Hey Y'all,
I will come right out and say it. I am not a good blogger because I always forget to post. I can't even say that I haven't had the time to. I have had time, but I always just procrastinate writing a post and end up doing something else instead. My goal for this blog was to post every 2 weeks. That has clearly not been happening. But today, I am at home with the flu, so it seemed like a good time to write. Anyway, here's a little update on my life so far.
I want to start by saying that I really love my job. I am working at a non-profit called Project Homecoming. It came out of the Presbyterian Church and PDA, but has been independent since last year. ProHo (as I like to call it) rebuilds homes damaged in Katrina. It also has begun building new homes in the same neighborhoods it has been working in for the past 7 years. I work as one of two Village Managers. ProHo has a Village where volunteers can stay for a week while they are working with us. I manage the Village and volunteers, as well as do all of the pre-trip communication and coordination.
What I most like about my job is the break down in my day. I work some weird hours (6 am - noon or 1 pm - 7 pm), but it allows me to have a lot of face time with volunteers and plenty of office time. All of our groups so far have been Presbyterian church groups, which my boss tells me is common for the fall. We usually get churches in the fall, college groups in the spring, and youth groups in the summer. So far we've had groups from Oregon, Michigan, Nebraska, Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Georgia. One of the Georgia groups was from North Decatur Pres, which I went to a few times with PCM, so that was a fun connection to have. I really enjoy being able to talk to everyone and hear their stories of New Orleans. Many of them have been coming down to New Orleans every year since 2005, which is really amazing. A man from last week said that their church was in the city 6 weeks after Katrina, and he's been back down 9 times since. I find it so inspiring to see how dedicated these groups from around the country have been, especially when I realize how little Hurricane Katrina was still on my radar before moving here.
I don't know if that is really boring detail or what. Since I haven't really talked about my job yet, which is the main reason for me being here, I figured I should probably write something.
The YAV house is going on our first retreat to Tennessee on Thursday. I'm sure I will have something to post about after that. I promise that it won't be another month before I post something.
