Jeremiah Project

Hey y’all,

Kira and Reid here to reflect upon the goings on down here in New Orleans. As I’m sure you all know yesterday was Mardi Gras and it was crazy. The day actually started with a quick debrief to relfect on the previous days activities. That was followed by a quick blitz of cleaning where we scrubbed, tidy and vaccuumed our sleeping area, bathrooms, and the common kitchen.

Once everything was sparkling, even Mary Poppins would be proud, we went on a ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ schemed up by Andrew and Linda. With the gps telling us where to go we eventually arrived on Stephen Girard to the house the 2009 team had worked on. It was pretty awesome to see the place and see that their work made a difference, it was a helpful reminder of just how important it is to be here, even if we can’t see that while staring at grout lines.

After we returned we decided to hit up the final Mardi Gras parade aptly title Rex. Little did we know that poor Dexter had already entered the house and was not aware of our departure to St. Charles. It wasn’t until 20 min of watching the parade and jumping for beads Linda decided to do a head count and realized our group of ten was missing a member. Running (read walking quickly) back to the house she retrieved Dexter and they rejoined the group. Shortly there after Dexter climbed onto Josh’s shoulders in a successful attempt to grab more beads. Two hours later the parade ends and we return home exhausted wearing so many beads some of us, Linda, needed help to remove them from our necks.

Once the beads were organized and taped we descended into the kitchen to begin the task of making potato pancakes for 30 people. And what a task it was, peeling, grating, straining and frying. After a few test batches we had the technique down pat and they turned out amazing. The Toronto team also helped prepare our Shrove Tuesday Feast by making several batches of regular pancakes. Thanks guys!

The night ended with several rowdy hands of Uno, followed by a violent session of Jungle Speed. An amazing game everyone should buy, but it may draw blood. Then early to bed for church in the morn.

6:30am Wednesday morning the alarms start going off so we can get ready for a 7:30 Ash Wednesday services at Christ Church Cathedral, just round the corner from where we’re staying. The service received mixed reviews from the group as it was a very traditional service, something many of us are not used to. However it was a good expierence, especially being able to compare it to All Souls. Afterwards the priest opened up the doors to the main sanctuary so we could look around. It is an impressive space with beautiful painted glass windows, wood carvings and organ pipes everywhere.

Following the tour we returned, talked about the expierence and then readied ourselves for another work day at Mr. Hammond’s. We arrived on site a little after 10 and promptly got to work. While there was still some scraping to be done most of the day was spent laying grout down. Spirits were much higher today, being able to see the difference our work was making in the space was a huge boost. Several hours and three out of four rooms later we cleaned up, hit up Rally’s (a delicous fast food resteraunt) and headed back to our Seventh Street home.

At five we had a visiter named Pete. He’s a volunteer coordinator with the Episcopal Community Services. He came to talk to us about what actually happened during Hurricane Katrina and the resulting levee failure, successfully meeting his goal of attempting to ‘debunk’ some myths.

Well we’ve got to go make spaghetti and salad. If you would like to learn more about what Episcopla Community Servies is doing check escla.org, and have an excellent night.