God Must Eat Gumbo At Every Meal
My name is Ryan Bird, and I am from a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, which is known far and wide as a paradise on Earth. This blog is a journal of my time with the DukeEngage in NOLA program and my first ever trip to New Orleans, Louisiana.
I love my mom more than anything. She is one of the more amazing people in the world, and I wouldn’t trade her for anyone. She is the best. If, however, she were to at any point decide she wanted to retire from the job and live on a beach in the Caribbean, Anne Leonhard at the New Orleans School of Cooking would be the first person I interview for the vacancy. I had no idea who she was or what she was planning to do when we first entered the building, but I left considering her one of my top 5 favorite people, up in The Pantheon with Bruce Springsteen and Steve Yzerman. Gumbo, crawfish ettouffe, pralines (apparently pronounced “prah-lines” and not “pray-lines,” who knew), and bananas foster were consumed and every bite brought more and more love for this woman. As a bonus she happened to be hilarious, albeit a comment or two of hers might have been slightly racist. Her food made up for whatever political correctness she may have lacked. This was my first real experience with both the people and the food of New Orleans, and after meeting both I knew this program was a good choice.
The culture of this city is astounding, and my favorite part of DukeEngage is that as a group we get to take part in all kinds of activities that allow us to learn about the history and the culture that we are surrounded by. First it was the Gumbo Goddess with her heavenly Cajun dishes, then a variety of tours, led by very memorable guides. The horse-drawn carriage tour through the French Quarter was extremely entertaining because of our hilarious driver. The bus tour of the blighted areas of New Orleans was eye-opening and extremely informative, yet still had an element of comedy because of the tour narrator’s hair. The only possible explanation is he walked into a barbershop and said, “Jon Bon Jovi. Now.” The actual tour was far from comical, however, and getting to see with my own eyes the neighborhoods that I am learning about and the physical homes of people who have been affected by Katrina I felt was extremely important.
Speaking of work, another person who is making a strong run towards my Pantheon of Favorite People is my boss, Lance Hill. Lance is both a super hippie liberal and especially endowed with the gift of gab. I am convinced the man can speak intelligently about any topic, and I look forward every day to learning more about New Orleans from him. Whether he talks about the Neo-Nazi and super wicked KKK politician David Duke (of course he would have to be named Duke and have blue and white as his campaign colors) or whether he asks Lauren Gundrum how easy it is to steal her car, he is always entertaining. He literally talks to us between 1 and 3 hours a day at a shot and I feel like I am learning so much about the city because of him. I love this job, and I’ll explain more about it when I’ve been working for a little while longer.
Finally, this inaugural New Orleans blog post, which I am sure is destined for a Pulitzer, would not be complete without mention of the rest of the Dukies who are here. I’m always a little nervous going into a situation where I don’t know a majority of the people, but I don’t think we could have gotten a better group. Everyone is extremely nice and extremely entertaining. I feel like we all get along pretty well together and are having a great time. Most importantly, nobody has much basketball experience (Danny Mammo) so when I play in the gym what I like to call my wicked-sick-nasty skill doesn’t seem as much outrageous hyperbole or even bold-faced lying. And that makes all the difference. More to come later this week.