Wednesday - April 18

Day Two: Cailin Byrne and Morgan Cappetta blogging. (Morgan is the scribe). 

Today was New Orleans: Take Two. Things turned out far better than yesterday, as far as weather was concerned. Though it started out dreary and cold and we feared that it would start pouring again, the sun came out. We were really excited at first…until the threat of sunburn occurred to us. Cailin was the only one who had bothered to put on sunscreen before we left the hotel this morning. The sunburn crept up on just about everyone, shrouded from us by the cool breeze in the air. For me, I didn’t realize I had it until I bothered to look down. By then, however, I figured it was too late. Kyle and Matt basically turned into tomatoes. By dinner time, they were wincing when anyone touched them. 

Besides the UV rays permeating our skin, the work we did today was enjoyable. We finished framing the rectangular frame that would mark the shape of the home. This entailed having to line up each of the pieces end to end exactly parallel to a piece of string that our contractor, Mike, had meticulously measured and tied around the perimeter. Everyone hammered what were essentially metal belts around the wood, securing them to the cinder blocks. This work, though described in a few short sentences, took basically all morning. 

Team warmups.

Cailin and I, along with everyone else, were ecstatic when Avery pulled up to the work site in her car. Our excitement was warranted, however, because the trunk of her car contained our lunch. We took our pick of the Po’ Boy sandwiches, cookies, bananas, and apples, and ambled over to the porch of the house next door, which we had commandeered as our bench. (It’s alright though, because that house was for sale. There was no danger of an angry neighbor shooing us off their porch.) While this was going on, one of the locals - Jackie - had meandered up to us. She went around and shook everyone’s hand, in true southern-hospitality style. 

We heard lighthearted music coming from around the corner. I immediately thought of ice cream, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. However, I was right to get excited, because right in front of us, an ice cream truck stopped on the side of the street. Cailin and I leapt off the porch and sprinted to the truck after David told us he would buy everyone ice cream. And so, with our sweet treats, sitting on a porch in the New Orleans sunshine, we talked with Jackie. Our conversation turned to the reason all of us church kids are here in the first place: Hurricane Katrina. She told us how she had to stay in the Super Dome for more than a week, with a ton of other people. The story she described we had all heard about on the news or on TV, but to hear the words come out of someone’s mouth, standing right in front of you, who had actually BEEN there and SEEN it all and LIVED through all of it, was a whole different kind of experience. It really put things into perspective, and cemented the point that it really is crucial to care. 

With Jackie’s story on our minds, our work ethic was renewed after lunch. We buckled down and continued hauling giant 18 foot long 2x10 pieces of lumber into the frame, lining them up painstakingly and nailing them together, and then into the wood below. We didn’t finish that part, but we plan on it tomorrow. When it all was said and done, however, it looked like we accomplished a lot today. 

After 4:00 PM signaled the end of the work day, we went back to the hotel, got clean (thank goodness), and piled in our vans to go to the Land Building for dinner. First, we had appetizers on the porch. Then, we moved in to eat dinner, which consisted of enchilada casserole, salad, Spanish rice, and craw fish. The latter required a lesson from Jim (aka the cook) on how to properly dismember and eat the crustaceans. During dinner, Natalie dropped the front-half of a craw fish into my iced tea when I wasn’t looking. I took the cup and put it to my lips, about to drink it, when she hurriedly told me not to drink it. She grabbed the cup from me, much to my confusion. Only then did I realize that I had been about to drink a craw fish. Ew. Cailin laughed. 

After dinner we came back to the hotel and had a meeting, during which we reflected on the events of the day, and the events of Hurricane Katrina, along with the aftermath of the now infamous storm. Today, I think, made everyone realize that everything is so much more real than we ever fathomed before. It was a learning experience for all, and Cailin and I cannot wait to see how much more we can learn and experience before we have to go back home. 

Well, that’s all we have to report on this fine Wednesday. Goodnight.