Day 71: 11/16/06

Today we started back at Frank's house where volunteers on our team take a few final loads of debris out to the gargantuan garbage pile inching toward the street. Frank's son bought all 20 of us poboy sandwiches (subs Nawlin's-style) and Powerade for our help. He was so thankful and it irked us to see him sift through the piles as our bus pulled away. Godspeed Mark!

I wish we would have gotten pictures of a spray painted house up the street that read," Do not feed the cats. I have traps set."

We moved on to 2225 Victor St. On the front lawn of this home sits a FEMA trailer. Inside the trailer lives Mike. Mike has been living in front of his Mom's house since the storm. Mike, his mother, sister, and neighbors were holdouts during the storm. They decided to stick around because they had weathered many hurricanes before. As the water rose, they abandoned this house and broke into the second-floor of a neighbor's home to survive. They waited 8 days to be rescued by boat. Mike explained, "There was no way I was going to take my elderly mother to the Superdome when there were murders and rapes going on. We decided to stay put." The Superdome stories ended up being false, another failure of the media.

Ben found and caught this furry fella. You'll be happy to know that we released him into the wild, probably to run into someone else's home.

As I brought a wheelbarrow-full of drywall out to the garbage mountain, I was surprised to look down and see a doll of Mardi Gras past resting in the insulation and drywall. An ironic image.

Relaxing over a meal back at camp, we noticed a free acupuncture clinic and our team took full advantage (pictured here is Noah). The clinic was provided by Acupuncturists Without Borders for displaced residents and volunteers alike. Did it work? Our friend Johnny from Arkansas summed it up nicely: "It didn't help much, but it didn't hurt nothin' either."

Ben and Charles take Joe out for a drink on Bourbon on his birthday. Jara provided photogenicity and liqueur.