COLA to NOLA: COLA to NOLA Day 4: Dedication, Zoo, and Commanders

Our morning began at 6:45 am with Andrew and Catherine Ann making hash browns, scrambled eggs, and sausages. After our delicious breakfast and locking the key in the chapel kitchen next door (oops), we arrived at our work site, where we learned we were in for more digging. After non-stop digging for two and a half hours, we got in our cars and traveled a few blocks over for a house dedication. A house dedication is the presenting of a house to its homewner. We did not work on this house but were able to welcome Ms. Hargrove and her two daughters into their new home. Jessica, Andrew, and Grace Ann presented house-warming gifts. We got to tour the house and see what our foundation job would eventually turn into.

After the house dedication, we went to the Audubon Zoo for lunch. We grabbed our sandwiches, apples, carrots, and sodas and sat beneath the trees on the grass. We played ultimate frisbee, took photos, and broke into the zoo on a quest for the bathrooms with Kim. As we were eating, we came up with a poem with one word or a phrase added by each member.

"Digging"
Digging...16 inches
the shovel cuts the ground
bricks
blisters
sweat
sunburn
while singing and dancing
hot, sweat, dirty dirt
ughhhhhh
my soul cries out, yearning to belong
- an original poem by Anna Frances, David, Kim, Elizabeth, Jessica, Grace Ann, Slayden, Catherine Ann, Andrew, and Rev Kev (in order of lines of poetry)

After the zoo, we headed back to work where we all experienced a dark hour. Our task during this dark hour was to "square up" our trenches, so that the trench floor meets the walls at right angles, and both are completely straight. This is very hard to do. So, the hour mostly consisted of shoveling and confusion, but also giggles, dancing, and talking. Others also went to work on the rhubarb. We shoveled and dug, made rhubarb cages until 3:30 pm.

We got to say goodbye to a Habitat for Humanity homeowner, Cesar. Cesar is working off his "sweat equity" and will be working at another site tomorrow. We also met the woman who will live in the house we are digging the foundation for. After a quick photo shoot with Cesar, the piles of dirt, and our homeowner, we hopped in the cars and headed back to our house for showers to get ready for our BIG night out.

Ahhh, Commanders Palace. It was fabulous. The evening could not have gone better. The restaurant is beautifully decorated, had delicious food, and we inspired great entertainment. Catherine Ann was inspired to write a play about a waiter; David did write a play about...something. (David's note: it's about Nolan, a waiter by day but by night he's Gaston Pierre Thibodeaux, the king of the underground voodoo mafia in New Orleans.) We ate turtle soup, seafood and steak, and had many choices for dessert. We listened to Ms. Ti (Kevin's cousin) talk about the famous people that have been to her restaurant, such as, President Bush with the Prime Ministers of Canada and Mexico, Sandra Bullock, and Angelina Jolie. We learned (and drove by) the houses next door, which happened to be the house used in the movie Benjamin Buttons and we saw Sandra Bullocks house! We took pictures in the kitchen and some other random locations. The service was wonderful, it felt like we were being waited on hand and foot. We were some of the first people to arrive at Commanders Palace and among the last to leave. We had a great evening, to end a great day.

-Slayden