But y'all don't want to hear about that, so here's my account of what happened in NOLA: (ps, I'm writing these as I wrote them daily in a journal)
Friday 3/9/2012
We got off to a slightly rough start - no one knew where the keys to the van were O.o Then, once we found the keys, Christian wanted to move his car. So, an hour later than we wanted to be rolling out, we were leaving West Lafayette! It was a fun ride - we just kinda talked. Zach was a new aquaintence for us all, so we got to know him. He's a pretty cool guy :] Unfortunately, Shelly's grandfather passed away a few days ago, so she was unable to join us :[
At Bowling Green (our stop for the night), we met up with the other car - Dan, Sarah, Aaron and Kent left campus early to take a tour of Mammoth Cave so they got to the church quite a bit earlier than we did... We were all rather tired, so we had a quick devotion and went to sleep.
Saturday 3/10/2012
This morning was pretty interesting - Heather woke me up saying 'Carly, it's 6.08 and no one's awake - what should we do?' We were supposed to get up at 6 and I remembered that Corey had set an alarm as well, so I was wondering why it hadn't gone off. My watch said 6.08, but somehow my groggy brain made the connection that we were now on Central time - I just didn't set my watch back since we weould be springing forward that night. Heather and I had some good laughs about that :D An hour later, we all woke up and ate some breakfast and made lunch for the road. So, I ate some cereal and stuck three pieces of bread in a baggie. I dislike having to make sandwiches for lunch. Then we were on the road again - on to Birmingham. I slept through the rest of Kentucky and woke up in Tennessee. It was my first time in Alabama too, woot :] Once we made it to Birmingham, we played the highway game - we got turned around and some streets were closed off so we had to get back on the highway to get to the exit we missed. Once we were once more on the right path,we drove to the civil Rights Museum. We saw the 16th Street Baptist Church - the one that was firebombed and four girls lost their lives. The museum was really neat - I wish we could've had more time there. They had part of the Freedom Riders bus that was bombed - I'm not going to lie, that was a little creepy.
And it was a beautiful day! So nice after the colder weather we've been having in Indiana.
The museum is on the left here, the 16th Street Baptist Church is the one on the right.
On the way from Birmingham to Louisiana, we were playing Phase 10 (a card game) and by the end we were all bored so it turned into a community game :]
Then we were in Louisiana! And then New Orleans! I was so excited :D
Once we got to the church, we met up with the Heart of Africa folks that are going to be working with us for the week. A former Wesley intern (allong with another Wesley alum) now works with them in Dallas. They're a pretty cool group, this is going to be a fun week :]
Sunday 3/11/2012
This morning, we led the church service. Everyone was in the choir, that was fun :] , and Christian Kakez-A-Kapend (the former Wesley intern that now works with Heart of Africa) gave a sermon on not letting the bad things in your life detract from the good things. It was realy good. We ate with the church congregation and then got to play on the playground as we waited to go exploring :]
Liz and Stephanie were enjoying siding down in various ways (like backwards, on their backs, in the fetal position, etc.). up on top is Jason and Sarah, then Zach is the one in the bright green shirt and Aaron is right next to him. I'm in purple and Kent is standing next to me. Liz, of course, is on the slide :D
We took these street cars along St Charles Street to Canal Street. They were fun :]
When we got off the street cars and walked along Bourbon Street. That was an experience... There were so many bars and smokers O.o And there were a ton of people wearing University of Kentuky stuff - I think there was a SEC thing going on.
And then we made it to Café du Monde! Heather and I were so excited :D
The beignets were so good too! I'm pretty sure that my lifespan shortened by about three years after eating those, but it was so worth it :]
We went to the takeaway line and got our beignets, then Kent and I went to a store across the street because I wanted a Saints shirt and he wanted a shotglass. When we got back to the cafe, our group had evaporated. Another group appeared, and we went to the riverside with Glen quickly before everyone had to reconvene. It was so nice there, I wish we could've had more time.
Since Kent and I got separated from the group, we didn't eat our beignets. Therefore, we got to eat them on the street car :D Back at the area where the cars were parked, we split up to get some food. Most of the group went to Camilla's - apparently a diner-type place. Liz, Matt, Zach, Aaron, Lindsey (Junk, another former Wesley intern that now lives in New Orleans) and I went across the street to get some pizza insted. Aaron had been wanting to try alligator ever since we entered Louisiana, and he found a pizza that had alligator sausage on it :]
On the ride home, I had an interesting conversation with Christian Klayhpen (at least I think that's how his last name is spelled...). He's one of the Heart of Africa guys - and he is from Liberia. He's studying pharmacy and wants to go back to Liberia to help there. Apparently, when you go to get fingerprinted to leave the country, they tell you when you are leaving, like three months, two weeks, whatever they say. Well, when he went with his sister, they said 'You're leaving tomorrow, pack your bags.' He didn't get to say good bye to his dad until he called from New York. That was wild.
Monday 3/12/2012
This morning, we got started. After morning devo and singing, we spit off into work groups. I was on the drywall team with Kent and Aaron. And when I say we were on the drywall team, I mean that Aaron and I spent three hours fighting with one piece that just wouldn't fit. We definitely signed our names on the inside once we got it - we were bloody proud. Some of he lovely ladies of the church are making us lunches this week - today was gumbo. I was so excited! Kent and I both had three bowls - we agreed that we wouldn't be able to move afterwards but it was totally worth it :]
After lunch, we took a bit of a siesta (and that turned into a routine :] ) so after that it was time to screw the drywall pieces into the ceiling. We got them in and started covering the seams with drywall tape and mud. There was putty everywhere O.o And Kent, Sarah B and I stayed behind to finish up filling some holes in walls - we wanted to know what we would get for working overtime :]
Some of the Heart of Africa girls made a traditional African dinner for everyone - okra stew. It was good too. We invited some of the ladies of the church to join us for dinner, and a few of them did. I sat near them and talked about the city, that was cool.
Tuesday 3/13/2012
It's so nice that the putty didn't dry overnight, otherwise we would've been able to continue our drywall work this morning...
Since we weren't able to sand, we went on to other jobs. I was still working with the putty and filling in (or covering up) holes in walls.
Filling in holes in walls.
Zach had this hat that he was wearing until he found a yellow hard hat. I stole his hat (which wasn't actually his and wound up being Kent's) and wore it all week - it was great, it worked quite well as a hairband.
Today's lunch was red beans and rice - yum! I love Louisiana food :D
After lunch, it started downpouring outside. So, what do we do? Run outside of course! That was fun, we were all wet :] And some people were asleep and missed it all - we informed them of what they missed as we gathered for the lunch devo :]
The putty still wasn't dry when we went back, so I continued with the other jobs. One of which was washing windows with Corey. That kid is such a character - he's pretty fun to hang with :] (of course, I say kid and he's actually older than me). We both take Spanish classes, so we decided to practice.
We ate leftovers for dinner and then after the devo a group of us played an intense round of Egyptian Rat Screw (odd name for a card game, no?). At the end, it was me, Kent and Zach still going - that was intense. We all had to get outside for a bit afterwards :]
Then it was a game of spoons - Blessing and I bruised up each other's hands going for one spoon. That was fun. That night when Liz and I went to sleep, she set her alarm. Her phone tells you how long you have until it goes off. Eight hours of sleep? I accept!
Wednesday 3/14/2012
Happy Pi Day :D
We were able to sand the putty this morning! Once we finished that, my next project was organising the supplies. I like the green duct tape that we used to label the Wesley supplies :]
After lunch, I worked with the painting crew. I was going to be taping, so I grabbed a roll of painter's tape. Then I found another roll that was closer to being out, so I grabbed that and stuck it around my wrist too. I was starting a collection :D Once I finished painting, I started detail painting. Glen was working in the same area, he said that we were the Transcontinental Railroad :D Which led to a lengthy conversation about what the name is of the place where the Golden Spike was driven in and how the California team only made it to Utah but the Eastern team did have a jump on them so it was impressive that they made it that far. It was pretty fun :] The fire alarm wound up being our Promontory Point and the California team (me) ran out of paint there.
I helped Liz make pasta for dinner - two vegetarians were making the dinner so there was no meat, for once :D As I showered after dinner, I thought about my lack of phone (it died on Saturday) and interwebs (no wireless) for the week. It's been kinda nice. I mean, I'd enjoy being able to talk with friends, but instead I'm making new ones :]
It's nice that I take notes everyday - it helps with journalling and when other people don't remember what happened on a certain day :] Kent, Dan and I did a bit of group journalling while another group was playing Settlers of Catan. That seems like an interesting game, from what I saw.
Thursday 3/15/2012
I had quite the odd dream last night - it involved living about three blocks from Disneyland in a five-person apartment with Zach, Aaron and two others that were good friends of ours in the dream but I don't know them now. Yeah, it was weird.
I got up to help Glen make french toast this morning, and I may or may not have had a few troubles with the cinnamon...
We only worked a half day today, and the painting crew got the kitchen covered in paint - go team! (yesterday was primer). After lunch, we went on a not-so-touristy tour of New Orleans - we saw the church that housed three area congregations after Katrina, then we went to the Lower Nineth Ward.
Looking at the old levee right next to the new one, it's weird to think that they thought that would last. But it obviously did for however long until a barge crashed into it.
For reference, Glen (the man in the blue shirt) is about 6'6" tall.
Picture time!
Me and Liz
Me and Blessing
Baby D, me and Beatrice
After the Lower Nineth Ward, we went over to the pastor's house for dinner. They made fish, so I enjoyed the rice and watching people attempt to eat the eyes ( XP ). We had a singing devotion and enjoyed hanging with each other for our last night.
Friday 3/16/2012
Heart of Africa tended to get up late for breakfast at 7.30, so Christian Kakez-A-Kapend didn't tell them that they would be getting up at 6.15 this morning until last night :] Liz and I were in the same room as Blessing and Baby D, so we got up pretty early with them. Heart of Africa left for Dallas after breakfast and devotion, we were all sad :[
But we still had some work to finish, so we got to it. I worked with Aaron to clear the brush pile from when they cut down a tree and it looked like we both got into a fight with a small animal - there were scratches up our arms.
Aaron found a snail and picked it up, asking what we should name him. I said Stanley, and so he became Stanley the Snail. We had to set him free, but we made sure it was a place where he'd be safe. :]
After lunch, we showered and headed out. We stopped to enjoy the afternoon in Audubon Park and got together a quick game of Ultimate Frisbee - what else would we do in a large field on a Wesley trip? ;D
We had Po Boys for dinner, then some people stayed in the resturaunt to watch the first half of the Purdue game and some of us went to walk around Magazine Street. We wanted shirts (especially after the Ultimate game) and found a store. Zach and I wound up getting the same shirt - it's a cartoon smiling beignet holding coffee and says 'Beign-Yay!' :D I enjoy it :]
On the way out of town, we had the GameCast up on two different phones, and when we stopped for gas the game was getting close and whichever phone updated first was the one we looked at. It was crazy! But they did win.
This whole week we've been joking about asking for consent for things like sleeping on shoulders, touching hair, etc. So, I asked Kent and he said that I could sleep against his shoulder - he was sleeping against the window - and we slept until we got to Tuscaloosa, our stop for the night.
Saturday 3/17/2012
Today I woke Heather up saying 'Heather, it's 7.08, what should we do?' and she laughed :]
We planned out tomorrow's Wesley service in the van - like the music and devotional thoughts and whatnot, then Sarah slept on my shoulder as I listened to some Celtic music :]
At lunch, we split off to various fast food resturaunts and threw the frisbee as we waited for everyone to gather once more (like I said, what else on a Wesley trip? :] ).
I was driving Dan's car behind the van when suddenly the flashers go on and we pulled off to the rest stop we were about to pass. Apparently there had been an accident up ahead that was stopping traffic and so we got to get out and, guess what we did, throw the frisbee! It was nice to be able to wait out of the van.
We dropped off Jason in Indy (my first time in the actual city) and then it was back to Purdue.
When I got back to Aldersgate, Catherine and I talked for a bit - apparently the robotics team that she and Seth helped with had a good competition over the weekend.
On Sunday I got up at about up at 9.30 and remembered that I need milk, so it was off to Walmart! At 10.30 on the morning after St Patrick's day - there weren't many other people out and about at that time :]
We (the crew from the New Orleans trip) did the church service at Wesley, so that was fun. We sang some of the African songs that we sang down there :]
I was going to spend the evening, but I decided that could wait because I wanted to go to the Wesley Ultimate recreation. I missed playing, I'm definitely getting back into this. Partway through our second game, the lights went out. We were confused, but just assumed that Purdue didn't want to pay for the lights when Aaron joined and said that the power was out in the res halls. It was a huge blackout - even people like Liz who live north of campus had no power, and the bars on the south side of State lost it as well. Aldersgate still had power (Kyle and I determined while driving home that Grant Street was the line of the outage), so we had a party of people that wanted to watch the basketball game (we were playing Kansas) but couldn't at home. It was a crowd, and it was such a good game until the last four minutes :[
Monday I had to get up for class O.o However, it was kinda fun because in Com we watched some of those as seen on tv commercials - I love how people are in black and white and completely incompetent unless you have this spiffy product :]
It was so beautiful outside! I sat outside and read instead of sitting in the basement of Beering like I normally do, and of course I got a little sunburned O.o Welcome to Spring!
I had chapter after orchestra, and I think I actually didn't do too badly on the quiz considering how little studying I did in NOLA.
I worked on transferring my journaling from my iPod to my journal while I did laundry after the new lesson, and that's why this entry is so late - I wanted to get that finished before I posted this.
Today I had another terrible CS lab O.o My TA said that he did the kind of things that we were doing in a class that was about three levels more advanced than the one we are in, that made us feel great...
We had an exec meeting at 2.30, then I went back to Aldersgate to listen to some Jimmy B and clean out my room - put away the laundry and things from the trip and switch out the long sleeved shirts into the trunk. I felt rather productive :D
We had our full COM meeting at 7, and then I came back to write this post. And now it's late and I want to get up to run tomorrow before classes. I've got a rather busy week ahead of me, hopefully this weekend I can actually work on getting ahead for next week.
Peace.
-Carly B
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