24 July, 2006

camp noah - welcome to louisiana

*** written at 10:15pm on sunday night and posted later cause there’s no wireless in sight. ***

“alligators in the water” signs, bayou anything, scary bridges, no catholic churches, one lutheran church, waffle houses EVERYWHERE, and walmarts on every street corner… welcome to louisiana folks.

i had a very nice restful sleep-in this morning as i waited for the travel mate that missed the flight yesterday. when he got to houston a group of us left for a leisurely trip to lake charles via waffle house.

the air was so thick and the heat was almost unbearable… we spent a mere five minutes outside taking pictures by the “alligators in the water” sign and i got sunburnt – FIVE MINUTES! oi vey. what’s a white boy to do?

our sleeping facilities are nothing short of a dorm. well, really, it’s quite short of a dorm. it’s a renovated middle school and the guys dorm is the floor of the old library. the floor is a patchwork of plastic covered mattresses, when i say patchwork i mean 54 of them. what’s even cooler is that we’re the first volunteers to stay in this facility, a youth group of 30 is coming in tonight, and another youth group of 55 is coming in tomorrow. it’s like being at camp again only now I’m way older and way gayer. there’s junior high boys running around playing hackey sack in the hallways and the bathroom stall doors don’t have locks on them. the showers are communal and they’re in a detached building behind the main middle school. i think this is going to be a really cool experience.

we stopped by the church today to do an opening session of camp noah with some kids and their parents – we have our official start to the camp noah week tomorrow morning. the parents looked tired and the kids looked hungry for fun and attention. the church had just this day rededicated their sanctuary, it’s roof was torn off during hurricane rita. it’s really different down here – everything seems so rural and “back woodsie.” and i mean that in a completely non derogatory way, it’s just that things are so different from the cosmopolitan twin cities area. it’s a completely different world down here.

well, it’s quarter-till 11 now and i’m exhausted. we have to make a 25 minute trek tomorrow to the church to be there by 7:30 for the beginning of camp noah day one. it’s time for bed.

till tomorrow…

No comments:

Post a Comment