Day Four- (Colleen)

Today I was able to participate at ARNO (Animal Rescue New Orleans). I also was present yesterday for the first day here; but, today was a much different experience. Thanks to friendliness from my fellow group members and the leaders at ARNO I was able to walk a few dogs today which was the most rewarding part of my day :).

The group mainly worked on cleaning out numerous animal cages and animal supplies and also spent time inside of the Chi-Pom area, both walking them and cleaning their cages or feeding them.

Seeing the cute faces of the animals staring out at you from behind the cages makes you realize that cleaning some not-so-cute-stuff is worth the effort and discomfort completely. Even the barks can't annoy you (which is impressive because chi poms do NOT shut up) because you know they are only a result of the pure excitement of the animals to be free from the cages on a walk in the beautiful New Orleans spring (ha New England :P).

I was so proud of my group here at ARNO today because we worked hard, efficient, and fair making sure that the jobs got done and that everyone took their share of the fun jobs (walking the cuties) and the not-so-fun jobs (you can imagine...). I had tons and tons and tons! of fun here and I happily would have adopted every dog I walked if it were rational or possible to do so.

I also spent some time in the French Quarter today with Hannah, Peter, and Zach. It was extremely fun and I was able to pick up a few presents for family and myself. I had my first beignet! which was essentially fried dough but better. Way better. I felt like I was getting a portion of the "New Orleans experience" though it was the tourist part and not the community that most of us feel is where we belong. It's odd to go from helping people- or animals- who need it and deserve it to entering a location filled with tourists who are most likely not there to help in the recovery of New Orleans. Still I'm glad we were able to have some diverse experience and it was nice to have a sort of break from the hard (sometimes dirty) work.

All in all I'd like to thank everyone from those in the community here at New Orleans, to my family, and most of all to our Nola Service Group for making this trip one of the best experiences in my life so far. Thank you all. I love you all.