I have decided to post my journal entries from our New Orleans trip. It was a great week with my students. Times like these always make a deep impression on our lives.
New Orleans Day 1
We met and left at 8:30am. Travel was smooth – we made a stop in Montgomery to pick up 3 more students – cutting short their vacation to sweat with us in New Orleans. I love the fact they were willing to do that. The trip participants this year are Kenneth, Zach, Chris, Jacob, Devon, Jessi, Erica, Chelsey, Tiffany S., Destinee, and Tiffany G. 12 total. Once we hit Mobile, the travel became tiring and tedious. We hit traffic coming home from the 4th of July weekend at the beach. As our trip tradition – we stopped at the state lines for pictures.
Arriving in New Orleans for the second time kind of felt like a missional homecoming for all of us. We were able to reflect on last year, see how things had changed and progressed, and dig up the passion and compassion we have for the people here that was established on our last venture here.
We crossed the ferry @ Algiers, and took roads through neighborhoods to get to Aroura United Methodist (our residence for the week). The district that we are in seems pretty well recovered from the disaster – though not completely put back together, it is in working order. The church we are staying at will make a comfortable home for the week – bunk style beds, hot showers, gym for hang out time, cafeteria style kitchen… We also have 2 other groups housed here with us. There are groups from Indiana and New Jersey. It’s a great element for the teens – meeting others outside their race, cultural zone, and denomination.
After an evening of meetings and setting up – it feels like it is going to be a good week. We start work tomorrow with paint brushes and paint. We will be painting the outside of a house that is part of a whole street undergoing renovation.
One of the notable things that happened today was our dinner experience. We chose Bennigan’s. It ended up being a not so wise choice. Needing to be back for a devotional service at 8pm, we figured we had time to get in and out of the restaurant, and save ourselves yet another fast food meal. The restaurant was pretty much empty, so our plan seemed like it would work great… Yeah, it didn’t. We finally got our drinks after a 45 minute wait, and got our food at ten till 8. We were stuffing what we could down, and putting the rest in to go boxes. This wasn’t good for a group of teens with traditionally weak stomachs. Most were feeling it by the time we got back to the church!
In many ways – that’s just life here. Everything is less convenient and efficient than it once was. In the midst of rebuilding, the people have adapted to a new way of living.
We met and left at 8:30am. Travel was smooth – we made a stop in Montgomery to pick up 3 more students – cutting short their vacation to sweat with us in New Orleans. I love the fact they were willing to do that. The trip participants this year are Kenneth, Zach, Chris, Jacob, Devon, Jessi, Erica, Chelsey, Tiffany S., Destinee, and Tiffany G. 12 total. Once we hit Mobile, the travel became tiring and tedious. We hit traffic coming home from the 4th of July weekend at the beach. As our trip tradition – we stopped at the state lines for pictures.
Arriving in New Orleans for the second time kind of felt like a missional homecoming for all of us. We were able to reflect on last year, see how things had changed and progressed, and dig up the passion and compassion we have for the people here that was established on our last venture here.
We crossed the ferry @ Algiers, and took roads through neighborhoods to get to Aroura United Methodist (our residence for the week). The district that we are in seems pretty well recovered from the disaster – though not completely put back together, it is in working order. The church we are staying at will make a comfortable home for the week – bunk style beds, hot showers, gym for hang out time, cafeteria style kitchen… We also have 2 other groups housed here with us. There are groups from Indiana and New Jersey. It’s a great element for the teens – meeting others outside their race, cultural zone, and denomination.
After an evening of meetings and setting up – it feels like it is going to be a good week. We start work tomorrow with paint brushes and paint. We will be painting the outside of a house that is part of a whole street undergoing renovation.
One of the notable things that happened today was our dinner experience. We chose Bennigan’s. It ended up being a not so wise choice. Needing to be back for a devotional service at 8pm, we figured we had time to get in and out of the restaurant, and save ourselves yet another fast food meal. The restaurant was pretty much empty, so our plan seemed like it would work great… Yeah, it didn’t. We finally got our drinks after a 45 minute wait, and got our food at ten till 8. We were stuffing what we could down, and putting the rest in to go boxes. This wasn’t good for a group of teens with traditionally weak stomachs. Most were feeling it by the time we got back to the church!
In many ways – that’s just life here. Everything is less convenient and efficient than it once was. In the midst of rebuilding, the people have adapted to a new way of living.
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