Day Seven: Wednesday, January 11

home > academics > undergraduate requirements > january term > nola > archives > Photo Journal > Day Seven: Wednesday, January 11

Day Seven: Wednesday, January 11

We are happy to report that our Portapots are finally CLEAN again! It's not like they are minty fresh or anything like that, but our camp is a much different place to be when those things have been serviced. In fact, we would encourage you – if you ever contract portable toilets – to ignore the advice of the company rep when he/she tells you that service once a week is "plenty." Ha! We just shifted to getting service three times a week! (SHAMELESS REQUEST #2: If you want to help fund our decision to increase the number of times we get service for our portable toilets, please see "support a student relief worker" and make a contribution to our overall budget.)

We hit the powdered egg supply again this morning, then headed off to Parkway Partners where we joined Mario. He led us to a community garden on the property of Xavier University. Along with doing our work, we got to watch tearful reunions of returning Xavier students, and we got to hear the cheers and applause of lots of people driving by (both for us and for the Xavier students – the reawakening of this community garden paralleled the reawakening of the University).

Like the one we worked last Friday, this garden will serve as a source of income for a "market farmer." It will also serve as a site for doing soil testing, and, if necessary, for testing methods of remediation for problems. When we arrived at the garden, we found it completely overgrown, with a fallen tree occupying a huge space in the back half of the plot. We sent one team to the back to fire up the chipper/shredder and start eliminating the parts of that tree. David jumped at the chipping job, and stayed with it all day long. Jed joined in, too, and they each had a big dirt patch on one side of their face from the off-spray of the chipper. The rest of their group -- Vanessa F., Stephanie, and Elvia – kept feeding them limbs so that the process would go as fast as it could. They also tackled some evil vines that had overtaken the entire back of the lot.

The other teams worked to break up the topsoil, which we learned was laid on top of large pieces of rugs, plastic, and other fibrous materials. On top of these pieces was about an 8" layer of soil, meaning that it was very difficult to yank it out of the ground. Fernando, Casey, Sal, and Jorge worked up quite a system to muscle those pieces of cloth out of the ground. Their system ensured that each of them got TOTALLY covered with dirt, but it also meant that they harvested 39 enormous sheets from the place they now call "the carpet farm." When they got near the end of the very worst ones, the whole group would join together and finish off the job, loading the rolled-up pieces across two wheelbarrows at a time. [Speaking of wheelbarrows, perhaps the greatest lesson that some people learned today is that the word is, in fact, "wheelbarrow" and not "wheelbarrel." The conversations went on and on as the "barrel" people tried to defend their belief that that they had the right word.]

In taking on this job, we have made it so Macon, the market farmer, can start from scratch in enriching the soil; without a group this large and this strong, this job might not have gotten done at all. Because we are working on this same space tomorrow, we will include before and after pictures of the whole undertaking then.

While there, another long-time neighbor to the garden returned and was – at first – incensed that we were taking action on the garden without consulting her. She wanted to be assured that she would get back the same plot that she had always gardened, and we worked with Mario to be sure that she will. Though it was odd to face someone's anger for a brief moment, it was a great confirmation that these gardens are very important to the people whose neighborhoods contain them. Further, we again were reminded that no one is able to face ANY MORE LOSS. Thus, we were happy to know that things would return to "normal" for this one woman, at least as far as her garden space was concerned.

We were so tired and dirty that we agreed to have major "comfort food" for dinner. Huge piles of stuffing and mashed potatoes were covered with chunks of chicken and a gravy that we made out of rather atypical ingredients (mostly soy sauce, flour, and water). Tomorrow is Justin's birthday, so we look forward to having a special celebration then. . . .

As for our pictures today, we decided to be sure to post a picture of each person, so that everyone out there who knows us can get a look at each of us in action. We'll post pictures of the worksite tomorrow, as today's job will continue then.