The New Orleans Birthday Build - Part IV

On Friday we were joined by Martha, my high school friend, her partner Susan, and Elizabeth, another fellow Morocco RPCV, from the year behind me in Timhadite. Diane dropped out – her daughter wanted her to attend some classes – so we never had the whole team together, but I’m impressed that she left her family for the previous day! Friday was also the last day for the UW-Oshkosh group, and the last day of volunteer work on Vanette’s house; we had taken it as far as it could go. Next, professional contractors would come in to do electrical, carpeting, appliances and more. On Saturday we would help to finish a house down the block, and on this day we worked at both houses.


And we learned a new skill – quikrete mixing and placing! We were making concrete pads for the side staircases. Martha and Beryl laid down some wire for reinforcing. I was on a mixing crew, holding the wheelbarrow steady as various people took turns mixing. It’s very important to hold the wheelbarrow steady – and it took a lot of muscle! Wheeling it to the pad and dumping it were challenging too. I might have gotten a little dehydrated – the weather all week was cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon, and with all the work, you do have to make sure to keep drinking. The students left at lunchtime, and then we swept the floors and pounded any nails that were sticking up too far and the house was done!


I envisioned Friday night as a grand finale group dinner, the only time for all of us to be together. We didn’t have all of us, but that’s okay! Kristina and her fiancé joined us at the Market Café in the French Quarter. No bisque this time, but a great shrimp creole pasta – and some key lime pie! Then some of us went to Pat O’Brien’s – I had been there many moons ago with colleagues from Mrs. Smith’s Frozen Foods. A story I love to tell – we had hurricanes, of course, and as I said, they go down easy. You don’t realize how much liquor you are drinking along with the fruit punch! I did my part to keep up with the guys, but I also know to eat when you’re drinking, and maybe I had more body fat than the skinny guys I was with, or maybe I just hold my liquor better. They were getting a little rowdy, and then Allen got up a little too quickly, tipping over the table where we were sitting. Somehow, within seconds, we (must have paid up and) were out in the street with to-go cups – the Pat O’Brien’s folks are professionals at dealing with people who have overindulged. Literally, it took seconds and we were out of there. All these years later, it’s just as popular with tourists, but also has a following with locals. Kristina led us to the room with the two-piano bar – an intimate room, playing requests. What a fun evening!

Saturday was more mellow – Aaron, Suzanne and Doug had left and Susan slept in, so there were five of us. Builder Aaron had handed us off to an Americorps volunteer as our handler, and we were at the other house, paired up with five people from a church in Oregon. Beryl and Carol painted, and Martha, Elizabeth and I did…windowsills! This was a chance for redemption from my low point of the week. Well, it helps to be in on it from the beginning and have it properly explained. And it helps to be on a team with your friends – when we erred, we had fun about it instead of feeling chastised (for example, we put one windowsill in upside down – and didn’t notice it, though we were wondering what was wrong with our careful measurements. But we redid it!). There was also something satisfying in doing every single windowsill in the house. Later, I went to an elegant dinner in the Garden District with Martha and Susan – what a great city!


Camp Hope is near Chalmette Battlefield, the site of the Battle of New Orleans. Which was in which war? That’s right, the War of 1812. It took place on January 8, 1815 and was decisive in ending the war. On Sunday morning, I walked the battlefield and watched the Mississippi for a while. I didn’t get to the National Cemetery next door though – it sustained a lot of damage in Katrina and still hasn’t reopened (I think). Then I went down to the French Quarter, to the Jean Lafitte National Park headquarters. The park has several locations out in bayou country - maybe I’ll get to one when I go back for Thanksgiving – and the headquarters has interesting exhibits on the multicultural history of New Orleans and the natural history and beauty of the wetlands and delta. Both are unique! Yes, I’m going back – I want to do more volunteering and I want to see some of the city and the surrounding area – bayou or plantation or both. More stories to come! To close out this trip, though – met Elizabeth at Café du Monde for café au lait and beignets. Then I went to Kristina’s gallery, passing through a French Quarter food festival on the way (and just happened to see some crab and corn bisque). Kristina and I had lunch with Martha and Susan (I had some yummy crab cakes – kind of a New Orleans progressive lunch, with one course in each location) – they had not had a chance to meet any other PCVs when they visited Morocco, so now this week they did! Then we went out to the swamps of Luling, where Martha’s friend and colleague Dan and his wife Mai live, just over the huge Hale Boggs bridge – a bridge to nowhere named after a Louisiana favorite son. Mai made fantastic authentic Thai food – I guess in New Orleans you can find all of the ingredients; at this point I was full, but I had to at least try everything – it was great. Then it was off to the airport – after all the work to set it up, all the actual work of the week, some late nights, some great food, fun with friends old and new, and the energy of New Orleans, I was really glad to have done it.