I just finished my last full week in New Orleans which wasn't even a full week because we got Monday off for Fourth of July. The whole weekend was a blast. Friday night was a quit night. I spent it doing laundry and beginning on the Internet. Saturday was our combined Day of Service with Water 3. Michelle (Water 3) and I got in contact with the Latina Farm Growers of Louisiana and found out that they need help fixing up one of their community gardens and picking blueberries. I of course jumped at the chance to be able to pick blueberries and the organization sounded very interesting. Their mission is to bring awareness to the hungry in New Orleans and teach people how to grow their own food. Half of us worked in the garden weeding, fixing and painting the shed, and building a new planter. The other half of us went to the west bank and picked blueberries. I was part of the second group and much to my enjoyment we had to cross the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (one of the longest bridges in the country, 25 miles.) With the other volunteers that picked with us we picked about 15 pounds of blueberries. The berries were going to be sold in a fund raiser on the 4th. Saturday late afternoon and evening Kristy, Kelly, and I went to borders to hang out and get the Internet.
The day of the 4th was a lot of fun. I was able to sleep in which was wonderful. I hung out at home for the morning and early afternoon just futsing around. After I made myself some food a bunch of us went with people from the other team down to the water front in the French Quarter to stake out a spot to watch the fireworks. There were about 20 people that were going to be sitting with us so we need a lot of space. We got down there around 6:30 but the fireworks weren’t supposed to start until 9 so Aaron, Kelly, Kristy, Amanda, Ashley, Alex, and I went to Café de Monde. I shared a plate of Beignets with Amanda. Beignets, French donuts, are what the café is famous for. While we were there we saw Terry Crews, the actor in White Chicks (the one on the right). My first famous person I have seen while I have been here. We went back to our spot by the river which by this time was packed with people and sat around talking waiting for the fireworks that didn’t start on time, of course. The fireworks were really good but I wish they would have lasted a bit longer. Afterwords we hung out by the river and then some people went out while the rest of us came home. Monday was spent cleaning and going grocery shopping.
As for work this past week I worked with Decon again. We spent Tuesday at a house taking out the base boards and removing the studs from the walls. We then spent the afternoon processing the wood, pulling out nails and making clean cuts on the ends. Wednesday and today I spent taking off siding and processing it. In total we processed about 1200 linear feet of siding.Tomorrow is the day that we get off work to do service learning. Through my dad I have been able to set up a tour of the BP Oil Command Center in Houma, LA. I hope everyone enjoys it.
