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We are off and on our way once again to New Orleans. The flight down is packed, and I hope this is a positive sign for the revival of tourism in New Orleans or at least that more people are headed back to where they call home.
We are flying down with Kew Forest again. David Wise and three of his 11 students are also returning from the March trip. Trinity School left earlier this morning, and we will meet them in New Orleans.
Other good news that Adam Gaynor shared was that John, our bus driver in March, will be working with us again this time around. Angela hopes that he will be able to come to the FAD (Fieldston Awareness Day) in February. Also, instead of gutting houses we will in fact be working on building houses in the Musician's Village in the Upper Ninth Ward this time. I am very excited and hopeful for both the work and to see what progress has been made in the city since our last visit out...more when we land in Louisiana.
New Orleans! We're here.
We went to the Ashe Cultural Center in Central City this afternoon and received a warm welcome from Carole Bebelle. She thanked our group for coming down during the holidays to volunteer and gave us some updates on what changes have taken place since our visit in March. Later, we were treated to an inspired poem by a local New Orleanian.
Later this evening, we were given some time, in small groups, to explore the French Quarter. For Angela and I, the increase in tourist foot traffic was noticeable relative to our visit last spring. This is a good sign.
Tomorrow, we start our day early! I mean early! We expect to be on the worksite by 7: 15am. The students from California finally made it in at about 8:30 pm after several delays in Dallas, and we were happy they all made it safely. It's about 9:15 pm local time and we're all tired from a day of traveling and need to be rested for tomorrow's long day of house construction with Habitat for Humanity!
Posted by ChiaChee Chiu on 12/27/06; 10:17:02 PM
from the dept.
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