Wednesday May 6, 2009

Today we were awoken by a wave of heat spreading fast through the city of New Orleans. Another early morning accompanied by a breakfast of champions and a large pot of coffee started off the day. One group of athletes went to Mr. Woodrow's house for a day of demolition and rebuilding; the athlete's spring workouts definitely helped out here as they carried around all the heavy equipment and debris. Two rooms were entirely demolished and the framing of the inside was started.

The second group went and packed food at "Angel Food", where local New Orleans stories were shared from our workers. Many stories, although often shocking and sad, were truly inspirational and all taught wise life lessons to us.

The third group went to Pear Street to work on the exterior of a house, as we prepped to paint it the very lively color of "Canary Yellow". After a long afternoon working in the sun our whole group reassembled before going to work with the young children at the YMCA.

When we arrived we set up the three sport stations and the kids energetically ran out of school to come play with us.  We ran different drills with volleyball, soccer and basketball which the kids learned from and enjoyed at the same time; it was hard to tell who was more exhausted after it all, the athletes from trying to coach or the children from running around being coached!!

By 6:00 we were all ready to rest after our work-filled day. When we got back to the church we were greeted by the delicious smell of burgers on the grill that were being cooked by Deryl, our mission Director. With great food and a few laughs our group was very satisfied with the end of our day. However, we did not necessarily realize that was the complete end to our day. With the little energy we had left, our group decided to go out for a night on Bourbon Street; with a very important stop to watch the Pens win of course!!! Little did we know that later we would also be the masters on the dance floor at Razzo's. Our night was finally complete when we had out-danced most of the city of New Orleans. It was another successful day with the Forgotten Angels group of Slippery Rock University.


Thursday, May 7, 2009

Today, we once again woke up early to eat our breakfast and receive our job assignments for the day.  After loading up the equipment to the vans, our two groups split up to two different sights to accomplish our assignments given to us by our enthusiastic leader Daryl. The demolition crew managed to completely demolish the back part of Mr. Woodrow Jackson's house. They've set up the United Saints with a good starting point for remodeling.

The next group, known as the 'yellow submariners,' headed down to Pear Street to carry on with the painting of the house that they had been working on from the beginning of the week. The group was high in spirits and was ready to complete the exterior of the house. The van was unloaded and everyone set to work straight away, with the house looking nice and 'canary yellow' in just a few short hours.  Once the base layer was applied all the hard work was done and it was just a case of adding to that layer. With the sun slowly but surely getting hotter, the team pushed through and completed the job of painting the exterior. There were a few looks from the locals as they all looked at this big bright yellow house that they would have to open up their curtains to every morning!! We all just stood there and gave a friendly smile and a sense of pride overcame us all.

Once both groups reunited for the final sports clinic, we decided to take a different approach and set up fun stations for the kids as it was their final day. We had a bubbles station, jump rope, soccer, basketball, flying disc (which Coach Thompson did a great job with!) and a keep-up station. These stations were a great hit with the kids and the children left smiling with bubbles and candy in hand (the candy and bubbles were made possible by one of Julie's nine thousand Wal-Mart runs!)

Once everyone showered and changed the day ended with a trip to Bourbon Street for a taste of the local food (the alligator was the fav!). After the food we headed down the street and experienced the nightlife for one final time. With smiles on our face and a great feeling of accomplishment we left Bourbon Street and headed back down a one-way street the wrong way… I mean headed back to the Church safe and sound for one last sleep.

Shout Out to Joachim (21st Birthday) and to everyone at Slippery Rock University.