SGHM

Saturday:

I woke up on Saturday morning to a beautiful sunny day. It was about 80 degrees out and the sun was a bit hazy that morning. I knew that Eddie and the team were going to pick me up that afternoon, so I wanted to head out and shop a bit. Mostly window shop. I went down to a gumbo shop, hoping to have some Gumbo, but they were actually out of Gumbo, can you imagine? I did have a delicious meal, called the Jonathan Benedict. It had fried shrimp and a slice of tomatoes underneath the egg. So delicious. It was so good and tasty that I had to take a picture of it. The waitresses were part of the meal. We sat right by the kitchen. The waitresses had known each other for a really long time and were complaining, gossiping, commenting, on every little event happening in that room. I could hear her pass by me and as she noticed my iced tea was running low; lil phrases would come out of her raspy voice, 'sugar child needs more tea'. 'Gonna go check on pumpkin' 'hope sugar is doing ok' so precious. I got a few good photographs of them too.

I came back to the hotel and took a little nap because I knew that the team was going to take me on a tour. So we began to head out and see the outskirts of the town. We went out from the quarter and went down Decatur out to east outskirts of New Orleans. We saw the area where they held Jazz Fest. Saw the HS that Eddie went to. We saw the home that SGHM will be working on. We saw the area where Eddie went to college. We drove all over town and then soon went over the Lake and into Slidell. We drove up to the church, and I saw the cute chapel and Relief Center. It was so familiar because of seeing it all in the photographs and DVD I helped put together. But it was so nice to see it for my own eyes. They've done so much work to the entire church and they've all done it with their very own hands. I saw everyone's bedroom and everyone's area of ministry. The chapel is so cute and comfy. It has a great amount of space and the opportunity for growth in that ministry is incredible. I saw the Relief Center and the cabins that they are building and there is a great potential for so much more of their dreams to come true even for the rest of this year.

Laura, Eddie, Steve, and I sat at the church and just talked about all the cool stuff that the community is doing. Had some good talks about worship music, sermons, life. And then we went over to the Exposito house for dinner. Immediately, Elizabeth came to the front door. It was so good to see her. Then I was immediately followed up by Carlyn, Jean-Marie, and Ruby. Out of respect everyone is addressed as Mr. or Miss. So the girls kept calling me Miss Liz. It made me feel kind of old for a second. But then I thought about how much respect I use to have for my elementary school teachers. Mrs.MaKay and Mrs. Sturken, and Mrs. Garcia and it felt really good to be put in that category. They were all sharing the stories of their life with me. They were having a hard time taking turns. So for the most part they were each telling me the stories of their lives. Instantly they like me. Instantly I loved them. Eddie brought me a daiquiri and we all ended up hanging out and having a really great time. Michelle was busy working in the kitchen. Eddie took a few moments with Elizabeth to rest in front of the television.

Michelle made a great dinner. We had great conversation. Had lots of fun giggles. And we just had a great time. We watched TV together and got to know one another. I really want to get to know Michelle more. I think there is probably a lot that is very similar between us. And I would love to go on a spa day or something with Michelle. She's a great mom and fantastic woman. Her facial expressions alone say 1000 words. Laura came to pick me up at the Exposito's, and we drove back to New Orleans and relaxed in my comfy hotel. Only to wake up at 6:45 in the morning to head out to church in Slidell. Did I mention that we went to bed around 2:30AM?


 

Sunday:

So I took a little nap on the back sofa in the chapel. Mr.Dave soon came to sit with us and Laura T did too. All the kids came in and all said hello to me. Out of respect and excitement to see a new person at the church. We started with a great time in worship and a great time of prayer. Laura H plays the flute and takes us into a sacred time of worship. Eddie gave a great message about alcohol and the use of it in our lives. Charles got up and played the guitar and sang a great deep song. I don't see Charles smile a whole bunch, but when he was singing he smiled the whole time. Every time I got near to him to take a photograph he just laughed and giggled. His wife Ashley is so pretty. Just gorgeous. She's the kind of pretty that doesn't brag about her pretty. She's the kind of pretty that just glows in stillness and that electrifies in the calm.

Eddie wanted to take me to their local taqueria. It's called Taco Loco. I ordered the flautas. I figured you couldn't go wrong with them. I sat with Eddie, Laura T, Laura H. We all had a little something different. The server looked exactly like fish face, but I didn't know that at first. He had bright orange hair and eyebrows, but darker/olive latin skin. I couldn't figure out if he was a white man with a good tan or a Hispanic man with bleached hair. The more I looked at him the more I realized that he was Hispanic and it was a delight to speak Spanish with someone. There are not a lot of Spanish speaking people in New Orleans. Actually I take that back. I know there are Spanish speaking people in New Orleans, I just don't think it's as apparent as the SF Bay Area.

The food was delicious. The guacamole was a canned or packaged version. But the rice and beans were really delicious. The refried beans gave me a sense of canned ones, but I think they were real ones.

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