NOLA - Friday finishing the Gut, starting a Gut and Tiling

Friday, the end of our work week. I was sad at the time to think that this was our last day. I wanted to have much more of an impact than I felt we had so far.

We broke into 3 groups. We actually got to go back to the Gentilly gut to clear all of the trash from the house and put it into a dumpster. Having heard at circle time from many of the participants that they just wanted to finish a project, this was very satisfying.

The second Gut was an occupied house, labeled an arts and crafts house, I think. This meant that the group had to be careful because there were household belongings in the house.

I stayed at St. Jude's were we tiled the 2 bathrooms. Russ instructed us in how to tile and I am thrilled that 6 youth now know how to tile and that I do as well. It was a really fun last job. At first I really doubted my ability so I was just doing the support jobs; handing people tile, cleaning stuff up etc. Later in the day though I spread the mastik (sp?), place the tiles and overcame my fear, that I cannot do details. We took very few breaks and the youth were incredible in their learning the skills, and applying it.

St. Jude's feeds the hungry for lunch, so we tried to stay out of the way for that. Everyone gets a single portion, until the cook, Janice, determine that no more are coming in and then announces that seconds are available. People jumped up to get back into line for a second helping.

After dinner, we walked into the French Quarter for t-shirts, souveniers and of course BEIGNETS. One grouped organized by Mariah and Jamie, went to the Preservation Hall for some jazz and blues. I have never seen some of the youth so inspired. We had many musicians among us. Some of them, I AM SURE, are going to move to NOLA to help out and then be able to do their music.

Apparently, our group the day before, bagged enough food to feed the low income for 3 weeks. There was some tension between the people who work at St. Jude's and us, because they had no place to put the 3 weeks worth. We offered to help move it.