dinner, talk, and enjoy eachothers company :)
The last thing I want to tell you about is that it is hot here! It was about 93 today and I have no clue how crazy the humidity was! Now I'm not complaining because suprisingly I have been able to handle it. Man I sure do sweet a lot though: like a lot a lot. What a surprise, have you seen dads running shirts what he comes back in the moriNg?! If Annie an I decided to ride our bikes in the morning I'm posative that when we got to the HTC it would look like someone dumped a bucket of water over me. Bu I would fit in with all of the homeless guests we have so maybe that would be ok, haha. We have been taking the bus so far and that is working out much better just as long as we don't get off to early, which we did this morning and had to walk 6 More blocks. We learned! The HTC is an outdoors center so it will be tough with the extreme heat an then extreme cold but I'm getting used to it and have faith that I can handle it! It will be an adventure :)
Hope everythig is well with all of you!
With Love.
I think you have heard a good amount about my wonderful comminutty and I haven't really started work yet (the center will open back up on Monday so I will update you then) but I can fill you in on the city so far. New Orleans is like no other city I have ever seen before. First of all the locals call it NOLA and have the craziest sence of direction I have ever heard of! If you look on a map the city is not set on a north south east west axis... It is called Uptown (which is basically west) then Downtown/Buisness district (south east and a bit north) towards the Mississippi river (basically west south and east) and finally towards the lake (north). What would be the east to west streets curve up in what looks like a smile. The people here are so friendly and inviting but the city has the funniest ways of doings things!
Driving here is similar to the europeans method of driving: cazy, dangerous, and makes no sence but they drive much slower (therefore slightly safer). Speaking of safety, the more dangerous parts of the city have been pointed out to us but so far I have felt fine everywhere I have been. There are a lot of rundown houses, and damaged buildings but the next street over might have some of the most beautiful homes I have seen. So it's a mixed city although you can deffinetly find the segregation between some parts ofthe city. We are living more on the border of the nicer/richer area and the not so nice areas. Although most of us are working in the downtown and business district areas which look shoot like downtown LA but more spread out. I am slowly starting to figure out the city's lay out an how to get around.
Yesterday we as a community all went grocery shopping and tookthe bus there and back which was an adventure but we figured it out and were pretty proud haha. We have set up a cooking schedule and are having a good time cooking for eachother and cleaning up together. It was a long day for a lot of people yesterday, being that the first day is a lot of information all at once. So it was really nice to all sit down to dinner, talk, and enjoy eachothers company :)
The last thing I want to tell you about is that it is hot here! It was about 93 today and I have no clue how crazy the humidity was! Now I'm not complaining because suprisingly I have been able to handle it. Man I sure do sweet a lot though: like a lot a lot. What a surprise, have you seen dads running shirts what he comes back in the moriNg?! If Annie an I decided to ride our bikes in the morning I'm posative that when we got to the HTC it would look like someone dumped a bucket of water over me. Bu I would fit in with all of the homeless guests we have so maybe that would be ok, haha. We have been taking the bus so far and that is working out much better just as long as we don't get off to early, which we did this morning and had to walk 6 More blocks. We learned! The HTC is an outdoors center so it will be tough with the extreme heat an then extreme cold but I'm getting used to it and have faith that I can handle it! It will be an adventure :)
Hope everythig is well with all of you!
With Love.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
New LA Home
Bing in Houston from Tuesday to Sunday last week was a lot like being at summer camp. From the camp counselors to the bugs and crazy amounts of food, it was summer camp for big kids. But the cabins were nice and we all had a great time! It was a good time bonding with the people I will be living with for the next year. Stephanie, Lily, Becca, Ed, and I had an awesome time talking, laughing and even a little crying. We we're creating bonds and friendships and are going to grow change and inspire us all year.
Camp was a lot about bonding and learning about living in community but it was also about discussing the other pillars of JVC: simplicity, spiritulity, and social justice. Everyone has different definitions of these words and how to live them out. We shared our thoughts about how we should live and work together. It really was a week all about creating a new family and way of living.
It was great being in the AC cabins, eating tons of food, bonding, goofing off, exporing, and finding all of the Houston wildlife (did you know that there are Armadilos in Houston!?) but we got more and more antcey as the week went on. All we wanted to do was get to New Orleans already! We all took a short flight Sunday afternoon and landed in NOLA at 530. The minute we arived at the houses we were greated by about 6 former Jesuit volunteers and a bunch of our bosses from the different placements we are all working at. It was such a warm welcome with food and good stories included!
Monday we all were given a tour of a few of the placements. Each time the JV's who would be working at the placement stepped foot into their building it was like they were made for the place. It was incredible seeing everyone light up! Including Annie and I :) We saw the rest of the placements on Tuesday. Between the 11 of us here we are working at The Harry Tompson Center, Unity, the Distric Atternies office, Project Lazarus, the Innocence Project, and two local elementary schools. We are a busy group!
The houses we are living in are great. It is a duplex that shares a wall and a back yard but we have two separat front doors. They are very loved, used, and have a lot of character. Meaning some of the doors don't work very well, we are missing some decor matching, and there are quiet a few just plane broken objects chillig in the house. Although we have almost everything we could need and a ton of stuff we didn't know we needed. For example, as i was going trough the closet upstairs i cam accross two air mattresess and about 5 sleeping bags.... I guess we will be having lots of guests. Also we have more Mardi Gras beads than I can begin to count! They are on every door handle and hook in the house. I wonder where those could have come from....??? I think I'll be doing a big bead collage or wall art of some sort in the living room. My creative energy is going crazy here! The city is beautiful in it's own eclectic and loved way.
Something i learned about myself as we were introduced to our houses and started unpacking is that i am a nester: to the max! For those of you who know my Mom, this should not be a suprise. Monday and Tuesday afternoons i spent going through ever closet, drawer, cabinet, and shelf to see what we had in the house and what we could get rid of. It was facinating the memories, funny objects, crafts, cookbooks, beads, cloths, and just junk i found, haha. My roommates loved my nesting quality due to the fact that i left everything much cleaner and homier :) Although most of the memory stuff i left for the coming years. There were a ton of old journals, scrapbooks, and notes that really make the house the JV house that it is. My roommates were also great cleaning helpers. Ed (being the only male) is not afraid to pull out the vacume but said that he will need a lesson or two on the bathroom deep cleans. Becca and i are similar in our cleaning habbins. Then Steph and Lily are great at helping out, jumping right in, and getting things done. We also did a masive mopping of the much loved/used hardwood floors and moved around the furniture to make the rooms more welcoming. It is now really feeling like my home and my community is making it their own place!
Pictures will be coming soon but i wanted to updated you all in the mean time. Overall i am loving it here and cannot wait to call this city and the Harry Tompson Center my own!
Camp was a lot about bonding and learning about living in community but it was also about discussing the other pillars of JVC: simplicity, spiritulity, and social justice. Everyone has different definitions of these words and how to live them out. We shared our thoughts about how we should live and work together. It really was a week all about creating a new family and way of living.
It was great being in the AC cabins, eating tons of food, bonding, goofing off, exporing, and finding all of the Houston wildlife (did you know that there are Armadilos in Houston!?) but we got more and more antcey as the week went on. All we wanted to do was get to New Orleans already! We all took a short flight Sunday afternoon and landed in NOLA at 530. The minute we arived at the houses we were greated by about 6 former Jesuit volunteers and a bunch of our bosses from the different placements we are all working at. It was such a warm welcome with food and good stories included!
Monday we all were given a tour of a few of the placements. Each time the JV's who would be working at the placement stepped foot into their building it was like they were made for the place. It was incredible seeing everyone light up! Including Annie and I :) We saw the rest of the placements on Tuesday. Between the 11 of us here we are working at The Harry Tompson Center, Unity, the Distric Atternies office, Project Lazarus, the Innocence Project, and two local elementary schools. We are a busy group!
The houses we are living in are great. It is a duplex that shares a wall and a back yard but we have two separat front doors. They are very loved, used, and have a lot of character. Meaning some of the doors don't work very well, we are missing some decor matching, and there are quiet a few just plane broken objects chillig in the house. Although we have almost everything we could need and a ton of stuff we didn't know we needed. For example, as i was going trough the closet upstairs i cam accross two air mattresess and about 5 sleeping bags.... I guess we will be having lots of guests. Also we have more Mardi Gras beads than I can begin to count! They are on every door handle and hook in the house. I wonder where those could have come from....??? I think I'll be doing a big bead collage or wall art of some sort in the living room. My creative energy is going crazy here! The city is beautiful in it's own eclectic and loved way.
Something i learned about myself as we were introduced to our houses and started unpacking is that i am a nester: to the max! For those of you who know my Mom, this should not be a suprise. Monday and Tuesday afternoons i spent going through ever closet, drawer, cabinet, and shelf to see what we had in the house and what we could get rid of. It was facinating the memories, funny objects, crafts, cookbooks, beads, cloths, and just junk i found, haha. My roommates loved my nesting quality due to the fact that i left everything much cleaner and homier :) Although most of the memory stuff i left for the coming years. There were a ton of old journals, scrapbooks, and notes that really make the house the JV house that it is. My roommates were also great cleaning helpers. Ed (being the only male) is not afraid to pull out the vacume but said that he will need a lesson or two on the bathroom deep cleans. Becca and i are similar in our cleaning habbins. Then Steph and Lily are great at helping out, jumping right in, and getting things done. We also did a masive mopping of the much loved/used hardwood floors and moved around the furniture to make the rooms more welcoming. It is now really feeling like my home and my community is making it their own place!
Pictures will be coming soon but i wanted to updated you all in the mean time. Overall i am loving it here and cannot wait to call this city and the Harry Tompson Center my own!
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