Today we had a free day before starting work. Since a lot of us hadn't been to New Orleans before, we took a tour of the area after a nice breakfast at a café down the street.
Our tour guide, Candace, took us to the 9th Ward to see the damage that still remained from hurricane Katrina, the work that's been done to improve the area, and the work that's even still being done there. We saw a memorial there, as well, in honor of the people that came to help after the hurricane. The main project going on in the 9th Ward was and still is "Make it Right," the program that Brad Pitt started shortly after the hurricane hit.
We also visited a canal that caused additional flooding problems for the city. This one was only a few minutes away from our home church. Candace says these levees are designed as an "I" shape, not an upside-down "T" shape, so they aren't as strong as they should be.
We spent the rest of the day visiting the French Quarter and exploring the city on our own. Some of our group visited the city's museum which was largely about the hurricane and what it was like. Others in the group visited a cathedral. We also saw some pretty cool street performances and later in the night, met up with the other ASB New Orleans trip for dinner! We ate at Snug Harbor and many of us enjoyed some authentic New Orleans seafood - yum.
After an interesting walk up and down Bourbon Street, we headed back for the night.
But not before enjoying some ice cream!
But then we did go back to sleep. We have to leave at 8:30 in the morning to start work on houses! We'll be working with Beacon of Hope and St. Bernard for the next few days.
That's all for now... much love,
ASB NO 1
p.s... a map of what we did today :)
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