Another Longest. Entry. Ever.

Sigh. I'm having a lot of trouble keeping current with the writing. Here's what I wrote about last week, but I haven't written anything about this week yet. Hopefully I'll catch up soon. There's too much to write about!

Alright, picking up where that last update left off. On Saturday the 6th we were still split up. I went back to the house that Brian was in charge of, along with five other teammates and Christina. Brian said there wasn’t enough work for that many people to do, so Christina took Lindsey and me to a coffee shop so we could use internet to work on the CCC project that we are in charge of. (I’m sure I’ll describe that later, but I don’t have a lot of time right now.) On our way there, Lindsey and I both realized that we felt sicker that day than we had the past couple days. (Yes, several of us are sick at once. Big surprise.) We both decided that we wanted to go to the doctor. We went ahead to the coffee shop, then left to find a doctor. Christina had found three nearby that take our insurance, so we went to the first on the list. Oh look, it was closed. We went to the second on the list, and found out it didn’t actually take our insurance. We tried to call the third on the list, and no one answered. Christina called another team leader who is in New Orleans and found out about another one, so we went there. It was quite an epic journey. We had to wait a REALLY long time because they had just switched to a paperless system like the day before and weren’t used to it. When I finally saw a doctor, she listened to my lungs. After only one breath, she said “Oh yeah, that’s bronchitis.” So I got a prescription for an antibiotic and an inhaler. Lindsey found out she had laryngitis, but it was on its way out. It’s interesting how so many of us are sick, but we all seem to have different things.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. The big day. SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! Oh my goodness, this was an excited city. I really didn’t do anything all afternoon because I was still fairly sick, but we had plans for that night. The AmeriCorps Direct people had invited us to watch the game at their house, and some people wanted to go. And some people wanted to stay there the whole game, while others wanted to watch in the Quarter. The problem was that everyone would want to go out afterward, and no one wanted to have to drive the van back to the house at midnight. Also, Heather was out of town that weekend and was getting back on a bus at 5:30 (when the game was scheduled to start). We came up with a pretty darn good plan. We would all drive the van to the Direct house at like 5, hang out with them for a while, then people who wanted to watch the game in the Quarter would go pick up Heather, drive home to drop off her stuff and the van, then either walk or take a cab to the Quarter. It was a great plan until none of the cab companies whose numbers we had were answering their phone. We (Heather, TK, Lindsey, and myself, the people who didn’t want to watch the game at the Direct house) eventually decided to just walk. The downside of this is that we didn’t get to Magnolia Grill (where else would we watch the game?) until close to the end of the third quarter. It was still really fun though. There were actually a lot of people in the restaurant that night. Those of you who watched know that it was a pretty exciting game. There was an awesome interception by the Saints that led to a touchdown with only like a minute or two left in the game, which pretty much clinched the victory. THE SAINTS WON THE SUPER BOWL! Again, we all ran over to Bourbon Street where again, there was a crushing mob of people. Overall, it was pretty much just an awesome night.

Monday was a pretty lazy day for most of us. Everyone had stayed out pretty late, so we were mostly just sitting around all day. We did laundry later that night, but that was about it. The biggest thing that happened that day is that we found out the options for projects next round. This round is what they call shuffle round. They’re letting each Corps Member rank their preference for the projects then the team leaders pick new teams kind of based on their rankings. They’ll try to give everyone one of their top few choices, but that’s probably not possible. They’ll also try to split current teams up as much as they can, but there are five teams with 10-12 people each, so there will probably be two or three people from each current team on a shuffle team together. Also, the two office Team Leaders from each unit will get a team this round, while two field Team Leaders from each unit take over their jobs in the office. Want to know the projects? There are two projects in New Orleans: Habitat construction (the exact project I have now) led by Nichole, and Rebuilding Together (which is kind of similar to Habitat – it’s like constructing new houses and rehabbing old ones) led by Sarah. Nichole and Sarah are the Sun office people, and they’re both pretty awesome. There’s Habitat construction in Oklahoma City, led by Dani. There’s something called the Fuller Disaster Recovery Center (which is again, kind of like Habitat – constructing new homes and rehabbing old ones) in Orange, TX, led by Julie. Then there’s the one everyone is talking about, in Big Bend National Park, in Texas. That team will be camping the whole two months. I thought Calwood was remote, but Big Bend makes Calwood look like New York City. It is 100 miles from the nearest grocery store. Because it is so far away, Christina said they will probably only go grocery shopping every other week. There is no cell phone service and no electricity. It is in the desert. The project description said that the main goal of the NCCC team will be to repair the trail to their highest peak, which is 8,000 feet high. I forget what all the description said was wrong with the trail, but I definitely remember that it said the trail was too steep for hikers. This project sounds really freaking intimidating, but I just turned in my rankings with it at the top. I am now stressing about the possibility of getting it, but there’s nothing I can do about it until like Thursday the 18th or so, when we find out what team we’re on. Gah!

On Tuesday, we were back at our regular worksite with Dan and Forest. There were a bunch of odd jobs to finish before we got kicked out again for the sheetrock people to put up all the dry wall. It wasn’t terribly exciting. It was pretty darn cold though. We ended up getting out of work at 2:00 though, because the entire city was closing for a parade to welcome the Saints home from Miami, where the Super Bowl was. Seriously. We got out of work then because that’s when the Habitat office was closing. Schools were getting out early. Businesses were getting out early. All for a Saints parade that wasn’t even scheduled to start until 5:00. That’s how much New Orleans loves its Saints. It was nice though, because most of us wanted to go to the parade. We got there at right around 5, but we were really close to the end of the parade route. The parade didn’t actually get to us until about 8. And it was REALLY cold and windy that night. Some of our group left at about 7:30 because they were tired of standing in the cold, but I stayed because I would have been pretty upset if I stood in the cold for that long and then didn’t even see anything. The parade was alright I suppose, but I didn’t have a very good spot to see from. The few floats they had were pretty cool. Most of the floats carried players from the Saints. The first one had Drew Brees, the quarterback, but of course he was facing the other side of the street so I only saw the back of his head. The rest of us left at about 9, before the parade was even over. It was cold, and most of us were already sick and didn’t want to make it too much worse.

We were still at our regular worksite on Wednesday. The sheetrock people were working inside, so we all had to work outside where once again, it was really cold. I did a little touch-up paint, then cut a little more facia, then moved dirt around the rest of the day. The ground was really uneven on the back and side of the house, so a few of us were assigned to level it. I actually preferred that to the painting and the facia, because all the shoveling kept me warmer.

Wednesday night, when I posted the previous entry, was a little interesting. Heather, TK, Lindsey, and I went over to a little coffee shop nearby to use the internet. This coffee shop is in a small residential area. After we were there for a while, we heard the sound of a jazz band. The sound was getting louder. We looked out the window and saw a small parade go by. There was a jazz band, a bunch of random people, and two people twirling fire. It was really random, but very New Orleans.

On Thursday, we were kicked off our regular worksite again. Lindsey and Jess stayed home because they were still sick and it was really cold and rainy again, and Christina, Rob, and Michala all went to a coffee shop to do some paperwork. The rest of us got sent to the Musicians’ Village (a whole neighborhood Habitat recently built). We had to dig up some tiny trees that had only been planted recently and replant them somewhere else. Soon after we got there, Marquis realized he was also too sick to work that day, so TK and I drove him home. (The van can’t have fewer than two people in it.) When we got back I was informed that I would be going with Katie, an AmeriCorps Direct person, over to one of the houses we worked on when we were split up to do some touch up work. We both had to take off our muddy muddy shoes on the porch, and I mopped the whole house while she scraped paint that had dripped on the tile. Then, I mopped the whole house again while she did some touch up paint on the walls. The floor was still wet from when I mopped the first time and neither of us wanted to get our socks wet because it was really cold again, so we both went barefoot. I’m pretty sure that was the coldest my feet have ever been in my life. It was colder inside the house than it was outside, and I was walking on wet tile. It was pretty bad. But walking around in the cold with wet socks for the rest of the day would have been worse, so I think I made the right decision.

In the afternoon, we all went to another of the houses we worked on when we were split up. There was a huge hole in the back yard, and a few large piles of dirt. The hole needed to be filled and the rest of the back yard leveled off. It wouldn’t have been bad, but it was still rainy and cold. And they don’t have soil in New Orleans, they have clay. Like solid clay you could sculpt with. A giant pile of clay that has been rained on is not very easy to shovel. We got the hole filled by about 3, and Forest said we could go.

On Friday, it was determined that we would only work until lunch time. The Habitat people were obviously struggling to find work for us, and we had other things we could do to get hours. Tomm, Marquis, Rob, and Jess were all sent to the house I had mopped on Thursday to do more touch up paint, and the rest of us went back to the house that had the hole in the back yard. There was a huge pile of sand in the front of the house and we were told to shovel it back to the back yard to smooth out the chunks of clay. It took all morning with six people to shovel that entire pile to the back. And of course, it was still raining and cold. I think we got it looking pretty good, but we were all really ready to go home at lunch time. After lunch, we did some service learning to get hours for the rest of the day. We watched the first half of a really long documentary called When the Levees Broke. It had interviews with a bunch of people who were here during and after Katrina. We all actually learned a lot about things that happened in those few days. The movie was done really well and I think we all liked it. Obviously, it was extremely sad, but it gave us a good idea of what people went through.

We had been given Saturday off from work because of Mardi Gras, so obviously we had scheduled an ISP for the day. There’s a place near where we live called the Green Project. It’s kind of like the Habitat warehouse, where they take donations and then sell them for a drastically reduced price. The Green Project also recycles paint and other materials, and I think also uses these recycled materials for art. Fun fact: They’re filming the new Green Lantern movie, starring Ryan Reynolds, in New Orleans. The Green Project guy who was showing us around said that every day, he goes to the studio and picks up a truckload of scrap lumber and stuff. When filming is over, the Green Project will be able to strike the set and take as much as they want. We had two jobs for the day. There were a bunch of wood pallets that needed to be taken apart, and a stack of lumber that was filled with rusty bent nails that had to be taken out. I worked on the pallets because as most of us know, I enjoy taking things apart. It was really a pretty pleasant day. It was the first warm sunny day we’d had in a while and we got to work outside.

Sunday was kind of like our first day of Mardi Gras weekend. None of us went out on Saturday night because half of us were still sick and we were planning on going out Sunday and Monday nights. We knew before we came to New Orleans that the van wouldn’t be allowed out during Mardi Gras so four girls from my team and four girls from Dani’s team decided to get a hotel room for Sunday and Monday nights. This was, of course, before we actually got here and found out that our house is only like a 25 minute walk from the Quarter. So on Sunday night, Jess, Lindsey, Heather, and I packed a bag for the hotel, and we all started walking. We stopped at the Walgreens about halfway to the Quarter because people needed cash. While there, Erin, the girl on Dani’s team who organized the hotel, called us and said that when they checked in, they were given wristbands and told that they would not be allowed in the hotel later that night without them. The room was only registered for four people, not the eight that were planning on staying there. (Yes, dishonest. But we make like a third of minimum wage.) So since the other four were already there, it would be really difficult to get us four in there. We stood around thinking of a way around it for a while then started walking back to our house. We didn’t want to carry our stuff all the way there only to find out that we couldn’t get in. The four of us (we all happen to be roommates in our house also) sat in our room for quite a while trying to figure out a way to work this out. We couldn’t just pull out of the hotel plan, because then the four others would have to pay double (it was already $36 per night for each of us) which would be a lot of money. We really didn’t think we could find a way to sneak ourselves in there. We REALLY didn’t want to pay that much money and then not stay there. The solution we finally came up with was that we would each contribute less than half of the original amount, and the four from my team would just come back home each night. It kind of sucks, but they’re not mad at us and we’re not mad at them, so I guess it all worked out.

So we left our stuff in our house then headed out again. The rest of our group had come back to the house with us which was really nice because it was dark when we left the second time. We don’t live in the best neighborhood, and a group of eight feels much safer than a group of four girls. It also probably would have been a pretty big hassle to try to find everyone once we got there. We met up with a few people from Dani’s team and watched a little bit of the parade that was going on. Then we walked over to Frenchman Street, where there’s a much better atmosphere than places like Bourbon Street. After hanging out there for a while we were trying to decide where to go next. TK had been talking about a free concert that a band called Dumpstaphunk was playing at the Howlin’ Wolf that he really wanted to go to, but it was pretty far from where we were. Some people didn’t want to walk that far but I kind of wanted to go. Eventually everyone agreed to go and we started walking. Then it started raining. Kind of hard. And it was already pretty cold. Jess, Becky, and Michala decided to go in somewhere and wait out the rain, but TK, Lindsey, Heather and I kept walking. It was a pretty long walk, with a couple of stops to ask for more directions, but we found it. It ended up being really fun. The band was REALLY good. There were two bass players, a guitar, keyboards, and drums. Just like at the Yonder Mountain show, we kind of found our way up to the front. The venue was pretty cool too. Actually, the whole area it was in had a pretty nice atmosphere. The rest of the group definitely missed out. When it was over, we actually didn’t have too much trouble finding a cab to get home. It was a pretty fun night.