2008 Service Trip to New Orleans

It’s about 9:40 a.m. and we are very lost trying to get to St. Bernard’s Community Center, but thanks to the city-wide internet we are able to blog from the car! The irony that we are blogging with city-wide Internet and driving past boarded-up houses resonates very deeply with the group and reminds us why we came here. We have been told that much progress has been made, but there is clearly still a lot of work to be done. It is quite amazing as we drive towards the St. Bernard’s Community Center that we are passing seamlessly through neighborhoods with huge new houses and immediately into neighborhoods with houses still falling apart and streets closed off where families no longer live.We are now waiting in the line to take the ferry across the levee and it’s hard to imagine that these streets and houses around us must have been completely under water during Katrina. So far, it has been great getting to know the city, and now, we are all very excited to do the work that we came down to do.(The people in this group includes Evan Raleigh, Matt Higgins, Katie Gomez, Katharine Wesley, Devin Cowens, Amy Bachman, Andrea Davis. The others are helping clean the City Park.)

So it’s 1:41 a.m. and we are finally here. Let me say, today has been rather interesting. We left this morning at 5:54 a.m. and I slept until we reached Hogansville, Georgia. I was supposed to be the navigator helping the driver, but I didn’t do too well at that task. We left Hogansville and once again I slept until we reached Mobile, Alabama. During our stop in Alabama I was informed that I missed the snow in Atlanta and all of the other beautiful scenery. After our pit-stop in Mobile, I took my turn in the drivers seat and drove until we reached New Orleans. The drive into New Orleans made me a bit nervous because we drove for several miles on a bridge surrounded by nothing but water. I wanted to close my eyes but unfortunately I was driving.Once inside the city limits we became a little lost but after about an hour of touring New Orleans, we finally found what will be our home for the week. We didn’t have much time to look at our place , but we did claim our air mattresses. From there we were off to dinner. During dinner we learned about the different schools in attendance and about what we will be doing during the week.Now we are at home and although I have slept the entire day, I am extremely tired.