It's been a while since I've updated. This mainly due to the fact that I would rather nap during my free time than write....woops. BUT tonight I am in rare form because I ran TWICE today! This entire trip I've tried keeping my morning runs a secret because I don't want the kids to ask to come with. ( I know that's awful, but I really didn't think my 20-something self would be able to keep up with a bunch of active teenagers) We got off site unusually early today, however, so one of the other staff and I brought a couple of girls to a park on St. Charles Ave. I wasn't planning on running, but since the blazing sun held me back from having an adequate morning jog today, I decided to tag along. To my surprise, it was awesome and now I'm taking them back anytime they ask. That is, as long as I am not napping.
As I stated in my previous post, our new kids arrived on Tuesday. They're dynamic is COMPLETELY different than our last. Not in a good or a bad way... just in a different way. For instance, they rave about how good the food we cook is and they do their chores the FIRST time I ask...pretty suspicious if you ask me.
This past week I brought 6 of our kids to work on a house in St. Bernard's Parrish. There we were greeted by our onsite coordinator 'We' (I don't know how to spell his name) and Lolo, an adult volunteer. I came to adore both. Lolo is a kick-butt 50-year-old 1st grade teacher who dedicates two weeks of her summer every year to help rebuild. We is a beast! He rides his bike to work every day and learned all of his handy work from YouTube. He said that his motivation to build was in case he ever had children and "wanted to build a tree house for them." How presh!
Days were spent laying down hardwood floor. I'm pretty much an expert by now.
The kids and I were lucky enough to meet our home owner Darren!. Darren told us the incredible story about his decision to stay during the storm. Because his birthday landed on the 28th of August, he decided to hang back and throw himself a birthday party. The next morning he woke up to find water streaming in from every open crevasse of his house. He busted through his roof and hung out until a random boat floated by. From then on out he has been living in multiple locations throughout Louisiana. When his house became approved by St. Bernard's, he moved back in with his mother (much to his dismay). Darren has owned his house for 20 years, and has been forced to roam for 5. Finally, he gets to come back home!
We took a pretty fab picture with him with one of the the girl's cameras. I will be sure to post it after I'm allowed to be facebook friends with her.
Goodnight :)
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Mr. I'll Make a Man Out of You
TRAVEL DAY
Tomorrow my fellow staff and I will send our first batch of kids on their way, while simultaneously welcoming 26 newcomers to our loving and at times, dysfunctional family.
These last two weeks have been cuh-razyyy. Days stacked with service, nights with exploration. The kids have officially moved on from mudding and sanding to demolition and hanging dry wall...(woo I'm gonna be so ripped!) Mondays are eco-focused. Today we assisted workers in an Urban Garden by sifting through their compost and planting things. Our supervisor was a nature man named Jafar (haha), who suggested we place a feminine name to our newly-planted avocado tree in hopes that it may bear bountiful fruit. The kids agreed on Lucille. I guess they found my Princess Jasemine idea offensive?
Nighttime/weekends are a blast. They have been especially rewarding for me because as the kids are discovering the city for the first time, so am I. The locals definitely have a dynamic. My supervisor and I decided that New Orleanians are similar in part to your Grandmother. She'll shower you with love and affection, but she'll also publicly call you out for not standing up straight. In other words, it's southern hospitality with an edge, ya heard?
Some of my fav nighttime/weekend activities...
Preservation Hall: After two failed attempts, we finally made it! As I stated in my previous post, Preservation Hall was created in an attempt to restore Jazz music. For the the hour and a half we were there, time stood still. The musicians are incredibly talented and super interactive. My personal favorite was the trumpet player. He had the best voice and earned serious brownie points for being a dead ringer for Carl Winslow.
AirBoat Tours: Airboats are over-sized motorboats which take you through the bayous. While on the ride, you can gawk at and/or pet alligators. Our tour guide was a burly, middle-aged man named Greg. Greg was nice, but I was borderline convinced he was trying kill me. Every time we passed a gator he would simulate pushing me over the side and then laugh as though it were hilarious. Sensing my obvious fear, he suggested I conquer my reservations by having me pilot the air boat. Two minutes later, I nearly killed all my passengers. I've never seen so many terrified faces. Sorry kids. At the end of the trip, Greg revealed himself as one of the stars of wife swap and urged us to tune in for repeats on Lifetime. Mom and Dad...DVR?
Tipotina's: Sunday night my supervisor Lauren had the group divide up into halves. One half would go to an open mic night, the other Cajun Dancing. Never to be one to miss out on a dance party (also, the boy guides "dibbed" open mic), Nancy and I took the latter group to the local dancing hotspot, Tipotina's. I forgot to ask Lauren if Tipotina's was Cajun for "retirement home" because every other attendee was well over the age of 60. Initially I thought bringing a group of teenagers into a room full of cougars and silver foxes could be potentially troublesome, but it ended up being a blast! The owner, Smitty, fed us carrot cake and taught us a bunch of new dances. I was immediately picked up by a 70-year-old named Bob who schooled me in two-stepping. Bob must not have been impressed with my dance moves because he kept finding ways to waltz me into a dark corner where he wouldn't be ashamed. Some of the girls became quite the commodities and were often asked to dance by several senior citizens. We realized it was an appropriate time to go when one of the girls dance-partners began sniffing their hair.
And so our first trip comes to an end. I feel so lucky to have known these awesome kids. Thank you group for assisting me in van sing-a-longs, encouraging me to bite the head of a crawfish and assuring me that it is safe to climb the fourth rung of a latter. You will surly be missed.
Tomorrow my fellow staff and I will send our first batch of kids on their way, while simultaneously welcoming 26 newcomers to our loving and at times, dysfunctional family.
These last two weeks have been cuh-razyyy. Days stacked with service, nights with exploration. The kids have officially moved on from mudding and sanding to demolition and hanging dry wall...(woo I'm gonna be so ripped!) Mondays are eco-focused. Today we assisted workers in an Urban Garden by sifting through their compost and planting things. Our supervisor was a nature man named Jafar (haha), who suggested we place a feminine name to our newly-planted avocado tree in hopes that it may bear bountiful fruit. The kids agreed on Lucille. I guess they found my Princess Jasemine idea offensive?
Nighttime/weekends are a blast. They have been especially rewarding for me because as the kids are discovering the city for the first time, so am I. The locals definitely have a dynamic. My supervisor and I decided that New Orleanians are similar in part to your Grandmother. She'll shower you with love and affection, but she'll also publicly call you out for not standing up straight. In other words, it's southern hospitality with an edge, ya heard?
Some of my fav nighttime/weekend activities...
Preservation Hall: After two failed attempts, we finally made it! As I stated in my previous post, Preservation Hall was created in an attempt to restore Jazz music. For the the hour and a half we were there, time stood still. The musicians are incredibly talented and super interactive. My personal favorite was the trumpet player. He had the best voice and earned serious brownie points for being a dead ringer for Carl Winslow.
AirBoat Tours: Airboats are over-sized motorboats which take you through the bayous. While on the ride, you can gawk at and/or pet alligators. Our tour guide was a burly, middle-aged man named Greg. Greg was nice, but I was borderline convinced he was trying kill me. Every time we passed a gator he would simulate pushing me over the side and then laugh as though it were hilarious. Sensing my obvious fear, he suggested I conquer my reservations by having me pilot the air boat. Two minutes later, I nearly killed all my passengers. I've never seen so many terrified faces. Sorry kids. At the end of the trip, Greg revealed himself as one of the stars of wife swap and urged us to tune in for repeats on Lifetime. Mom and Dad...DVR?
Tipotina's: Sunday night my supervisor Lauren had the group divide up into halves. One half would go to an open mic night, the other Cajun Dancing. Never to be one to miss out on a dance party (also, the boy guides "dibbed" open mic), Nancy and I took the latter group to the local dancing hotspot, Tipotina's. I forgot to ask Lauren if Tipotina's was Cajun for "retirement home" because every other attendee was well over the age of 60. Initially I thought bringing a group of teenagers into a room full of cougars and silver foxes could be potentially troublesome, but it ended up being a blast! The owner, Smitty, fed us carrot cake and taught us a bunch of new dances. I was immediately picked up by a 70-year-old named Bob who schooled me in two-stepping. Bob must not have been impressed with my dance moves because he kept finding ways to waltz me into a dark corner where he wouldn't be ashamed. Some of the girls became quite the commodities and were often asked to dance by several senior citizens. We realized it was an appropriate time to go when one of the girls dance-partners began sniffing their hair.
And so our first trip comes to an end. I feel so lucky to have known these awesome kids. Thank you group for assisting me in van sing-a-longs, encouraging me to bite the head of a crawfish and assuring me that it is safe to climb the fourth rung of a latter. You will surly be missed.
Monday, June 14, 2010
There is nothing more depressing than co-initiating a dance party and then realizing that you're too old/creepy to participate.
Lets travel back--it all began this afternoon. We were scheduled to take the kids to Preservation Hall, a place in The Quarter dedicated to the preservation of jazz music, but had to cancel plans after an impromptu thunderstorm flooded our venue. Sad face. Instead, we redirected the group to the nearest creamery off St. Charles Ave. A solid choice, but one that would lead to 23 hyper-active teenagers. On our ride home, I realized a dance party was inevitable when I glanced back and saw the majority of girls headbanging to Evanesence. Being the LNDP(late night dance party)-lover that I am, I encouraged its continuation and carried the more dance party-appropriate speaker from downstairs to upstairs. My co-conspirator Nancy whipped out her Now 32 (God, we're getting old)CD and BOOM, it was on. She knew it. I knew it.
It should come to no surprise that 'Down' by Jay Sean (ft. New Orleans native, Lil Wayne)was chosen as our kick-off song. Naturally, I got in the middle of the floor and began repeatedly pumping my fist. It didn't take long before I noticed the kids were standing around awkwardly waiting for the adult to leave. Realizing that I was the "adult" in this situation, I hung my head in shame and meandered my way over towards the light switch. I then thought the kids might enjoy a strobe light-type effect, so I began flickering the switch on and off. Acknowledging that this could potentially be even creepier, I headed towards the office and passively observed as a good chaperon should.
I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to my Mom and Dad for all the times they were forced to chaperon my school dances. I now understand how awkward of an experience it must have been for you.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
This is the True Story...of 20 plus strangers...Picked to Live in a House...
I feel like I'm on "The Real World." That is, if "The Real World" consisted of 22 16-year-olds that I'm 1/5th responsible for...
(NOTE: Ironically enough, the 24th season of "The Real World" recently wrapped in NOLA. In fact, they left a mere few weeks ago AND I MISSED IT!!! Becoming a blurred-out bystander has always been a secret dream of mine. Oh well. I suppose you can't have it all.)
In actuality, the setup is quite similar. My fellow leaders and I spent Tuesday driving to and from the airport, picking up teenagers (most of whom have never met) and bringing them back to our pimped out mansion. Hehe, I keeeeed. BUT our base house is quite charming and comfortably fits all 22 students. We then leave them to their own devices as they awkwardly try and become BFF's. So far it seems to be working. We have been blessed with as stellar bunch. In the last 2 days I've heard endless amounts of guitar playing, watched a few magic tricks and witnessed a full on display of acrobatics. And that was just from one kid! Gel ussssssss!?!?
Days are spent doing service projects in Saint Bernard Parrish. So far hanging dry wall seems to be the primary use of our time. Our site coordinator is a spunky girl named Heidi who goes to great lengths to try and keep the kids entertained while on site. She also encourages spontaneous dance parties, which I obviously support. During one of our later water breaks everyone seemed to be in a heat-induced rut, so I did the only logical thing I could think of....taught them SAW. Unfortunately, they didn't take to it as well as SE (maybe because there was no loser pizza), so we played 'Big Booty' instead.
In all seriousness, I'm hoping the homeowners turn up at some point so the kids can know who they are creating a home for. That for me was the most rewarding part about Habitat and I only wish for them to have a similar experience.
Nights are spent exploring this fantastic city. Last night we took everyone to a free concert in The Square (Soul Rebels...ever heard of it!?)and tonight soccer and sunset at The FLY. Unfortunately, I did not get to witness the sunset seeing as how I was sent on a super-sleuth mission to the grocery store. Might not seem like a big deal, but it was the first time I've driven in the city by myself which is quite the feet for someone like me.
Hokay, time for bed. I miss you friends.
(NOTE: Ironically enough, the 24th season of "The Real World" recently wrapped in NOLA. In fact, they left a mere few weeks ago AND I MISSED IT!!! Becoming a blurred-out bystander has always been a secret dream of mine. Oh well. I suppose you can't have it all.)
In actuality, the setup is quite similar. My fellow leaders and I spent Tuesday driving to and from the airport, picking up teenagers (most of whom have never met) and bringing them back to our pimped out mansion. Hehe, I keeeeed. BUT our base house is quite charming and comfortably fits all 22 students. We then leave them to their own devices as they awkwardly try and become BFF's. So far it seems to be working. We have been blessed with as stellar bunch. In the last 2 days I've heard endless amounts of guitar playing, watched a few magic tricks and witnessed a full on display of acrobatics. And that was just from one kid! Gel ussssssss!?!?
Days are spent doing service projects in Saint Bernard Parrish. So far hanging dry wall seems to be the primary use of our time. Our site coordinator is a spunky girl named Heidi who goes to great lengths to try and keep the kids entertained while on site. She also encourages spontaneous dance parties, which I obviously support. During one of our later water breaks everyone seemed to be in a heat-induced rut, so I did the only logical thing I could think of....taught them SAW. Unfortunately, they didn't take to it as well as SE (maybe because there was no loser pizza), so we played 'Big Booty' instead.
In all seriousness, I'm hoping the homeowners turn up at some point so the kids can know who they are creating a home for. That for me was the most rewarding part about Habitat and I only wish for them to have a similar experience.
Nights are spent exploring this fantastic city. Last night we took everyone to a free concert in The Square (Soul Rebels...ever heard of it!?)and tonight soccer and sunset at The FLY. Unfortunately, I did not get to witness the sunset seeing as how I was sent on a super-sleuth mission to the grocery store. Might not seem like a big deal, but it was the first time I've driven in the city by myself which is quite the feet for someone like me.
Hokay, time for bed. I miss you friends.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
This could be the start of something good...
I'M HERE. And I must say New Orleans, you have impressed me with your charm thus far. Well done.
I got to NOLA on Thursday and was picked up by my supervisor Lauren and my roommate Nancy. Upon my arrival we headed straight towards the Ninth Ward (we don't mess around). For those who are unaware...New Orleans is broken up into wards and the Ninth was where Katrina did the most damage. Since then orgs such as Habitat For Humanity and the Saint Bernard's Project have been instrumental in it's rebuilding effort. The company I work for does their service through St. Bernard's. (NOTE: You can read about their awesomeness here: http://www.stbernardproject.org/v158/)
We spent about an hour driving around. There has been a lot of awesome progress, but there is still more to be made! Here is a picture (that I copped from the New York Times) of Musicians Village. Habitat made these homes primarily for musicians (hence the name...duh).
Notice the stilts?
We also saw the Make It Right houses...Brad Pitt and collaborators put forth a lotttttt of money in an effort to build 150 affordable,sustainable AND eco-friendly homes in the Ninth Ward. So far they've built 20. A work in progress! (I stole this picture from the Boston Globe...womp)
It is a personal goal of mine to catch the Jolie-Pitts on one of their NOLA truavants this summer. Them, or Sandra Bullock's baby. I'd be happy with either.
Both nights have been spent in the French Quarter. The music scene here is fantastic. Last night we saw Lauren's friend Hannah play a show. She's in an all-girl (plus one dude) ska band called The Skanks. Do ya love etttt!?!?
Additional things I've found endearing about this city:
Roller Derbies. Finally a city that embraces my way of thinking. Those who know me well are aware of the fact that I have been on a year-long kick to bring back rollerblades. I will never understand why they went out of style. It's refreshing to be in a city where bladeing is still an accepted practice--And for that New Orleans, I thank you.
Also, you can drink on the street.
Kids get here Tuesday :) Can't wait!!
I got to NOLA on Thursday and was picked up by my supervisor Lauren and my roommate Nancy. Upon my arrival we headed straight towards the Ninth Ward (we don't mess around). For those who are unaware...New Orleans is broken up into wards and the Ninth was where Katrina did the most damage. Since then orgs such as Habitat For Humanity and the Saint Bernard's Project have been instrumental in it's rebuilding effort. The company I work for does their service through St. Bernard's. (NOTE: You can read about their awesomeness here: http://www.stbernardproject.org/v158/)
We spent about an hour driving around. There has been a lot of awesome progress, but there is still more to be made! Here is a picture (that I copped from the New York Times) of Musicians Village. Habitat made these homes primarily for musicians (hence the name...duh).
Notice the stilts?
We also saw the Make It Right houses...Brad Pitt and collaborators put forth a lotttttt of money in an effort to build 150 affordable,sustainable AND eco-friendly homes in the Ninth Ward. So far they've built 20. A work in progress! (I stole this picture from the Boston Globe...womp)
It is a personal goal of mine to catch the Jolie-Pitts on one of their NOLA truavants this summer. Them, or Sandra Bullock's baby. I'd be happy with either.
Both nights have been spent in the French Quarter. The music scene here is fantastic. Last night we saw Lauren's friend Hannah play a show. She's in an all-girl (plus one dude) ska band called The Skanks. Do ya love etttt!?!?
Additional things I've found endearing about this city:
Roller Derbies. Finally a city that embraces my way of thinking. Those who know me well are aware of the fact that I have been on a year-long kick to bring back rollerblades. I will never understand why they went out of style. It's refreshing to be in a city where bladeing is still an accepted practice--And for that New Orleans, I thank you.
Also, you can drink on the street.
Kids get here Tuesday :) Can't wait!!
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