2,500 miles later and our road trip is over.  The highlights of the trip were Joshua Tree National Park and White Sands National Park.  I'm pretty happy to be out of that van for awhile.  Some days we were driving for up to 13 hours.

 

We arrived in New Orleans on Friday.  I had prepared myself for the destruction but I don't think anyone can truly be prepared.  Entire neighborhoods are still empty, condemned houses.  Most stores are empty shells with no windows and nothing inside.  Many of the street signs are still missing and garbage still lines many of the streets.  Each house that was flooded has spray paint on the front from when it was inspected.  This consists of an X which includes the date it was inspected, by who, and how many dead animals and people were found inside.  I find myself looking at every one of these when driving around and feeling relief each time the number says zero.  Unfortunately, it isn't always zero.  One of the most disturbing things is the cemeteries which are above ground.  Nearly half of the tombs are open and empty, their contents having been swept away with the floodwater.  The French Quarter may be a thriving party once again but just a few miles away it seems like barely anything has changed since Katrina.  I'm taking my team to the lower 9th ward today and we are going to see inside a house that hasn't been mucked yet.  I still don't think we have fully grasped the destruction that occurred.

 

We have been at Camp Hope for the past two days and the living conditions have been rather rustic and overcrowded.  Today we head to our real housing which should be nice.  Yesterday 500 of us helped refurbish three schools by repainting all the hallways.  It was a fun project.  On Tuesday we will actually begin our 7 week project with the Recovery School District.

 

Coming to New Orleans has been an emotional roller coaster that has been amplified by a serious medical emergency back home.  I'm flying home on Friday and I'm not sure how long I'll be away from my team.  At the moment I'm just trying to get through.  Nothing seems to be turning out how I expected but I'll get through it all.  I'll update when I can.

I knew this job would be hard but I didn't know my personal life as I knew it would cease to exist when the corps members arrived.  Being a team leader basically means being a police officer, mother, doctor, teacher, friend, chauffeur, secretary, and do everything person all rolled into one.  The team leaders all get very little sleep and have become the crankiest, most pitiful group in the world.  When we aren't working we sleep, that's about it.

 

Things are actually going pretty well and I might become saner once things calm down a bit.  On Monday I met my team.  Each team leader created unique invitations and the team had to put all the invites together to find out where to go.  We were all waiting in different rooms with birthday parties set up to celebrate the birth of our team.  It turned out well.  I'm incredibly excited about my team.  We all have a similar temperament and everyone seems really cool.  My team seems happy with me too which is a very nice feeling.

 

This Friday and Saturday we had our first project together which was a lot of fun.  We took part in a giant community service event and spent the time planting trees.  It was a lot of fun but I didn't realize how much work actually goes into planting a tree.  We named all the trees and I'll have to go back at the end of the year to see if Egg McMuffic , Herbert, Cindy, Guinevere, Milkshake, and Lyle are still alive.

 

It has definitely been a week of ups and downs.  I'm happy about my team but am also perpetually overwhelmed and exhausted.  I think things will get easier when we head out on our projects.  Until then, the key is to just keep functioning and try to enjoy the moment.

-Alexis

p.s.  Don't even ask about the horribleness that is my Javits application.