Zealous for Zephyrs

After a much needed night's rest, our day began at Lil Dizzy's Cafe in the Treme district. It's a greasy spoon of the best sort, where the youth indulged in "New Orleans style French toast," omelettes, and Soul Food. The food was exceptional! We have yet to enter an establishment - food, worship, or otherwise - where people do not bend over backwards to share gratuitous hospitality. Lil Dizzy's, named after the owner's grandson who plays saxophone, was no exception.

After sharing a leisurely Sunday brunch, we walked the two blocks to St. Anna's Episcopal Church. Greeting us on the walls of the garden outside of the church were laundry lists with the names of people in the immediate neighborhood who had died a violent death, listed by year. The list for 2010 is already taller than we are, and it's only June. I think it's fair to say that the youth entered with a bit of caution, not knowing what to expect. We enjoyed every minute we spent with the St. Anna's community. It is certainly more, "smells, bells, and whistles" than we're used to. But the youth were respectfully observant and quick to voice the practices they thought St. David's should adopt in our debrief following the service. Father Terry preached a fantastic sermon about the Cost of Discipleship. To say that his message came through loud and clear would be an understatement. The youth had lots to say about the ways in which his message applied to our purpose this week. It was the welcome after the peace that did me in. Father Terry took the time to greet us and thank us for being in New Orleans, "90% of the challenge of discipleship is showing up. And that is exactly what you've done for us. You have honored the city and people of New Orleans simply by being here. Thank you." We look forward to returning to St. Anna's on Wednesday evening for their Mission to Musicians program - dinner and New Orleans Jazz!

Our next stop was the French Quarter. For many of us, it was our first time in the quarter. The stories are too varied and exciting to relay here now, but be sure to ask us when we get home! We broke into small groups and went exploring with an adult and a few other youth. Beignets, jambalaya, gumbo, masks, and bead were all a part of this exciting afternoon!

Later in the afternoon we drove through some of the most devastated neighborhoods in the city after Katrina hit. In particular, we laid eyes on the spots where some of the levees broke and completely cleared entire areas of town. We've also been marveling at the Superdome and surrounding highways - where we know folks were camped out for days. When we got back to Annunciation, Lee Parker (one of our adult sponsors whose parents were living in New Orleans during Katrina,) shared a slideshow of his pictures from the same neighborhoods we drove through today the Christmas after Katrina. There has certainly been progress. But it's remarkable how much there is yet to be done.

We ended our day with a New Orleans Zephyrs baseball game (minor league, AAA). While there was a variety of levels of enthusiasm, all were proud of our 8th inning rally. Though the Zephyrs were losing 2-8 at this point, we managed to get into cheering/dancing match with another large group of youth in a different section on the next level up in the stadium. Yes, we made the jumbotron - MORE THAN ONCE. Although the Zephyrs lost, it was an epic evening for team St. David's!

Our youth have been stunningly quick to jump on board with my challenge of never complaining about the heat. We are convinced that being from Texas, we can handle the weather much more gracefully than the groups from Virginia, Connecticut, and Missouri. So whenever, someone makes a comment about the heat, our youth are quick to respond with, "It's just bright out here." Or, "This...this is like October in Austin." I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow, once the work begins.

Good night from New Orleans!