Louisiana - Days 3 and 4
Sunday turned into quite the adventure. After church we got in the vans to head to New Orleans for the day. A few miles down the road, the van I was in broke down. Basically, we lost all electrical power, and after looking at it, a few of us figured it was the alternator. I volunteered to wait with Paul Lee and John Miyahara for a tow truck, which ended up taking about two hours. Paul has a AAA membership, but they couldn’t find anyone open. We also tried calling the Ford road side assistance number, but since the car is out of warranty, they couldn’t really help us either. They did, however, give us the numbers for some local towing companies, and one was open, so we were able to get someone to get the car to the local Ford dealership.
Because of the waiting, I didn’t get to see the 9th ward again, which I was really looking forward to. I was able to find out that they had cleared a lot of debris from the last time we were there, so the area looked much cleaner. Some of the houses have also been demolished, so there are more clear spots than before.
Hanging out in the French Quarter was also fun, again, but I sort of missed the person that I hung out with last time. Dinner was an excellent sweet potato crusted catfish at a restuarant that I can’t remember the name of.
Today, Monday, we had our orientation in the morning, which lasted longer than we anticipated. They asked if anyone had any electrical and plumbing experience, and I raised my hand, along with one of the students, Ryan. John Paul, the coordinator here, was very happy with that, which I took as an ominous sign. After we were ready to go, we were told that there was a job here that we wanted us to look at. One of the workers at the site has a broken water heater and it needed a new thermostat. Ryan and I weren’t too sure that we could really do anything, but he just wanted us to try, so we took a look at it as best we could. We couldn’t get it working, but I think that we figured out that there’s something wrong with the gas line coming into the house, and not with the hot water heater itself.
Once we got to our work site I was told to look into an electrical problem in the kitchen: the light fixture wouldn’t turn on. I took a look at it and after checking with a multimeter to verify that power was getting to the switch, I decided that a new switch was in order. After replacing the switch (and receiving a nice shock in the process), the light wouldn’t turn off! I double checked and it turns out they bought a three way switch, which I guess won’t work by itself. I would put another one in, but there’s a gas leak in the kitchen, and John Paul doesn’t want any more electrical work done until that is taken care of, which I’m in agreement with.
The rest of the day was spent trying to find things to do. We had a very large crew for the amount of work that needed done, so some of us spent a lot of time just sitting around. It’s really quite a shame, but there’s little to be done about it, especially once you’re already at the site. My hope is that there are other jobs lined up for us later in the week, otherwise, I think that most of the students will get very discouraged by the experience.
I haven’t had a chance to upload any photos, yet. Maybe later this evening after dinner.