Saturday, March 3, 2007
2:55:34 AM


Today was an awesome day, we went back to the Renaissance Village to finish working on some of the projects we started yesterday. Them morning was the coldest I'd seen here yet, but never too cold for shorts and t-shirt. No one was home this morning soI fiexed breakfast for myself and waited for the other host family to come and pick me up. We ended up only being about 15 minutes late. I worked for most of the day with Renee painting steps in front of the trailers. They needed it badly. With the colourful culture on New Orleans, a little colour was much appreciated. I think though that I may have gotten a bit of a sunburn. Its all Good though. Talking to some of the residents, you can really get a sense that these people have been through and seen a lot. They no longer take anything for granted and thank God every day for simply being alive.The project of Renaissance Village will probably have to go on for another 5-10 years. In the late afternoon we had a parade for all of the kids in the park. We threw out candy and stuff like that. This was followed by an UWP BTS show at the famed “Rosie O’Donell” center on site. There was a pretty good turn out and the show went well. Not too many parents came out unfortunately. But afterwards the teacher there with the after school program handed out some special awards to achieving students. After host pick up back at the LSU campus we went out for supper at a place called Izzy’s Illegal Burrito; a subway style restaurant that had “roll your own” burritos. I had a super burrito with steak and habanero peppers. It was awesome. Afterwards everyone else went to a big party/dance on the LSU campus but I declined for whatever reason. I went for a walk instead then crawled into bed. Big day tomorrow; getting up early and going out for breakfast. Its all Good™


Trees in the Yard in the Morning
Who wants to be a "Dollinaire?"
Finished Steps
Kenzo, Yamil, and Ryan chill b4 lunch
Admissions team Presentation

Always time to dance

Presentations @ the Rosie Site
Exxon Refinery at Dusk
Kaylee and Peppe with their "Angry Gangster" faces
Where it was at.
The Menu
One Large Burrito!

Mmm!The Gang!

Leo, My, Aria, Angelo
"That's my momma!" well host mom that is :)
Self Portrait
Sis (Short for Sicily), the other host family's daughter


Its all Good™

Thursday, March 1, 2007
11:51:17 PM

Today was probably one of the most awesome days in Louisiana as of yet. Today we went to “Renaissance Village”, the largest trailer park in the state. It was set up by the government organization called FEMA (http://www.fema.gov/). There are about 2000 residents that live there in travel trailers and have been for over 2 years. The whole place is patrolled by armed security guards and has an erie feeling to it. Working with our community partner City Year (http://www.cityyear.org/) we worked on many projects around the park including, road/street signs, wall murals, benches, tent repair, and lots of painting. I did tent repair, painting, and cleaned out one of their big sheds. In the afternoon it poured rain like I hadn’t seen since the first day I was in St. John’s about 2 years ago. Over lunch I got a chance to talk to one of the residents. He was 65 years old and had lived just outside New Orleans. His 200,000$ house was under about 23 feet of water. Before he was rescued, he had to chop a hole in the roof of hi house in order to escape the rising water. Like many people, he had hurricane insurance but not flood insurance and so never saw any insurance money from it. His future was very uncertain. Also over lunch I along with two others were interviewed by a local television station for the evening news. The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing up our projects and heading back to the LSU for pickup. Tonight for supper, my host family put on a giant Crawfish boil. It was really neat. We boiled a huge sack of live crawfish in a big pot over propane stove. The water inside was seasoned to make everything spicy. We also had sausage, corn on the cob, mushrooms, potatoes, and onions that were boiled in the same liquid.There was also fried catfish, chips with guacamole and salsa, french fries, and awesome brownies for dessert. We invited over two other host families so we had a pretty good crowd. (Danni, My, Leo, Arial, Christa, Angelo, Maria, et al) It was all good, except now I smell like crawfish.

Morning Carpool

Renaissance Village
Repacking the Shed with Charlotte, Chris, and Mitch
Aoife, Laura, and Christy paint maps
Road Signs with Jorge

Wall Murals with Margeaux, Peppe, and a college volunteer
When it Rains it pours, we all got soaked.
Then again, some people like the rain.
... even the smokers I guess

Sasha does laundry
Live, wriggling Crawfish
mmm tasty!
Thats a Liev one!, they'll pinch you!
Boil em down!
Ready to serve

Yum!

Dig in!
Trampoline Action

Tire Swing inthe back yard of my host folks
The Aftermath

Its all Good™

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
10:36:09 AM

Well, its all good so far Today, I woke up a little later but to the same wonderful aroma of fresh brewed coffee. My host mom had made me 2 giant pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast; they were the best I’d had in a long time. She didn’t have any baking powder so they were more like crepes. We made the morning newspaper today with a full page spread about the program and what we are doing here this week. We had the usual morning carpool to the campus. In the morning we gad a semiunar on marketing.

New Orleans Facts:
• 25 - 40% below poverty Line
• 1/2 of the people left New Orleans (about 200,000) to live in Houston, Atlanta, Baton Rouge and other major centers.
• Baton Rouge, as with other cities had to deal with the influx of people, including the school system
• 60 - 80% of New Orleans is still underwater. Even where people are rebuilding, they May be the only ones on their block. The rest is wasteland.
• People are suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) as well of depression.
• In the FEMA trailer parks there is security, but theft, drugs, and other crime is still common.
• People have been living there for over 2 years.
• Renaissance Village - 2000 people - 500 trailers - 700 youth - 500 pre teens
• Performance venue was the initially the place where the victims stayed.
• A great deal of animosity between the residents of Baton Rouge and the refugees from New Orleans. This area wasn’t very rich to begin with and now there are even less resources to go around.

CI Project
Beautify to provide a sense of community

• Bulletin boards
• Tent repair
• Murals
• Steps
• Signs
• Street names
• Maps (of Renaissance Village)
• Parade (before BTS, street parade for the kids)
• Planter boxes (main boulevard)

For lunch we had Lebanese food, pita bread, hummus, and caesar salad.

In the afternoon I, along with some of the other cast members were assigned to the “random acts of Kindness” team where we just went around doing random acts of kindness and promoting the show. We played jump rope with kids at a local school, put up posters, and crashed into two frat houses and offered to clean them up for free. One of them was a real dump; man I thought doyle was bad, anyhow. Its all Good™. While at the student union building, I was able to renew my ISIC international student card and the lady there gave myself and Lauren some free tshirts. In the later afternoon I worked some more on the cast a website. We’re getting there slowly. I went to another host families house for supper. We had spaghetti with sausages in the sauce instead of meatballs. For dessert we had home made apple pie with pecans on top as well as vanilla ice cream. It was all Good

Selling lost and found items, I got a new travel mug
Frat house #1
Frat house #2
What a Mess!
Hangover!
The Hose mom

The Random acts of Kindness gang

Freeze Frame (Jamil, Megan, Michelle, Jess)
Gabby and Joern join in
Mardi Gras, Cali style

Danny and Leo share a tuneSpaghetti supper at the other house parents house

Its all GOod™