We're Boss.

Woke up very early this morning (4:55 am) to walk to the superdome and get a bus to a highway median in a local neighborhood. We worked on the median picking up trash and clipping trees, while not exactly backbreaking work, many of us sweat a lot, as we were in direct sunlight a lot of the time. Although it didn't seem like much, and many of us would have preferred to work on the houses themselves, the impact on the community was much larger than many of us thought. After we finished we ate lunch and went on a tour to see some of the devastation that Katrina left behind. It was incredible, especially in our visit to the Ninth Ward, to see just how many people still haven't returned to New Orleans after the hurricane. On our walk home from the superdome, we got pulled over by a cop who thanked us for our service. We then enjoyed some relaxing time at the hotel resting up and swimming while we waited for the next meal.

For dinner, we went to a local hotel restaurant where we met a chef who has been a guest on several famous tv shows and magazines for his amazing skills (search Tyrone Howard the King on youtube). He made very good fruit punch and lemonade which we all enjoyed. The food was good too.

The superdome meeting tonight was mostly abour jazz. The first performance of the night after the house band played was a group of brothers who made some crazy juggling tosses related to Jazz, they were able to pick pins up that they dropped and still able to keep the throws going consistently. For a final act one of the jugglers picked up a pin from across the stage, walking straight through the other throws the other jugglers were making. After the jugglers were finished a guy came on stage and talked about something related to jazz, most people seemed to think he was pretty boring. After the first speaker was finished a woman named Venice Williams (not to be confused with the tennis player) talked about gardens. After her a teenage violin prodigy whose name name currently escapes us played an absolutely ridiculous piece and then talked a little bit about what she is doing to raise wetlands drainage awareness, then she played another piece that was extremely complex. Finally after she finished, a runner from Philadelphia but actually from North Dakota spoke about her experience with her life and especially on her founding of her Back on you Feet program. This program gets homeless people running to raise their confidence and allow them to move forward with their life. She was a very motivational speaker, as she faced some very challenging life decisions but eventually went with what she felt was right. It was probably the best night at the superdone of the week.

Night life tonight consisted of a dance for about ten minutes, a funky inflatable animal racing game which wasn't particularly entertaining, and then hanging out around the hotel until 10:30ish. After we got back to our hotel for the night, we played some music and some games and watched some tv. It was a good time. Peace out...

-The Guys from room 522