So this morning we got a chance to sleep in slightly. It was after all it was our last day here. We left around 9 and went to the Miniature-Golf course in City Park. We broke up into groups and all had a chance to play the Louisiana Course. Basically each hole was dedicated to historic city in Louisiana. Most of us didn't pay much attention to this. Each group played at a different speed and had fun no matter what. In my group there was some drama about half way through when I was stung by a wasp. Don't worry I'm fine now, but there was a bit more swelling than one would expect. In the end Ben was the grand winner only putting four over par. Personally I was 15 over and having never played the course before I was very pleased with myself. Jana even did well. She is a admittedly bad mini-golfer. Her words not mine. She putted 18 over. It was fun, but incredibly hot. There was little shade on the course and those of us who were already burned got worse, and most of us who weren't became burnt. Despite the burns, we all still had an incredible amount of fun.
We ate lunch in City Park in an incredibly shady portion of the park. It was sort of like the park scene in Mary Poppins. Jolly Holiday more than SuperCalaFragilisticExpiAllidocious. Excuse my spelling, I haven't seen the movie in quite a while. We also had a raccoon stare us down for our food at one point. Most of us got pictures, because we had never been that close to a raccoon before.
On our way back to the mission, we stopped at a Walgreens on Canal Street to buy after bite and such for me and Grace. Benadryl for me, and After Bite for Grace. Apparently she is the hottest new restaurant for all the bugs in New Orleans. She is literally covered. While here we each got ourselves a drink, and a few people got touristy souvenirs such as masks, shot glasses, and mugs. We then proceeded on our longest streetcar journey yet to get snow-balls.
Snow Balls are a favorite in New Orleans. They are basically the much better version of a snow cone. The ice is refined more and the syrup actually takes to the ice. Unlike a snow cone where all the syrup sinks to the bottom. To give a comparison it's like a cross between Italian Ice and Hawaiian Shaved Ice. I personally had maraschino cherry and it was delicious. David and Grace both got mocha and were pleasantly surprised at the likeness of the flavors. We then made the journey home.
So from where we were there was two different ways to get back. We took the longer way, and missed our bus to take us back to the mission. So rather than wait a half hour, we proceeded to walk a mile in the sweltering heat back to the mission. Luckily enough for all of us, the showers were empty when we got back.
After a quick dinner, we went back out and traveled to Trinity Episcopal Church, where we got the chance to do a two in one. We walked a labyrinth, and got the chance to listen to an amazing organ recital. I will say however the selections were a little odd and not quite so meditative. I believe he played the Gigue Fugue, which is an upbeat piece meant to replicate the dance of a jig once the melody reaches the feet. Yes you do play the organ with your feet as well, my younger sister can probably attest to the difficulty of this. However it was a lovely and calming experience to have as our last activity.
When we finally got back from this, we had our last evening prayer. We've been doing this thing at every evening prayer where we all write the talents we see in another person and then give them what we wrote. It's a lovely bonding experience, and tonight we had our final round. We all actually had about three or four people due to time, but it brought us all much closer together. Then there was a lot of crying. I'm not going to say from who, but this person was very moved and thankful for the words others had written about them. We had our last last circle prayer and broke off into separate groups to do whatever. I played spoons, other people talked, and we all attempted to at least eat some of the large amount of food that we had left over from our grocery store trip.
Personally, as I write this, I am reflecting on what an amazing experience we had together as a group. It's hard to believe that it's over. I'm not going to lie, we had a rocky start. I didn't mention this earlier because it didn't seem important in the telling of our story. But we have overcome that. So in all honesty the stupid *pardon my french cough cough* crap that we started the week with, seems like nothing now. It's hard to believe that most of us only have two years of high school left. I am never going to forget what we accomplished as a group here. I am thankful for the people we met, the experiences we had, and everything that has brought us closer together. None of us have ever spent this much time together outside of church. Most of us do attend camp, but that's a different situation because if we get sick of one another there is another 40 people we can go and talk to. Along with that Ben and Ryan have never come to camp *hint hint*. So the fact that we are all still friends and even better friends after this experience is amazing. I have a different love for all of them, and I am truly upset that we might not see each other every week now. Hopefully most of us will, but you never know.
Lastly I want to send out a huge thank you to every one who helped fund our getting here, feeding ourselves over the weekend, and getting to do all the extra activities such as the aquarium and the Mini-Golf. Thank You for being part of our journey. And thank you all for reading what I have been saying every day, reading what Matilda and Adam wrote, and checking in on twitter if you have done that. Peace to all of you.
For the Last Time...
-Sophie
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Monday, June 30, 2014
Starting With A Bang!
So our days started two different ways today. For the girls, the day began at 5:16 this morning when Grace, fell from her top bunk and hit the floor. The initial reaction from most of us was thinking that my laptop had fallen. Then with a delayed reaction, Grace began to wail. It was a worrying experience for all of us. Luckily, Grace is ok and has come out of the experience with some minor movement pain, and a few bruises. She mainly had the wind knocked out of her. For the boys, who are across the hall form us, the day began around 6:30-7 which was when we had decided to wake up. After all these dramatics we got on the bus and headed to our work location for the day.
Today we had our last round of service work. We had the chance to work on a house, today through an organization called Youth Rebuilding New Orleans. Basically the organization was founded to give younger youth, such as ourselves, a chance to help rebuild the city. Then the houses they build are sold to teachers at a lower cost so that teachers have an easier time living in the city. When we arrived we were split into groups. One group, which I was in, painted the exterior of the house and the other group moved appliances and such out of the house. They then began cleaning the interior. That took up most of the morning. Before we broke for lunch about four of our number left the sight and ran to the grocery store for supplies. Once they had returned we proceeded to break for lunch. After lunch, we either resumed cleaning windows, dusted off appliances, or cleaned off paint brushes. Upon the completion of these activities, we moved everything back inside and began to work on the interior of the house. There was painters tap being put up, caulk applied to cracks, and a few other things. We even stayed an extra half hour in order to make sure we had done as much as we could.
When we got back to the mission, we all were relieved to find out that the largest group staying at the mission had yet to return. We all got a warm shower! This was well needed and deserved after our day, but most of us still have paint on us somewhere. We also this evening had a foot washing after dinner. It was a cleansing and bonding experience. At the end we all held hands and said a few things we were thankful for. It was sad because we would do this after every Sunday School class and it was our last time doing it as J2A with Felicia and James and Crystal, who is moving to Virginia after pilgrimage ends. There were also tears. I think we are all upset to see this journey be almost over. Tomorrow is our last day here and I know that I am really going to miss this city. I won't miss the heat and sweat, but I will miss many other things. I won't get into this now because I have one more blog post to write.
-Sophie
Today we had our last round of service work. We had the chance to work on a house, today through an organization called Youth Rebuilding New Orleans. Basically the organization was founded to give younger youth, such as ourselves, a chance to help rebuild the city. Then the houses they build are sold to teachers at a lower cost so that teachers have an easier time living in the city. When we arrived we were split into groups. One group, which I was in, painted the exterior of the house and the other group moved appliances and such out of the house. They then began cleaning the interior. That took up most of the morning. Before we broke for lunch about four of our number left the sight and ran to the grocery store for supplies. Once they had returned we proceeded to break for lunch. After lunch, we either resumed cleaning windows, dusted off appliances, or cleaned off paint brushes. Upon the completion of these activities, we moved everything back inside and began to work on the interior of the house. There was painters tap being put up, caulk applied to cracks, and a few other things. We even stayed an extra half hour in order to make sure we had done as much as we could.
When we got back to the mission, we all were relieved to find out that the largest group staying at the mission had yet to return. We all got a warm shower! This was well needed and deserved after our day, but most of us still have paint on us somewhere. We also this evening had a foot washing after dinner. It was a cleansing and bonding experience. At the end we all held hands and said a few things we were thankful for. It was sad because we would do this after every Sunday School class and it was our last time doing it as J2A with Felicia and James and Crystal, who is moving to Virginia after pilgrimage ends. There were also tears. I think we are all upset to see this journey be almost over. Tomorrow is our last day here and I know that I am really going to miss this city. I won't miss the heat and sweat, but I will miss many other things. I won't get into this now because I have one more blog post to write.
-Sophie
The Return of the Beignets
Hello all, I am writing this from the comfort of our very busy Mission House a day late. Last night I did not have time to. The day started with us waking up and having another round of beignets at David's insistence. They were of course delicious. AFter that we took a trip to see the aquarium. It turned out to be quite small. However the air conditioning made it all worth it. We saw all sorts of cool fish including sharks, otters, penguins, an albino alligator, and my personal favorite the electric eel. We ate lunch at restaurant called Mother's Creole Kitchen, which was quite delicious. David, Ben, and Ryan got a chance to watch the World Cup game which made them very happy. I got calamari which was quite delicious, however the tentacles scared me a little. We had a little time after that to calm down some, and Sophie and I watched part of a movie. After that we went to the Christ Church Cathedral which was incredible. The service was quite unique. During the Prayers of the People we had time to go around to different prayer station and experience different ways to meditate. We could light a candle, meditate by a labyrinth, place a stone on a location in the word, and get blessed by the Dean. The service was unique and there was: a cellist, a pianist, and a vocalist for the music. After that we went to eat dinner at a New Orleans burger and sea food joint. We got back to the mission, and were all trying to sleep soon after. Sadly we have very noisy neighbors.
-Adam
-Adam
Sunday, June 29, 2014
The Worst Mall in America
What is a day unless it is started with a warm beignet and a great cup of coffee? The answer is not a very good one. We started our day at the infamous Cafe Du Monde, located right outside of Jackson Square, where we enjoyed french doughnuts that were swimming in an unholy amount of powdered sugar. After quickly scarfing down as many as we could get our hands on and trying to clean off the white sugar that blew onto our faces, we made our way to Royal Street to get a glimpse of one of the houses where American Horror Story was filmed. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is basically a television show that is really creepy and scary and you should not watch it unless you are not planning on sleeping that night.
As we rambled through the French Quarter towards our haunted destination, we couldn't help but notice the beautiful architecture of the apartments and houses. The best way to describe the style of the buildings is French design in extremely bright and vibrant colors- one does not simply have a plain beige house here in New Orleans, they are all bright pinks and oranges and blues unlike anything you would see in Bethlehem or Allentown. If you look up as you are walking past these buildings, you would see beautifully crafted balconies with gorgeous spiraling details entwined with breathtaking flowers and greenery. If you are lucky you see a person up there going about their daily business, whether it be eating or doing laundry, not in a creepy way but it makes these dreamy houses seem a little bit more down to earth because you realize that some lucky soul actually gets to live in one of these houses!
The American Horror Story house was kind of a let down, but its not like there was any filming going on there at the time. We snapped a few pictures of the towering white building in hopes to maybe catch a ghost, (well we knew that we would not see any ghosts, but you have to keep hopeful). Interesting story actually: as we were walking, there were many different apartments and houses for sale, and at the bottom of the for sale sign there was either a block that said "haunted" or "not haunted"- it makes one wonder if in the houses that were claimed "haunted" if there were actual ghosts or if it was just a sales pitch to try and reel in any daredevils looking for an adventure.
We had an interesting lunch experience. David, Ben, and Ryan have been wanting Po-Boys since the day that we arrived in New Orleans, and lucky enough we came across Johnny's Po-Boys! It seemed like everyone else in the city had the same idea as us! We waited in line for a good half an hour, and that was just to order, but it was so worth it. We ate our meal under a pavilion by the Mississippi river while storm clouds rolled in, but thankfully there was no real rain. After a hearty meal, the girls went shopping and the boys took naps in the sun.
And now for the namesake of this blog post. After we did our napping and shopping, we decided to check out a decent looking outlet mall that was right next to the river that we were lounging by. Aside from the luxurious air conditioning, this was by far the worst mall any of us had ever been in. We entered into the food court- if you could even call it a food court- there was one, maybe two counters where one could entertain themselves with greasy hot dogs or maybe a decadent pizza. Oh and there was a fro-yo shop, but that is hardly worth mentioning. As we made our way down to the second floor, we were shocked to find nothing but cheesy souvenir shops filled with over priced t-shirts and hats and don't forget the sequenced masks (this is of course New Orleans.) It gets better though, the entire floor was run by one lady who would jump from shop to shop on her own accord. It was quite evident that we were wasting our time in this dump, so we left.
It was planned that we take the ferry across the river to walk around and have dinner, but the whole group was so beat and exhausted from the day's work that we just took the 16 bus back to the mission house and slept until it was time for supper at a Latin American restaurant that was about two miles down the road from where we are staying.
I was so tired last night that I fell asleep before getting to write this post, so stand by for Adam Rizzo's post about what we are going to do tomorrow which is actually today.
-Matilda Kitabwalla
Friday, June 27, 2014
Deep Woods and Going Crazy
So today was not the most pleasant day for most of us. We were sent into the woods, yes woods, of City Park. Here we had the hard experience of pulling up large ragweed, other weeds, and pulling seemingly endless vines off of trees. Trust me when I say we were all very tired after this. In addition to performing this menial labor, three of our number were also eaten by fire ants. Not actually eaten like in Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull, or whatever that disappointment is called, but still bitten. This resulted in a long walk back to the edge of the woods for sting wipes. however once we had finished our task we were all having fun riding back in the back of a truck. I personally had a lot of fun waving at the strangers walking by as we drove.
After lunch we had the pleasure of visiting the 6th oldest synagogue in the United States. The lady here, gave us a wonderful talk about the beliefs of Judaism and the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. We also learned the actual cause of the flooding and a bit about stereotypes portrayed in the news. Seeing as how the media reflects the flood victims as being poor african americans, when really all people were affected. We even received the chance to view one of the synagogues torahs. This was really cool.
Once we got back we all took our much needed showers and hung out till dinner. The mission doesn't provide food on weekends, so we ordered pizza from Papa John's. After dinner, we had planned to go Mini-Golfing, but there was a huge thunderstorm on the way. We wanted to still go but in someone's words, we would be holding up a small metal rod so we decided against this idea. We then tried to go bowling, but the local lane's next available time for a reservation was 10:30. So then we tried to go to the movies, but all of the showtimes for the movies we wanted to see either had a showing in 10 minutes or around 10:00. So that was a no go. We ended up just hanging out. We broke off into different groups and played different games. I personally played a highly competitive game of Spoons. It got intense ya'll. Yes I'm saying ya'll, we are in the deep south. Deal with it! Then a few of us made a trip to the CVS next door for ice cream. We ended the night with a dance like nobody's watching to the radio and ice cream party. It was really a lot of fun even though we all still wanted to be mini-golfing.
Tomorrow we are going to spend our day chilling around in the French Quarter. That is hopefully going to be a lot of fun. We also found out that like 70 more people are going to be joining us at the mission tomorrow and Sunday so we are all hoping to still be able to shower on a regular basis... So we will see what tomorrow brings.
-Sophie
After lunch we had the pleasure of visiting the 6th oldest synagogue in the United States. The lady here, gave us a wonderful talk about the beliefs of Judaism and the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. We also learned the actual cause of the flooding and a bit about stereotypes portrayed in the news. Seeing as how the media reflects the flood victims as being poor african americans, when really all people were affected. We even received the chance to view one of the synagogues torahs. This was really cool.
Once we got back we all took our much needed showers and hung out till dinner. The mission doesn't provide food on weekends, so we ordered pizza from Papa John's. After dinner, we had planned to go Mini-Golfing, but there was a huge thunderstorm on the way. We wanted to still go but in someone's words, we would be holding up a small metal rod so we decided against this idea. We then tried to go bowling, but the local lane's next available time for a reservation was 10:30. So then we tried to go to the movies, but all of the showtimes for the movies we wanted to see either had a showing in 10 minutes or around 10:00. So that was a no go. We ended up just hanging out. We broke off into different groups and played different games. I personally played a highly competitive game of Spoons. It got intense ya'll. Yes I'm saying ya'll, we are in the deep south. Deal with it! Then a few of us made a trip to the CVS next door for ice cream. We ended the night with a dance like nobody's watching to the radio and ice cream party. It was really a lot of fun even though we all still wanted to be mini-golfing.
Tomorrow we are going to spend our day chilling around in the French Quarter. That is hopefully going to be a lot of fun. We also found out that like 70 more people are going to be joining us at the mission tomorrow and Sunday so we are all hoping to still be able to shower on a regular basis... So we will see what tomorrow brings.
-Sophie
Thursday, June 26, 2014
The Search for Starbucks and Inadequate Musicians
So today was our first round of service work. In our journey to get to City Park, we found two Starbucks and of course everyone, except for me, wanted to go in and get "coffee". I use quotations because Starbucks is not actual coffee. However we had a Streetcar to catch. Yes we rode the Streetcar today. Upon our arrival we learned that we would be weeding in the Statue Garden in City Park. I would have said it a pleasure, but for all of us it was a hard and sweaty job.
After a quick lunch, we began our trip back. We stopped to buy groceries. Our Mission has dinner from 4:30-6:00 so snacks are much a needed entity. As I said this morning, the plight of the teenager is to never not be hungry. We all got the chance to pick one or two snacks. Matilda, our resident vegetarian, got the chance to buy herself food that she can actually eat, but our mission has been making vegetarian options for her.
Once we arrived back at the mission, we all showered, due to our grossness, then had some down time. For dinner we had a delicious jambalaya and we then left for our first visit to the French Quarter. This evening we got the chance to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The experience was amazing, and the music even better. Every musician was incredibly talented, and each solo'd in every song. Adam, Jana, and I all ended up feeling very inadequate at our instruments afterwards. The Clarinetist, which is Jana's instrument, had an incredible singing voice and was, in Jana's words, the best clarinetist she had ever seen. Adam, as our resident pianist, was wowed by the talent of the pianist we saw tonight. I was sitting next to him, and I saw his jaw drop during almost every single one of her solo's. Her fingers moved so quickly and she never broke her focus. Leading the group tonight was a trumpeter. I was excited by this because I too play the trumpet. I was floored. I could tell just from his form how amazing he was, and some of his skills I know I will never be able to match. All three of us had no idea how good they were until we saw them play. The trombonist and the drummer were phenomenal as well.
At the end of teh concert, we had to walk/run to our bus stop because it was pouring rain. Would our luck have it we made it in just the nick of time. Tomorrow we will be volunteering in City Park once again, and we think that we are going to go mini-golfing in the evening. Be sure to check out our twitter, link on the right, to get some up to minute updates about what we are doing!
-Sophie
After a quick lunch, we began our trip back. We stopped to buy groceries. Our Mission has dinner from 4:30-6:00 so snacks are much a needed entity. As I said this morning, the plight of the teenager is to never not be hungry. We all got the chance to pick one or two snacks. Matilda, our resident vegetarian, got the chance to buy herself food that she can actually eat, but our mission has been making vegetarian options for her.
Once we arrived back at the mission, we all showered, due to our grossness, then had some down time. For dinner we had a delicious jambalaya and we then left for our first visit to the French Quarter. This evening we got the chance to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The experience was amazing, and the music even better. Every musician was incredibly talented, and each solo'd in every song. Adam, Jana, and I all ended up feeling very inadequate at our instruments afterwards. The Clarinetist, which is Jana's instrument, had an incredible singing voice and was, in Jana's words, the best clarinetist she had ever seen. Adam, as our resident pianist, was wowed by the talent of the pianist we saw tonight. I was sitting next to him, and I saw his jaw drop during almost every single one of her solo's. Her fingers moved so quickly and she never broke her focus. Leading the group tonight was a trumpeter. I was excited by this because I too play the trumpet. I was floored. I could tell just from his form how amazing he was, and some of his skills I know I will never be able to match. All three of us had no idea how good they were until we saw them play. The trombonist and the drummer were phenomenal as well.
At the end of teh concert, we had to walk/run to our bus stop because it was pouring rain. Would our luck have it we made it in just the nick of time. Tomorrow we will be volunteering in City Park once again, and we think that we are going to go mini-golfing in the evening. Be sure to check out our twitter, link on the right, to get some up to minute updates about what we are doing!
-Sophie
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
And They're Off!
Welcome! Pilgrimage has officially begun.
So this morning we all gathered at the Cathedral around 5:30 AM. In a weird turn of events, Adam (Rizzo) who is never late was late. We all had a great laugh about that. Once we had all gathered and sorted ourselves into our cars, Mother Kim laid her hands over us and our parents separately and said some lovely prayers wishing everyone safe travels and well being while we were away. Mother Kim is still home because she kinda sorta has a child to take care of so Elizabeth Yale has joined us on our journey.
Once we arrived at the airport we all got through security easily and with great speed. Those of us who had never flown before found the experience to be kind of invasive, but that's how traveling works. As we waited for our flight we listened to music, talked, and played a round of cards. Our flight was smooth and we landed on time. After a quick lunch, where we all enjoyed a benige, we started our hour long bus ride to the mission.
Here at the mission we have gotten the chance to relax, and like the mature teenagers we are we have been watching Frozen. We are about to go have our first round of evening prayers and tomorrow we have our first round of service work. David is upset that we are missing the World Cup game, as am I, but we are all excited to engage in this adventure.
Sophie
So this morning we all gathered at the Cathedral around 5:30 AM. In a weird turn of events, Adam (Rizzo) who is never late was late. We all had a great laugh about that. Once we had all gathered and sorted ourselves into our cars, Mother Kim laid her hands over us and our parents separately and said some lovely prayers wishing everyone safe travels and well being while we were away. Mother Kim is still home because she kinda sorta has a child to take care of so Elizabeth Yale has joined us on our journey.
Once we arrived at the airport we all got through security easily and with great speed. Those of us who had never flown before found the experience to be kind of invasive, but that's how traveling works. As we waited for our flight we listened to music, talked, and played a round of cards. Our flight was smooth and we landed on time. After a quick lunch, where we all enjoyed a benige, we started our hour long bus ride to the mission.
Here at the mission we have gotten the chance to relax, and like the mature teenagers we are we have been watching Frozen. We are about to go have our first round of evening prayers and tomorrow we have our first round of service work. David is upset that we are missing the World Cup game, as am I, but we are all excited to engage in this adventure.
Sophie
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