| Sup yall,So I just showed up at Anna Malley's place in New Orleans yesterday, and it was a pretty crazy journey to get here.After LA, I went to San Diego to stay with Antonio and Kali.That was a blast.I spent a lot of time drunk in a hot tub, and I met a lot of great people (what's up Heidi?!).After that I went to the Coachella music festival near Palm Springs.That was so much fun.There must have been 100,000 people camped out in a giant tent village.I spent most of the time just in the camp site, but my friend Nora, who worked there, was able to get me in to the concert on the last day.It was pretty fantastic.Anyways, the morning me and Kyle (who I met up with at the festival) were going to leave towards the Grand Canyon, we overheard some people talking about this volunteer group that was going to New Orleans.It turned out that Sean Penn had organized a caravan of buses to take people to Louisiana to do volunteer work.It was an 8 day endeavor, and almost everyone who went joined up with less than 2 days notice.In mine and Kyles' case, it was a few hours notice.We ended up jumping on this bus with 150 other people and doing volunteer work in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana.Sean Penn was just kind of hanging around with us for a while, which was a little surreal.He even camped with us.We also had a few celebrity guest speakers, some of whom ended up staying with us to volunteer their time.Jerry Hannan (the guy who wrote "society" for Into the Wild), Cindy Shehan, and Everlast were some of the people who spoke/played for us.And the comedian Skylar Stone was one of the people who joined from the festival.That guy is funny.We walked in an AIDS march, and an immigration march; we picked up litter, and did a bone marrow doner drive; and then we ended up in New Orleans to do some work in the areas most affected by Katrina.I was part of a group that helped to gut and rebuild a church.Yesterday, me and Kyle left the group as they were heading back to LA. We took a few local buses to get to Loyola college and met with Anna.I think we'll be here for another 4 or 5 days hanging out with her and Laura, and actually getting to do some touristy things here.It's a beautiful city, but also very dangerous.The places we were doing volunteer work, like the 9th Ward and stuff, were the most dangerous seeming places I've ever seen in real life.I wouldn't want to walk around these neighborhoods alone in broad daylight.It felt like a third world country.Some of us took a cab to Bourbon street on our last night together, and we asked the cab driver how he liked New Orleans.He was from Ethiopia, and he said he liked it there before Katrina, but since then, he often feels like he's back home.That really summed up the way things seemed to me, but it was a lot more real hearing it from him.Anyway, I'm doing great, and me and Kyle are meeting lots of great people.I hope you all are well.Love you lots,Chris |
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