N.O. Update: Pier, Rock and Bowl, Deck, Barbecue, Get Smart

We're leaving the hotel soon for beignets at Cafe Du Monde and some time in the French Quarter, so this will be a quick entry.

Thursday was the first day that Eldest worked with a different crew. He worked with young kids at a head start program. We haven't talked in much depth yet, but he really seemed to enjoy it.

Here are pictures from Thursday, with some from earlier days that I got from a students camera:



Our crew worked on a destroyed pier, mostly because the hosts wanted to treat us to some fishing. We then installed insulation. The evening was a high point of the trip, Rock and Bowl. Live zydeco music, dancing, and bowling.

Yesterday we helped a woman with her back deck, after which she and our hosts threw a huge barbecue to celebrate the week. It was hot - really really hot - but the piles of crayfish, deer sausage, blackened red-fish, jambalya, burgers, and freezer pops made for a great party. We ate like pigs, finished what we could on the deck, cleaned up a bit, and made our not-entirely-tear-free-even-from-the-toughest-guys farewells.

The woman we helped, Miss Shirley, was fascinating, a member of the New Orlean's Zulu Social Club, a group with a long, interesting Mardi Gras history.

Then dinner for 41 (one student left early), and a good rest at a movie, Get Smart, which was darned funny.