Day 3 - The Garden District and Our Second Work Day at the Legohn House: Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Our second touring morning before we started work involved a walking tour of the historic Garden District. Mr. Vezzali made an excellent tour guide, pointing out impressive homes dating back to the 1830's. Early American residents included wealthy entrepreneurs who were transplants from the northeast and ironically found themselves foreigners in their own country, largely looked down upon by the French and Creole elite. Today, such homeowners include Payton Manning, Drew Brees, Anne Rice, John Goodman, and Nicholas Cage. To the students, this neighborhood stood in start contrast to the poverty and destruction still pervasive in the Seventh Ward where we have been working. We also checked out a very old cemetery in the neighborhood: Lafayette Cemetery #1. As with all of the cemeteries in New Orleans, the graves are not buried but placed in crypts above ground so they will not float in heavy rains. We discovered some old graves that included victims of the yellow fever outbreak in the 1800's, a Confederate general and several soldiers, and famous old Garden district families.  The cemetery is both fascinating and kind of spooky!  Check out the group picture.

Vezzali promised in yesterday's edition a little backstory about the Legohn family, so we thought we would include it here. Mrs. Patricia Legohn has not lived in New Orleans since the hurricane. While some of her extended family has returned to NOLA, unfortunately she has suffered five strokes during the rebuilding process and was a victim of contractor fraud as over 20,000 other New Orleanians were. She misses her city and most of all, being surrounded by her whole family once again. St. Bernard Project represents her hope for coming home, and we get to play a role in her homecoming.  Here is what the exterior of the house looks like:

We arrived at our a worksite really full, and dragging a bit, but only because we had the best BBQ lunch ever. The volunteers from St. Bernard's project invited us to "The Joint", a little hole in the wall where many of the workers go for lunch. Delicious! Despite our full bellies, we got right to work. One crew, consisting of Simon, Henry, and Steven, and lead convincingly by Chris, organized all of the painting materials, and made sure everything was ready for the crews while I had the fun task of sanding a poor mud job in the stairwell. Another group, Nico, Jimmie, and Mark rolled a first coat of the owner's paint color choice on both bedrooms including the ceiling and the closet. The second crew, Beau, Marek, and Joey, put a coat of primer on the walls of the master bedroom. Eric was the master at cutting in. Believe me when I say they did an excellent job. We talked a lot about how important it is to put care into the job, treating it as if it were their own home. If you need your son to paint a room this summer, he is ready! After a long day of work, we then had to clean all of the buckets, rollers, and brushes. The boys realized that while painting is not glamorous, the final product makes the inside of the house look amazing. We are hoping that Mrs. Patricia Legohn likes it, too and feels that her home in New Orleans is home again. I could tell they were very proud of their work (and Mr. V and I were proud of them). We finished just before a very violent thunder and lightening storm kept us up a good part of the night. After another one of James's delicious meals, we settled in, listened to the storm, and played a little Scrabble. We are not sure what tomorrow will bring because of the weather, but we'll keep you posted.