Hot Days and Hot Sauce

Hello from New Orleans, world! It's Lea tonight reporting on today's adventures in the hot sunny weather of the Lou'siana bayou!

Bright and early Sarah and I (Lea) trekked to the other house and whipped up some pancakes for the rest of the AB team. After a delicious breakfast, both our AWB group and the 5 students from Williams College headed over to some semi-built houses just 5 minutes away. This is where we began our laborious morning of sheet rock-moving. Our efforts this morning contributed to several groups of people: the Louisiana Home Builders Association, The Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans, and a chapter of the National Football League Players Association. These three groups have come together in an effort to "bring homes and businesses back to the Lower 9^th Ward and restore the area to the vibrant community it once was." Despite the layers and layers of slick mud on the ground, working  together we were able to move 200 sheets of dry wall into two different houses. With an undercurrent of disappointment due to missing our planned trip to Eracism, a group discussion on combating racism in New Orleans, our group was able to feel satisfied with the extreme progression in our work (I mean really, we went from moving 3 sheets in 20 minutes to 10 sheets in 20 minutes...Much improved!). 

After our exhausting morning, we took our first trip into the French Quarter. There was singing and dancing and good times all around! Most of the group headed over to Cafe M(something or other) for a bite to eat. We're talking alligator and po boys here,  real southern food! This was nothing compared to the hot sauce debacle. Terrence, Leo, and Veronique thought it would be a good idea to try the "hottest sauce in the universe." What were they thinking? Many funny photos, videos, drool, and regret ensued, leaving three very adventurous but in-pain AWBers. After an attempted mid-jump picture on the train tracks and an almost missing persons notice on Tom (somebody couldn't find the car....) we all walked through the French Market. This market is by far one of my favorite markets! There were masks and coasters (which many of our group bought) and paintings, oh my! The beautiful weather did nothing but help create the perfect day for New Orleans traveling! 

A long day, today was a perfect day, which ended with a delicious meal of barbecue chicken and macaroni and cheese with a side of community development. Our reflection tonight began with highs and lows (which not surprisingly focused on the hot sauce debacle and the French Quarter adventures...) but continued with an in-depth and thought-provoking discussion on the aspects of community development. We broke up into pairs and ranked several categories of important issues in the face of a disaster. Many pairs came up with similar ranking for similar reasons, but we all flip-flopped on how to rank them. This discussion gave us all some insight on just how hard it can be to pull a community back together after a disaster like Hurricane Katrina. 

Here's me, hoping for more perfect weather and more satisfying service in the days to come!
<3 Lea

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