Our first day in Austin proves to be adventurous.  

And Fruitful. providing dumpsters of abundance

Leaving New Orleans

Fire at the levy in the lower ninth

We'll miss you Common Ground

pitterpatterearlymorningrainondepartureday

goodmorninggreysky.todayisthedaywewillmoveon
fromneworleans...movingwestward....thisplacehasbecome
abeautifulcomfortablelaboriousmemory.andiwillreturn.
somedaytothisground. ..............but for now,like a feather,
we shall be carried onto our next destination.............
.austin.tx....................life is like a box of chocolate.u never
do know what u gonna be getttting

Through working with House to Home (www.housetohomeproject.org), we met a bunch of people that work with this organization called Common Ground
(www.commongroundrelief.org). Common Ground was started right after Katrina working in efforts to keep the lower 9th ward residential. It's a sort of collective that offers the residence of the lower 9th "immediate aid...and longterm support in rebuilding these communities in just and sustainable ways."(pamphlet from common grounds) It is completely volunteer run and provides legal assistance, media coverage, wetlands restoration, construction services and mowing services, which is much of what we have been doing, mowing. The residence that have not been able to move back for what ever reason are being fined outrageous amounts per day for not having their lawns maintained, to which the city intends to take control of and turn the neighborhood into some sort of strip mall or something. 85% of the lower 9th were, and for many, still are home, or now lawn, owners. It's been great. I've been working with common ground during the day and working at Bubba Gumps at night. We plan on heading to Austin on Monday.

Out side of the Warehouse of House to Home

This picture was taken at about 11pm on the back patio of Common Ground. The joy of a slow shutter speed.

this was a dead end street that i had to carry my bike up some stairs to cross a bridge,,,,,and a few times in the dark i saw these shoes and they just called out to be remembered.....


this is james.we were wandering around dauphine street and found a pile of baby shoes by a garbage.....they were so amazing we had to do something,what better than a display at the corner of dauphine and desire.we matched them up and put them in a circle.....imagining them being a congregation of young minds in some unified thought..........
in the morning, upon returning to that spot,a change had occurred.no more matches.everyone had taken their shoes off and abandoned their labels ...

cotton candy and crazee music midday in new orleans....it was the book fair and it was a big party on the street..............a band of accordians and makeshift drums and dogs and kids and a lady passsing out cotton candy without any expectation for reimbursment..........and i do love the smell of cotttton candy....

A house I saw after delivering furniture. It was completely painted in shades of orange even the lawn. Posted outside was a small white sign with green lettering saying "P.1" later I googled it and found it to be, "Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1], the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, opened to the public on November 1, 2008 in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans." (www.prospectneworleans.org)

House to Home

So, we hooked up with this organization called House to Home that gets furniture, about to be thrown away, from prop houses in NYC and distributes it to families in need through United Way and Habitat for Humanity.







We had a group of kids from americorps volunteer for a couple days, but for now, we're currently a very small team of about 7 people organizing and distributing furniture for 18 families in about a week. It's pretty crazy.

AmeriCorps kids



Waiting to pick up 36 mattresses from a furniture bank. It took a very long time, luckily magic hour was upon us.



The longest stretch without showering, 6 days, and the dirtiest work we've done...so far. We showered that evening.



Somehow early that morning, about 6 am, I scratched my eyeball in my sleep. Weird. I should start wearing gloves to bed.


This guy drove by while we were waiting to scream something about getting his picture taken to show to his x-wife. He had an American flag flying above his truck and an Obama sign duct taped to the back.

campingoncamp

hellooooooo this is krystee speaking.woke up on the bus today and i swear it was like 98 degreeees, or maybe 80.but summer 4 sure.we r parked on camp st in new orleans.next to a park with a huge fountain.last night mystery went out for the first time in new orleans.there was a cat that looked like larry poppins that was obviously the king of that block.he wasn't having it,but mystery kept approaching him with no success.but mystery was out all night and in my dreams last night i saw him with a crowd of cats....ryan befriended the larry look alike,so hopefully mystery did as well.i love having him with us.i think he is enjoying seeeeing the world.or at least different parts of it than he has ever seen before.......last night we went to an election party at this bar that had a huge movie screen and hundreds of drunk cheering people that all supported obama.it was sooooo crazee in there,i wish i had my camera, but it was insane.and then when obama gave his speeeech everyone was so energized and wild.we r learning our way around here,we have beeen riding bikes alot.the french quarter is so easy to get to from here........the architecture here is like nothing i have ever seeeen b4.its amazing and colorful and there r mardi gras beads hanging in random treees everywhere...but in the french quarter the architecture is surreal and beautiful and i love it so much............yesterday as we took a stroll down bourbon st(which is actually quite ridiculous) but we met alot of random people......kids with tin cans tacked on their shoes that were so smooth trying to hustle the tourists..and travellers with smiles and instruments....and now i will jump into this day and seeeeeeeeeeeee what will unfold.............

First Day in New Orleans

intheearlymorninghourofallsaintsdaydrewridesabike

Last Day in Memphis

singing in the bussss