Keepin It Cajun: Closing Time

As I start this post, the my watch reads 8:14 CST. If this were a work-site day, we would already be well into the rhythm of our individual construction tasks. Pretty crazy to think that we were able to maintain such an early schedule all week and that this morning I "slept in" till 7:00.

Yesterday was a great way to close it out though. It was pretty muggy all day, which allegedly is the norm for New Orleans - so I guess we caught a week of sunshine and breezes...what a steal. My day started where Friday ended, right back at the tree stump with Elissa. After cutting through some roots and trying to extend the perimeter of digging, I disturbed a couple hundred red ants - needless to say, I relocated to the other side of the tree. Elissa was chopping the roots as close to the tree as possible, while I poked at the dirt with my shovel, trying to look important =P. Then John showed up to help us out - naturally he went right to the red ants were because he's not a wimp, and the three of us continued to dig while a few others finished the sheathing around the house. Meanwhile, two of our three vans had gone to a new work-site with Andrew to work on a foundation. They had poured the concrete foundation on Friday afternoon, and were now removing the wooden frame.

At around 10:30, we went to help them because our day was going to be ending at noon (serious parade traffic). So all three vans were on the new site working on pulling out these wooden stakes that went about 4 feet into the ground. It sucked. It was worse than digging around the tree roots. I managed to get one stake out, before going to help Meg with one that she had been unable to get out. Several people had worked on it, but it was stuck in the clay (the layer of material below dirt in NOLA). Everyone else was cleaning up, but there was no way I was leaving that stake in the ground. Between myself, Andrew, and Pat, we finally got it out, with Pat striking the final blow. We presented the steak to Megan, took our group picture and got out of there just in time to beat the rain.

Just like that, the week was in and out. Later last night, groups from American University and UNC Chapel Hill arrived at the volunteer center. That, along with working on the new foundation was a great representation of how we are turning the page, or passing the torch, to the next week down here. It's been a blast - regrets are minimal and memories are countless. I'll have one more post when I get back to the 'Burgh, to wrap everything up. Thanks for following everyone, hope you enjoyed the ride.

Time to go. We're packing the cars, and venturing out on the town today. Flight leaves in the early evening.