Café
Evenings are more or less free time, although you can't go do
anything by yourself---the leaders are really worried about safety of
the participants. I'm increasingly of the opinion that New Orleans is
pretty much like any other city, with good areas and bad areas and if
you have a sensible head on your shoulders you'll be fine. But, there
is some wisdom in making observation of the fact that many college
freshman don't have a sensible head on their shoulders, so the
buddy policy is probably a good one. :)
SO anyway, there's a bit of work at cobbling together groups to go
places. Last night, I joined a group that was a mix of people going to
an internet café to blog and people going to an internet café to drink
coffee and people going to visit their friend in New Orleans, who lived
near an internet café. Unfortunately, as we arrived at Café Flora we
discovered that their wireless was down, so we got to sit around some
really good cappucino and chat for an hour or so.
Then, when I got back, there was some agitation for a card game, and
we had five players, so I taught them King-Peasant. They seemed to like
it!
Posted
by blahedo
at 4:50pm
on 6 Dec 2006
I wonder about the doors. There has been a lot of wood that looked ok and when I handled it, my hands burned and itched. I wonder if there really is paint that can block the fungus. Fungus is so hard to kill and so hard to stop. At the same time, I wonder if the doors are not ok, then why are the studs of the house ok? Will they be painted with special paint to prevent mold bloom in the walls on the first humid day after the plaster goes up?
And I must say, I think the students are dead wrong about shooing away the garbage pickers. If the stuff is to go, then all the better if it stays in the neighborhood and gets some actual use. I have many times set large or potentially useful to someone items out where garbage pickers would look, in hopes that someone would get some good out of them. Once Vernon talked to the garbage pickers and found they were a family moving in after a fire. The had almost nothing left. On top of the discards they took, I gave them a perfectly good dining room table that I hated (Vernon picked it out) and some other stuff too that I did not need (mainly dishes as I recall)and had not gotten around to discarding. They gladly took the table and the other stuff.
I seem to recall a Dinette Set where the usual characters were expressing attitudes consistent with the students' attitudes. I don't see how it is more respectful to dump stuff than for it to find use.
