Habitat for Humanity

I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. We left the RV park at 6 AM and drove to the Habitat site. We showed up right on time at N.O. East. The neighborhood was a humbling sight.

Annie was our fearless leader. She and nine others were a part of Americorps and this was one of her rotations. She was only 19 and had so much experience already. Jenny and I helped paint the back of the house and outside window trim.  It was a clear, hot, and humid day. Perfect for helping to build a house.

At 3:30 PM we were done. After much discussion and hopeless democratic vote, we decided to go to Coop's Place in the French Quarter for dinner. We drove to the YMCA to shower and change first. 

When I walked into Coop's Place, I was excited what was on the menu.

Rabbit as well as Smoked Duck Quesadilla sounded yummy. Unfortunatly, there was a sign outside that only 21 and up with ID were allowed in. We all didn't think they were that serious, but when the woman asked for our IDs, not everyone in our party had it with them, and we got kicked out. It was probably better because the place wasn't big enough for 17+ of us anyways.

So we walked to the Gumbo Shop. A woman on the street outside Coop's recommended it. When we got to Gumbo shop, it was a quaint place and the servers were really nice to fit all of us. Annie and her two other Americorps partners as well as the two Habitat site leaders joined us. There were 22 of us all boisterous and having a great time. Jess started the trend of putting the special Gumbo hot sauce and spice on the bread they gave us.

I think Jess finished half the bottle of tobasco by himself. I had the Jambalaya and ate some of Jess's crawfish etouffee. Delicious. Seriously.

Then we walked to get beignets at Cafe du Monde. Even though others accused me of not wanting to go (really, I did, I just heard a comment about only girls wanting to go there and had to defend it) I was excited to since the name of the cafe is the french version of my new last name. The beignets were nice and hot - but a little overrated. I had two anyways. We ate them across the street near the river.

When we were enjoying the beignets, a man approached Kim on the bench and asked to be prayed for. Kim (wisely) brought him to Nathan and P. Joel. I have no idea what they prayed for or about, but it was interesting that he approached our group like that.