A tour, a dance and a bowling alley

After lunch we went back to the work site to pick up a pickup that a firefighter friend had loaned to George. They wanted to do more work, but I was beat, so I snoozed in the cab for an hour.

Then we all went off on a tour of town. Here's a view of the lower ninth ward, from a bridge:



And we got talking about how scenes of destroyed homes and businesses had started to seem routine... we were getting acclimatized to the destruction.



We saw whole shopping centers with nothing done to them, just wood on the windows. Mounds of junk cars... and houses with the Xs on them... I didn't see any where "Number of bodies" was not 0, but one said "K9" and several said "SPCA". I assume that means dead pets. One said "SPCA feed dog--->" sounds like a guard dog left in a house.

But in other ways, the town seems like any other town.



We ate dinner at Frostop... and I had to have red beans and rice... just once. Afterward we slept a little and then went out to the amazing "Rock N Bowl" for Zydeco night!



Geno Delafose's band was on stage, near lane 1 of the bowling alley, and the hall was jumpin! The alley is on the 2nd floor, so no flood damage-- 20 lanes, all busy, and a dance floor and bar. What a trip!



We met up with a professor friend of Sharon's (he'd joined me, Nick and Beth for dinner last week), and the four of us mostly talked, though each of got a chance to dance. The tunes were mostly in French, but a couple of familiar tunes appeared, "Easy Like Sunday Morning" works well as a Zydeco tune, as does "Cool Jerk"!

Got home about midnight, just as the half moon was setting. It was cold last night again, though Friday should be warmer. I'm taking Friday as a tourist day, seeing the town, and thinking about all the stuff I've seen in the past two weeks.

Thursday... work party.

Well, I fly home Saturday, and am taking Friday off to sight-see, so this represented the last work day I had on this trip to New Orleans. It started off with the gift of jewelry..



Actually, this is a tree I passed on the way to the bus. I took the St Charles bus (they are working on re-stringing the St. Charles streetcar wires) over to Canal, then walked briskly across the French Quarter and on to ACORN.



The folks who I met yesterday were very concerned about me when I didn't show up at 7:30... of course, the bus connections were lousy, and I'm amazed I got there by 8 AM. The house was a smaller one, but also plaster, so a big crew of people were in a small area swinging crowbars. Also, the floor got covered with lath and nails... we flatted one wheelbarrow, and folks were getting lath attached to their shoe soles... definitely a boot day!

I worked on some things, but after swinging a crowbar for a while, I just had had it. Here's a picture of what the group had done by noon:



At noon we went over to St Luke Assembly of God, a church near ACORN, for a nice hot, franks and beans lunch. They had canned water, specially made by Anhauser Busch for relief and refugee use.



There we met folks from yet another relief agency, associated with the church. George mentioned that he is a plumber, so they asked him to come help them on a project Friday, while Sharon goes back to ACORN. The AofG folks seemed very well organized... better than ACORN, who are quite well organized already. It's good to see the variety of folks working to rebuild the city.

That's it for now... look for me tonight!

Another cold day of destruction!

Just a quick report today... I have to get up early tomorrow, as today we finished the site near where I am staying.

Once again, I worked with ACORN:



The house we were working on was across the street from an unused elementary school... so much of the city is simply missing, that schools are sitting idle. This is a view of the entryway floor:



Today the bicycle people didn't show, but Sharon(?) did. She's from Maine... "oh, you must know Nick and Beth!", "Why yes, I do!"

So why do the Canadians get offended when I assume they know everyone else in Canada?


The site was so close, I walked there, and walked part of the way home, pausing to take a picture of a bird.


It looks like Sharon, who was down over Thanksgiving, and George, a plumber friend who will also be working with ACORN, will end up at the church too.. I had dinner with them at Voo Doo BBQ, which was actually great... though the building was cold (it's chilly out there!)

Tuesday... with a crowbar and spacesuit

Hi there, this is me:


Today I'm working with ACORN, an advocacy group with a chapter in New Orleans. They also get some of their funds from the same Unitarian Universalist fund that supports the other work I was doing. Since I'm the only one here at the moment, ACORN has adopted me.

The day started early, with a cross-town bus ride, starting right in front of the church.


Connections were awful, so I had 30 minutes at Cafe Du Monde to get coffee. Then I took the Elysian Fields bus to St. Claude where their office is. Unfortunately, the project was actually quite near me... near Louisiana St. The house was being gutted. Fortunately, it was dry inside, and gutting was easy, except for all the pink walls.



The house is pretty old, as you can see by the wiring... anybody know what the wiring method is called?



The only other ones on the bus were this couple, who are riding bikes across country from Pennsylvania to Seattle:



Here's what we did today:



And here's the very efficient sanitation folks taking it all away!



The little one got to pick up the scraps:


All gone!


And I should get to sleep... another early day tomorrow. ACORN works from 8 AM to 2:30 PM.

Question Time...

Ok, I have a few more days here, but before I go I want to make sure the Blog addresses important questions about my visit here.

I could make up my own questions, but that would be a monologue. If anyone is reading this, click 'comments' and leave me a question or two. Does that make it dialogue or polylog?

thanks
Charlie

Monday Post... oops a little late.

I wrote this Monday night, but didn't get it to the blog:
---
No pictures today... tomorrow maybe you'll see me without my beard... it seems the work tomorrow needs a respirator... and that needs a good fit to the face... so bye bye beard.

The NOLA buses are pretty rare, but that's how I'm getting across town... have to leave at 6:45 to be sure I catch the connection to get to ACORN by 8 AM. Oh well, at least they are working.

Today I ate lunch at the Frostop, and got canned ravioli for dinner... with "Bunny Bread"... that's what I said! It's worse than Wonder Bread... or maybe just the same, I haven't tried Wonder Bread for several decades. But Walgreens had it, so I ate it.

No more... must go chop beard.

Who's reading this blog?

Hi! Click on "Comments" to say hi back.
Tell me a name or nickname, and where you are.

Charlie