Thursday the rain continued. We could not go finish Janice's painting job and many of us were disappointed by that. Operation Nehemiah tried their hardest to find an assignment and at about 9am they said they could get us tickets to the Aquarium and we would have 2 jobs in the afternoon. 2 GUTS!!!!!!
I needed some quiet time, so stayed back at St Jude's read and NAPPED (even though there was hammering and construction going on just outside the women's dorm)
The wet group arrived back from the Aquarium in great spirits. I think the morning off was good for everyone.
The gut I went to was a one story in the Gentilly neighborhood. 1 in 5 houses is occupied in that area. On our way we drove by a Senior Citizen housing project of maybe 1200 units that is completely empty. It looked like they are tearing it down. I have to wonder where those 1200 families are living.
When you gut a job you have to wear, safety glasses and a mask. With my glasses and the mask, both my regular glasses and safety glasses fogged up quickly. My job was to remove nails and more nails from studs. When we first got there we were just removing nails, but soon the demolition of the ceilings started. The youth loved this part. Sledge hammers and crow bars in the hands of teen age hormones is a fabulous sight to see. When this started it was near impossible to continue the nail work. You cannot see anything when there is fiberglass insulation and ceiling materials in the air.
It was a really good afternoon and we put the work materials into the trailer owned by Operation Nehemiah just in time for the rain to come down.
We did not clear the material out of the house, since you cannot just put the trash on the curb any more. Last year you could, but this year if you do that they FINE you. You have to call to have it picked up. Next door to this house is trash from them cleaning up their house. I wonder how much their fine is by now?
When we first got to NOLA, Fred told us about ROCK and BOWL. In fact, because of his connections, we got in for nothing, but bought lots of soda and fries. It was a bowling alley which was going to go out of business when some musicians said "Can we play at the bowling alley?" A wonderful Zydeco band was playing that night. It is a very successful business now.
Our group paid for 1 hour of 4 lanes and bowled. There were some very unorthodox bowling techniques. They were having such a good time, they continue for the second hour in 3 of the lanes. Some of our youth bowled, ran to the dance floor and a runner would grab them from the dance floor when it was their turn to bowl.
And the picture for today is of Beignets, cafe au lait and a wee bit of powdered sugar.
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