Frenchman Street and Lakeview Presbyterian Church

The past two days in New Orleans have been fantastic. Getting to know the city has been overwhelming and exciting in the best way. Last night all the girls in the house and our site coordinator went to bar off Frenchman street called d.b.a and watched John Boutte perform. A surreal experience! He is an amazing jazz musician and none of us could keep from dancing. Afterwards we hit up Cafe du Monde for some delicious beignets! For those of you who might not know what a beignet is - it's similar to a funnel cake. Fried dough covered in powdered sugar, you can't go wrong!

Me, my housemates and site coordinator enjoying beignets and good company!

How amazing do these delicious beignets from Cafe du Monde look?

Today we all woke up early and went to Youth Sunday at Lakeview Presbyterian Church. It was a great first Sunday to experience there because the youth had just returned from a trip to Montreat and had many stories to share of their time there. The church itself was beautiful and its congregation was extremely welcoming and eager to get to know us. I feel very fortunate to already have a feeling of community with both the girls in my house and the church. I look forward to both of these relationships growing over my time here.

The outside of Lakeview Presbyterian Church 

The inside of Lakeview Presbyterian Church

After church, our crew went Parkway Bakery to get poor boys (also known as po' boys) a New Orleans classic. The bakery is proud of its history and it's written on the back of their menu. There is so much culture here so I'd like to share with you a snippet of their origin:

"Parkway Bakery and Tavern has been a neighborhood landmark since it opened in 1911. German baker Charles Goering, Sr. ran Parkway Bakery until 1922 when Henry Timothy, Sr. purchased it, with the intent of continuing to run it as the neighborhood bake shop. Over the next seven years, he became known for making delicious fresh breads, donuts, and his famous Seven Sisters sweet rolls. In 1929 he added the recently invented “Poor Boy” sandwich to feed the workers at the American Can Company. 

Today, Parkway Bakery and Tavern is a New Orleans staple. With help from his wife, three sisters, two nephews, one niece and over 40 employees, Jay Nix continues the 100 year old tradition of a family owned and operated business serving comfort food and drink. With twenty five different poor boys, a full bar, and Barqs root beer in glass bottles, Parkway Bakery and Tavern is surely backing up its reputation as the oldest, tastiest poor boys anywhere."

A roast beef and friend shrimp po' boy with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo.

After our delicious meal we returned to Lakeview Presbyterian Church and helped out with back to school games and activities with the children of the church. We hula-hooped, did sack and three legged races and ended with delicious make your own sundaes. The kids were extremely enthusiastic and it was a fun way to get to know more members of the congregation. I also discovered that I am terrible at hula hooping but hey you can't be good at everything!

Tomorrow we leave for orientation in Stony Point, NY. I am sad to already leave New Orleans - I feel like I have just begun exploring! I look forward to meeting other YAVs and getting to know more about the program. My next post will take place after orientation and highlight all the fun things that I hope to learn there. 

Lesson from the Journey: Take caution when eating beignets because inhaling powdered sugar is extremely painful.