Colton Academy work crew!

7-7
Our first workday!

We headed to our school, Colton Academy, that we are converting to an arts cooperative type place that will offer classes for local students. It is an amazing building! It suffered water damage, then was mistreated and neglected by the contractors, and was eaten by termites. Needless to say, it needs some attention.

I worked on painting with Rebecca, Eleni, Tara, and Stephanie. Now this was no ordinary painting job. We were painting the tops of the walls in the auditorium that has walls that are about 25 feet tall. Managing those rollers was interesting! It certainly gave me a workout!

We called it a day early today because we went on a bayou swamp tour. That was very cool! I haven’t been to the south before (except Florida to visit my Nana) so I didn’t realize that as an Oregonian I am a yankee! The boat captain was certainly a southern good ol’ boy and spoke often of us silly yankees. I loved the beauty and tranquility of the swamp, as strange as that may sound.

We got to see many alligators, and I got some fantastic video of them jumping for a treat. A marshmallow, none the less! As Rebecca and Rian pointed out, how healthy is that for alligators. Maybe they would have preferred a dog!

For dinner I went with Rian, Rebecca, and Eleni to a bar near us, Markey’s Bar. We were walking towards the French Quarter, but came to this place first. I thought it might be more interesting to hit a local spot, plus it was close! So we had some beers, po-boy (or tacos in Rian’s and my case…) and some catfish strips. Very yummy!

After dinner, we walked back to home base and decided to head out again. Eleni stayed back, but I went to Ray’s Boom Boom Room on Frenchmen St. for jazz with Rian and Rebecca. When we walked in the jazz band was playing Summertime. I was happy! They were good and I was just happy to be in New Orleans listening to great jazz!