Round Three’s two day road trip to New Orleans, LA in one word: Cozy…
 

We stopped in St. Louis for gas and a chance to stretch…


Our new paradise; City Park.
I took this when we first got to New Orleans…
We had some time to kill before we could get into our housing, so we walked around the park. It was so hot compared to Iowa… and there were so many more people. I had to get used to people again, I just kept staring.


Here’s our first home; Faith Presbyterian…
We were here for two weeks; now we’re at Olive Tree, also known as the Volunteer Village, staying with the volunteers we oversee at our projects. (I’ll explain that later…)


St. Paddy’s Day Parade…
So many beads, so many drunk old men and frat guys wanting to trade kisses for flowers.
  

We did an ISP (Independent Service Project) at City Park one weekend. We mulched a path, cleared trash from the water, painted picnic tables, weed wacked and moved flower pots. Jess made a friend…


After our work was done, Jim Morrison, the man that works at City Park; told us to go find the huge alligator that had been sunning himself lately off one of the trails. He wasn’t there that day, but we sat by the water for a while anyway…


I got to work with Brit Brit for a week; her assistant was on vacation, skiing. My project assistant is Dan… Here’s how it works: Each of the people from my team get their own project assistant, picked just for them, and their own house to work on. We also get a new group of volunteers every week that we oversee. My house is in Holly Grove, where Lil Wayne is from apparently? So anyways, Brit got to hang out with us for a week, we painted, laid Hardie Board, laid tile, marked and cut openings for attic vents, lots of crazy jobs that can’t be described in a cohesive manner and, of course, had an awesome time. I miss working with her now that her assistant is back.

As I helped Dan under the house, Brit graciously took flattering photos of us… Thanks.

Almost every week we take our group of volunteers on a tour of the Lower Ninth Levee, the Lower Ninth, and Musician’s Village. That’s an entire blog in and of itself…
   
I had to take a picture of the dead frog in our site’s Porta-Pot this week… We’re working with Amy, while her assistant does some estimates for new rebuilds.


I decided that it’s time to switch my watch to the other wrist this week. It’s nice to see the visible change, but I don’t know how I’ll feel about it when I go out on the weekend…


Most weekends we go to City Park and spend the entire day there…


Jess plays her ukulele in the Live Oaks (with Spanish Moss)…

    
I try to…

One day we visited the French Quarter; that was just once, a lot of it’s too commercial, no fun. Jess and I sat by the Mississippi River though…
 
Here’s Dan and I nailing up some OSB with our Canadian volunteers yesterday. Amy took this one, we had to get a shot of us at 2:05 for her next newsletter article…


Here’s James’ 2:05 shot… (He works in the office with Vann). Don’t let him fool you, he loves it.


We’ve been doing PT (Physical Training) in the park down the street. I love it! It’s a local park, so everyone knows everyone. There’s a group of old and young men that set up a table and play cards and the playground is always full of kids and their moms, and there’s a group of Hispanic guys that play soccer every day; Brad, James, and Emily played with them today. I ran around the track. While I was stretching, I found this… I’ve been searching for 21 years (well, I guess not exactly 21 years, but ever since I knew what four leaf clovers were) and I finally found one…


I love it here in New Orleans, LA!