New Orleans, Narnia, and Ninjas (Actually, no ninjas, but some other stuff)

All right, New Orleans...

We left Thursday morning and the trip was good, pretty much identical to the October one. Coming in to the city was different this time, however, because it was dark. Not just no sun, but no street lights, houses, anything like that. There's something about knowing everything that is there and should be there and not being able to see it. It was definitely more disturbing.

Friday started out with the whole group going to a man named Roger's house to clean out his yard. His house had already been cleaned out, but his back yard had all sorts of knick-knacks strewn about that needed cleaning. We got that stuff cleaned up, and then started working on a dilapidated fence and raking up the leaves and debris left on the ground. Roger told us his whole life story and brought his wife over for us to meet, and they were both so great and thankful.

We went back to the church after this, and most of the group went on to work on cleaning out 2 houses, which they finished up in the afternoon. I went with Pete, Dick, and Whit to clean up trees with this guy named Tom. I remembered Tom from the last trip because he led worship on Sunday morning. The man I saw that afternoon was completely different from what I thought he'd be after seeing him singing up front.

The tree we were supposed to get down was approx. 60 ft tall and tilting at a 55 degree angle. Because of the location of the tree, we had to get some of the branches off so it wouldn't fall on either the house next door or the orange trees in the yard. I confess, I was a bit confused as to how this was going to happen, but Tom sounded confident. So we started out with a 20 foot ladder, which didn't get Tom high enough to use any branches. So then he started nailing boards to the trunk, making a ladder that got him maybe another 10 feet. This allowed him to reach a branch, which he cut down.

Once he got this high, he just started manning it up the thing! He wrapped his legs around the trunk, and, because of the angle, was able to shimmy up the thing. He tied a rope to his boot and whenever he needed to cut a branch, he pulled the chainsaw up from the ground. The rope was 50 feet long, and at one point he was so high he only had about 5 feet of rope to spare. Seriously, one of the most ridiculous/amazingly sweet things I've ever seen!

That night Sara Beth and her sister Catherine made chicken and sausage gumbo, which I had never had before and was excellent. Those two were so hilarious together, I was very happy they came along. Things are always interesting when the Geohegans are around!

Saturday we stayed together as a group and went to Franklin avenue Baptist, a large church in the 9th ward. The area had only just opened on Wednesday, and the church had been under a ton of water. Mold was rampant, the stench was incredible. We were there with about 300 other people to try and get the church cleaned up as quickly as possible. Several thousand people attend there on a regular basis, and its in a poor area of town, so the faster it gets back up and running, the faster the church can start helping its neighbors.

Me, Sara Beth, Catherine, Catie, and Ryan all went with the "N" team to clean out the gymnasium. The place was covered in mud, sewage, and water. We started out by taking out the chairs, then moved on to the tarps that had been covering the floor, which now were waterlogged, slippery, and overall gross. Once this was done, they started tearing down the walls. The sheetrock came pretty easily, but was really heavy and crumbly, so we brought pieces of the tarps back in to drag it out on. The only problem with this was that the tarps were so heavy already that dragging them out took way too many people.

After a few rounds of this and an annoying old guy thinking he was in charge and bossing us around, we switched to the kitchen, where I spent the rest of the day. This involved a lot of swinging a crow bar, hammer, and sledgehammer to get drywall out. Ryan was working on the pantry, getting things cleaned out of there, including several jars of old mayo. When he got everything cleaned out, we started sweeping it out, which released the absolute foulest, most nasty stench I have ever and ever hope to experience in my life. Ridiculous. It died down a bit when we started piling sheetrock on it, but still smelled pretty potent.

Around 3 they closed down the site so they could clean up while it was still light outside, and our group stuck around to help with that. Then we drove to the 17th street canal break, which looks 100 times better than it did last time, which is to say it still looked pretty creepy and scary and disturbing. We went out to eat at the Flying Burrito that night. Good food.

The trip back began after church at First Baptist New Orleans, which was very Christmas-y and got me in the mood for the next month. The next 10 hours were all very uneventful, filled with music, Trivial Pursuit the 90's, and Sudoku. We even got back in time for me to work on homework that night.

Overall, another great trip. A different group dynamic; not bad, just different. It was great to get to work with Pete down there, as well as other people that I knew from before. I also met a lot of really cool people for the first time. I would love to go back down this spring some time if I get the chance. And if I'm supposed to,
I'm sure I will.

*******COMPLETELY UNRELATED*********

Ok, my classless period has been amazing. Tuesday night was Refuge and Apples to Apples. Wednesday involved watching Alias, getting groceries, playing Rummikub, going to Famous Dave's, and watching Elf. Yesterday began with more Alias, then Narnia tickets, followed by more Alias and making Monster cookies, then eating beef stroganoff and playing Spades (which Autumn and I killed Ben and Jessica in). Then, Narnia!

OK, I'm not going to write a whole lot about this for several reasons:
1. I don't want to say anything that I thought was negative and jade you from liking that aspect.
2. The movie and book differ in some respects, as they should, and I don;t have a problem with that.
3. I want you to see it for yourself.
I thought it was an excellent movie, and I'm excited to see it again on Saturday. And that's all you need to know.

I e-mailed Gotee to see if there was any news on whether or not I got the internship, since Danielle had already been told she has it and several other people had been told they didn't. I got a response that they're circulating the applications around a few other departments for them to pick their interns. So I should know by sometime today or Monday. It's kind of encouraging to know that I haven't received a definite yes, but also a bit unnerving that I haven't received a definite no. I'll keep you posted.