L2 - Day 1

It’s COLD in New Orleans!

Thank goodness for kerosene powered heaters.

One advantage of traveling on Saturday is that we were able to worship with the people of First Union Presbyterian Church which is where we are staying. It was this congregation’s commitment to get involved in post-Katrina recovery that eventually lead them to partner with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) and the formation of “Camp FISH” into being.

After worship and a quick lunch, we headed off for a tour of New Orleans. We were guided by the current Village Manager, Charles MacDonald. Charles is a Canadian who first came down to the Gulf with his home church in Ontario and subsequently volunteered to do a three month stint here in Luling. We made our way through the Garden District which gave us a taste of pre-Katrina New Orleans. Beautiful live oak trees, manicured gardens and GRAND homes. A few miles and a few turns brought us to the Ninth Ward and to the reality of post-Katrina life for thousands upon thousands of folk. It was interesting to contrast the reaction of those getting their first look at devastation as far as the eye can see with David’s reaction of the progress that has been made since August. Don’t get it wrong, it is still a mess, but much debris has been removed. Most street have street signs again. There are far fewer wrecked home littering the landscape. Then we made our way up Elysian Fields towards the Lake and a visit to the house that the Louisiana I group worked on. (Don’t tell Emily, but the front yard could use her weed-whacker again!) Other than that it looked pretty much the same – which is good and bad. It gave this group a sense of what they are in for beginning tomorrow when we leave camp at 6:45 a.m.

Our Sunday traveling trio made it safely down. And the best news of the day is that Spearman’s underwear and Claudia’s makeup, which didn’t make it off of yesterday’s flight, arrived on today’s.

Tomorrow the work begins. Keep us in your prayers.