This week was a little different for River 10. Monday was by far the best day ever. We all got up for work and got ready, but it was POURING here. Did the usual routine, put on my beautiful uniform, made some eggs, drank black coffee, you know the usual. As we were all about to get into Scooter, our 15p, Beste told us that work was...get this...cancelled. What this meant for us was we had a SNOW DAY! We deemed this day as a snow day because it was exactly like watching the news and seeing your school scrolling down teh bottom of the screen. So, Jamie, Chris, Sam, and I decided to brave the rain and head downtown. Our mission on this day: eat our first beignets of our time in NOLA. We went to Cafe de Monde and had coffee and beignets. It was quite honestly the best Ameri-snow day ever. On Monday afternoon we had 4th round project reveal. I can’t even believe it is 4th round already. We found out that we are going back to Virginia to Great Falls. We are going to be working with Living Classrooms of the Nations Capital Region. This non-profit provides a hands-on learning, job training, community service, and community development programs for students with diverse backgrounds with an emphasis on serving disadvantaged youth in at-risk environments. We are going to be doing a number of things with LCNCR. Our project consists of debris removal from the wind storms that hit Virginia in June which also includes trail upkeep on the site, bridge repair and invasive species removal, we will do indoor and outdoor repairs of the lodge at Camp Fraser where the Living Classrooms site is, we will do repairs to sleeping pavilions and outdoor classroom space, we will be creating a garden for educational usage, and last but not least we will be doing educational programming. The educational programming is something I hope I can do well in since it is planning a spring break plan for 4th/5th grade students who come to the camp for their break. We also get to create a park outreach program which brings students out into the park to do environmental education programs. Right up my alley. Although this wasn’t our first choice of projects, I am excited to be in Virginia for the fall. I get to feel the fall weather that I am really missing these days. It will be the little things that I will appreciate about round 4 since it is the last round of my service, can’t believe it.
Tuesday and Wednesday we were back at it. We spent the day at the distribution center handing out personal care bags to people who are still in need to supplies. It is kind of mind blowing that even two months after that some individuals are still in need of cleaning supplies and food. The distribution center has become kind of our second home in NOLA since the staff there now know all of us and we have been there so often that we can run the show. It does get kind of boring, but hey, it beats Lake City!
Thursday five of us went into a home and did some mucking and gutting. We had to tear down the ceiling and help clear the rest of the house out. This house wasn't so bad since a crew had been in earlier in the week and did all of the walls. We came in to finish the ceilings. Pretty simple and easy day.
Our van had a little tire issue, so he has been out of commission all week. Thank God for our tiny truck! Due to this little mishap, 3 of us had to go work with River 6 for the day. I enjoyed working with another team for a day. We got to work with their sponsor organization on their homes. I got to paint my fair share for the day. After work, a group of us went to Magazine Street to shop. Since I love shopping so much I purchased zero things. I may leave New Orleans with a t-shirt or two since well, we all know my usual outfit consists of a t-shirt at some point. I had a nice bowl of gumbo for dinner and we all literally came back to our housing and went to bed.
Saturday a few of us from each team got together to do an ISP. We spent the day working with Green Light New Orleans. This unbelievably cool non-profit was started after Katrina hit by the founder because he was on tour with his band. He came up with a pretty bright idea, if you ask me...har har...The concept behind the organization is to change incandescent light bulbs to Compact Fluorescent Lights. We got to canvas around to homes to ask each home owner if they wanted their light bulbs changed to the CLF bulbs. Each bulb will help the residents of New Orleans to reduce their carbon foot print and reduce the amount of money they spend on their bills. The bulbs also last for an extremely long time, much longer than the incandescent bulbs. The concept of the whole non-profit is pretty amazing. I enjoyed a sweet nap after the day and did the usual on our last Saturday night here.
I absolutely am in love with New Orleans. I love everything about the entire city. I am looking into non-profits down here for next year in hopes that maybe I can do another AmeriCorps program and live here for a bit. Blazing my own trail as Dad-Z likes to say. We will see...just a thought now. Anyway, this is our last week here and we are mucking and gutting in a neighborhood that needs some serious help. We are working with a Delta team that got sent here to help. It should be a good week. Friday we are back to Vicksburg for the start of transition for a week, then it is fall break. Fall break means, relaxing on campus, my birthday and NASHVILLE with some of the best friends and the best sister in the world. I can't wait. Big happy birthday to Pauly wog and Dad this week! Miss you guys! Again, pictures are taking way too long for my attention span...Hope y'all have a good week!
No comments:
Post a Comment