Yay! New Orleans!

Well, it's true. I do love New Orleans. It's amazing what two and a half weeks of direct communication can do for a relationship. The people are wonderful, the weather is lovely, and the food is fantastic.

This past weekend was epic. Saturday night went downtown to see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. WOW. Everyone, please listen to their album/go to one of their shows. Then on Sunday, we went to Jazzfest 2010, the New Orleans music festival that has been going on since the 70s. The highlight of the day was seeing The Dead Weather (in the picture to the left with Jack White on the guitar) and the rain. The last song started getting really intense and just then it started pouring. Awesome. Rain is quite enjoyable when you plan for it. I also stopped by and danced at the gospel tent, and then rounded out the night with the Neville Brothers. Some true Louisiana, New Orleans funk. Pretty great.

On the work front, Green Light is great. Always changing, always unpredictable. We do different things all the time. As of this week, I have several new individual jobs, in addition to the regular phone calling, data entry, installing and education. I am now designing an annual report for them, as well as a volunteer newsletter regarding places to see around the area, and then I'm in charge of redesigning tabling event displays. Tabling means setting up those tables where someone stands behind it and hands out brochures and talks about the organization. My job is to organize it so there are different tables for different audiences, as well as updating all displays and information to make Green Light look "cool" and professional. So yes, this all keeps me very very busy. Bernie (the program manager) told me I might be the busiest AmeriCorps member they have had in history. I'm not sure if that's a title I really want...

Now comes a more exciting part (as if my life couldn't get more exciting right now). Due to the disastrous oil spill, we have been given some side projects. Now, of course, we would all rather there never be a reason to have to be deployed on disaster relief, but this does make for a more interesting week. Today, we worked with a food bank that serves the entirety of southern Lousisana to package up boxes of groceries for fisherman who are losing their catch. This weekend, I found out about an hour ago, we have been asked to go to the Mississippi coast to clear off beaches before the oil comes. I guess it's easier to clean oil off sand than debris on sand. I will let you know how it all goes. We may have more side projects as the oil hits the shore. What a man-made disaster. Way to go humans.

I will soon let you all know more about my Southern adventures. Until next time.

anne