Long Term Volunteer Leaves But Recollects Fond Memories

By Aletheia Higgins
Photography by Mavis Yorks
June 28, 2007

Jeh has three days left with Common Ground. At midnight tonight, he and nine other members of the collective will leave from New Orleans to drive to the first ever United States Social Forum in Atlanta, GA. After the forum, Jeh will not return to New Orleans with the others, but will begin another chapter in his life in Berkeley, CA. He has been a dedicated member of Common Ground for nearly sixteen months, since March 2006 and says, “I have seen Common Ground go through a lot of changes… a lot of ups and downs.” He is both happy and sad to be leaving, he tells me, “I am tired but hopeful.”

Before coming to New Orleans, Jeh worked in a bar in Chicago. After Hurricane Katrina swept through the gulf coast, his sister-in-law volunteered for two weeks in Biloxi, MS. He explains, “She had an executive job, kids… and I thought ‘if she can come for two weeks, I can come for three.’” Upon arrival in New Orleans, “I was struck by the raw life here,” he says, and he decided to extend his stay to a couple of months.

Like the majority of the volunteers who arrived in New Orleans during the first months after the storms, Jeh did manual labor, mostly house gutting. After the first two months passed, he decided to take a break and go biking around the US for a month with friends. While on this trip, he kept thinking about where his life would go next. He considered going to DC or back to Chicago but no matter what, “I wanted to be part of ‘the cause,’” which he describes as “social justice and empowerment to the people… I think another world is possible.” New Orleans had always stuck with him and he decided to return. “I fell in love with New Orleans… I saw hope. People drank at funerals; they tell inappropriate jokes; everyone calls everyone else ‘baby.’ If you look at the trash, there are always Mardi Gras beads in it; even the trash is colorful.”

He returned to New Orleans and went back to gutting houses. “One day I looked down into my shovel and saw this picture from the seventies. It was someone’s second grade picture, a kid with the two front teeth missing… This was somebody’s life and I was throwing it out into the street.” He realized then that his interests lay in rebuilding efforts, “I wanted to see people actually getting back into their homes.” After having been in New Orleans for so long he started to know resources. He began driving a dump truck not only to haul trash but to pick up donations and food.

“I wanted Common Ground to be sustaining, professional and consensus intentional.” He helped to organize the new House of Excellence, now called Common Ground Mid City, to exemplify these components.