Seven o'clock rolls around and I wake up at six forty-five getting the best sleep I have gotten the whole week while at New Orleans. I could tell I got a good sleep because I felt like I did and because I had super crazy hair.
When I got up I almost automatically went into my normal routine of putting on my work jeans, my "I <3 N.O" t-shirt, and my green bandanna but then I realized that it was part one of the travel home.
The group was in for a twelve-hour drive today which is the longest Bethel will let us go for one day. We got gas and set our course for Hannibal, Missouri which is the home of Mark Twain.
Mark Twain isn't even his real name. It's Samuel Clement or something like that.
Long story short, we made it there, hence why I am able to write about it now. I navigated the whole time for two different drivers. We ate at Subway.
To keep the driver awake during the final stretch we played a lot of rap music, and we played a christian rap CD that the guys from the church gave us. Some of the songs they sang, some were other guys. It was pretty good.
I went to bed that night tired from all the car riding. I went to bed watching the National Geographic Channel which was doing a documentary on two beaver families. One family was the wily old veterans while the other was the young in-love beaver family. The young family didn't do so well building the home for the winter but they made it which was a relief for me watching because I was rooting for them.
Day two of the journey consisted of us waking up at five so we could get to Bethel by the afternoon. I drove seven hours all the way through Iowa to Bethel. It was a good time but I am still never going to get a minivan. Also, Iowa is definitely on the top five list of top boring states to drive through.
I did miss one exit but just turned around to fix it.
The GPS can be deceiving sometimes.
And that is the end of the journey. A week in New Orleans, The Big Easy, or The City Care Missed.
Some Information:
I stayed here
This is the church
I worked through this
March 21, 2010
New Orleans : Day 6
This was the last day of working in New Orleans. It would be a shorter work day and then the day would end with what they called, "The Closing Ceremonies" which made me automatically think of the Olympics.
I imagined all of the teams walking down the street holding the flag their group is affiliated with and then we would all circle up with the Olympic song playing. I couldn't really imagine it past that because I wouldn't know what else we would do.
Maybe pass on some sort of torch to something?
So this day I helped clean the church where our group had eaten breakfast and listened to people speak because they were having some sort of inspection next Tuesday. I helped change light bulbs and that was about it. It took us awhile to find a ladder, because in New Orleans all the ceilings are super high and so are the light bulbs. Then we had to replace all the light bulbs in the exit signs because they were all burned out.
We didn't have any new light bulbs for the exit signs so Bill had to go get some but when he came back he didn't come back with enough so we just put one bulb in all the exit signs instead of the two it required. This was weird for me because I would think you would do a good job instead of just going half way with it.
The closing ceremonies consisted of us filling out some forms and having some people talk and that was it. No fireworks or torch passing like I had imagined.
After the ceremonies we hopped in our vans, ate some food, and drove down to the Lower Ninth Ward which is where the levees broke and everything started flooding. It was pretty desolate, all the houses pretty much got demolished because they had a lot of damage I guess.
There were some newer houses though, supposedly the new ones where the ones donated by Brad and Angelina and they looked cool but they didn't look like true New Orleans style housing. They all had solar panels for roofs and funky architecture.
We also stopped by a memorial showing how high the water got everywhere
After that, we ate Domino's Pizza, the new and improved formula, and it was a lot better in my opinion.
Later on, we went back to the French Quarter which is where Bourbon Street is and we saw how the night life differed from the afternoon life was like there.
There was loud music, lots of people, lots of beads, and that was about it. I think we saw a drunk guy so our group walked a little faster and faster to get away from him. It is kind of weird how fast all the guys in the group went into super protective mode. It was like a flip of a light switch. All of a sudden we form a perimeter around the girls and get ready for whatever.
I spent the rest of the night just chatting it up with people on my team which I enjoyed.
That was my Friday, my last day in New Orleans, we were set to leave the next morning at seven which will be continued in the next post.
I imagined all of the teams walking down the street holding the flag their group is affiliated with and then we would all circle up with the Olympic song playing. I couldn't really imagine it past that because I wouldn't know what else we would do.
Maybe pass on some sort of torch to something?
So this day I helped clean the church where our group had eaten breakfast and listened to people speak because they were having some sort of inspection next Tuesday. I helped change light bulbs and that was about it. It took us awhile to find a ladder, because in New Orleans all the ceilings are super high and so are the light bulbs. Then we had to replace all the light bulbs in the exit signs because they were all burned out.
We didn't have any new light bulbs for the exit signs so Bill had to go get some but when he came back he didn't come back with enough so we just put one bulb in all the exit signs instead of the two it required. This was weird for me because I would think you would do a good job instead of just going half way with it.
The closing ceremonies consisted of us filling out some forms and having some people talk and that was it. No fireworks or torch passing like I had imagined.
After the ceremonies we hopped in our vans, ate some food, and drove down to the Lower Ninth Ward which is where the levees broke and everything started flooding. It was pretty desolate, all the houses pretty much got demolished because they had a lot of damage I guess.
There were some newer houses though, supposedly the new ones where the ones donated by Brad and Angelina and they looked cool but they didn't look like true New Orleans style housing. They all had solar panels for roofs and funky architecture.
We also stopped by a memorial showing how high the water got everywhere
After that, we ate Domino's Pizza, the new and improved formula, and it was a lot better in my opinion.
Later on, we went back to the French Quarter which is where Bourbon Street is and we saw how the night life differed from the afternoon life was like there.
There was loud music, lots of people, lots of beads, and that was about it. I think we saw a drunk guy so our group walked a little faster and faster to get away from him. It is kind of weird how fast all the guys in the group went into super protective mode. It was like a flip of a light switch. All of a sudden we form a perimeter around the girls and get ready for whatever.
I spent the rest of the night just chatting it up with people on my team which I enjoyed.
That was my Friday, my last day in New Orleans, we were set to leave the next morning at seven which will be continued in the next post.
March 18, 2010
New Orleans : Day 5
Thursday. Today was a busy day. We all did the usual routine of getting up early in the morning and eating breakfast then we went off to work.
My groups assignment for the day was to clean up the lot next to the very house we were staying at.
We moved a lot of rocks and got to use a sledgehammer at one point which made me feel very manly. I basically became a landscaper for the day, moving around a lot of dirt and therefore getting very dirty.
Mom, I will need new socks when I get home because mine are pretty much ruined.
Also, my shoes that I have worn so dearly for the last two glorious years are on their last breath. I will have to move to those newer shoes sitting in my closet.
That pretty much took until quitting time where we then had to drive to have a prayer walk around a community.
Basically all we do is walk around the neighborhood in a group of five or so and prayer whenever we feel called or pray with people that come out and want prayer.
We prayed over some water, a house with a lot of dogs, an abandoned school, some houses, and a woman named Donna.
Donna had a shirt on that said, "I was blown and f*#@$* by Katrina, what a whore" which kinda pushed me away at first but she was very kind. I silently prayed her unsurpassable worth and how she was a creation bringing heaven on earth. We walked around a community that was being built up before Katrina and because of the hurricane it hasn't been restarted since. So in some places were foundations and others were older houses. Supposedly the water there was about six feet high after Katrina.
After that we went to a block party and ate hot dogs, chips, and water.
After that we went back and showered which was nice because I was feeling really dirty then. I had become tanner by way of dirt.
We hung out for awhile then the guys of our team "serenaded" the girls of our team with an acoustic version of "Down" by Jay Sean. It was ok, we messed up the rap part of the song.
After that we all came down and ate some craw fish. It was kind of spicy and made my lips tingle. For those of you who don't know what craw fish are they're basically like shrimp and they don't have that much meat.
Throughout the rest of the night I watched people color Hello Kitty posters and played some Uno which was pretty relaxing.
Well friends, tomorrow is my last official work day. I'll be back on Sunday.
My groups assignment for the day was to clean up the lot next to the very house we were staying at.
We moved a lot of rocks and got to use a sledgehammer at one point which made me feel very manly. I basically became a landscaper for the day, moving around a lot of dirt and therefore getting very dirty.
Mom, I will need new socks when I get home because mine are pretty much ruined.
Also, my shoes that I have worn so dearly for the last two glorious years are on their last breath. I will have to move to those newer shoes sitting in my closet.
That pretty much took until quitting time where we then had to drive to have a prayer walk around a community.
Basically all we do is walk around the neighborhood in a group of five or so and prayer whenever we feel called or pray with people that come out and want prayer.
We prayed over some water, a house with a lot of dogs, an abandoned school, some houses, and a woman named Donna.
Donna had a shirt on that said, "I was blown and f*#@$* by Katrina, what a whore" which kinda pushed me away at first but she was very kind. I silently prayed her unsurpassable worth and how she was a creation bringing heaven on earth. We walked around a community that was being built up before Katrina and because of the hurricane it hasn't been restarted since. So in some places were foundations and others were older houses. Supposedly the water there was about six feet high after Katrina.
After that we went to a block party and ate hot dogs, chips, and water.
After that we went back and showered which was nice because I was feeling really dirty then. I had become tanner by way of dirt.
We hung out for awhile then the guys of our team "serenaded" the girls of our team with an acoustic version of "Down" by Jay Sean. It was ok, we messed up the rap part of the song.
After that we all came down and ate some craw fish. It was kind of spicy and made my lips tingle. For those of you who don't know what craw fish are they're basically like shrimp and they don't have that much meat.
Throughout the rest of the night I watched people color Hello Kitty posters and played some Uno which was pretty relaxing.
Well friends, tomorrow is my last official work day. I'll be back on Sunday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)