Camp Hope

Camp Hope is where volunteers wanting to help with reconstruction in New Orleans can stay if they don't mind sleeping 25 to a room. You can stay for as many or as few days as you like and you're not bound to a particular project once you're there. Room and board cost me $100 a week (it's since gone up to $150) and it's a great way to meet people from all over the country that care enough about their fellow citizens to pick up a hammer and help.

The building itself is a school that was under about 10 feet of water. Habitat is fixing it up so it can accommodate volunteers now and turn it back over to the community as a fully refurbished school in the future. There are local residents who help cook as well as connect volunteers to what's going on in the community.

The whole thing is fenced in with 24-hour security at the gate-house out front. It wasn't so much for the volunteers as it was to guard against the theft of tools and equipment. New Orleans was a pretty wild place before the flood and the recovery has brought out both the best and the worst in people.