Saturday adventures in NO

This is my first attempt at blogging from my blackberry.
Lancer mens basketball just won again. Way to go boys!!!

Blogging Thoughts from Mississippi

Here we are in Merridan Mississippi having a bite to eat. It's 8:49 pm Saturday night. Everyone jumped off the bus and headed over to McDonald's.

I decided to go it alone and head down to Arby's. Ahhhhh, some alone time finally. No chatting, giggling, conversations. Just me, myself and I. Time to think quietly. Time to consider the week I just experienced. What follows below are some random. thoughts:

But first I'll tell you how we spent the last 24 hours. Last night we headed back to Bourbon Street to collect some more beads and hear some more of that great jazz music. We finally got some cajun cooking!!! Some of us headed for the Gumbo Shop. We started with some Alligator sausage and some great New Orleans Albita beer and topped it off with some seafood gumbo and cajun rice.

We ran into groups of the students in different areas of the city. Well moms, dads, aunts, uncles and grandparents, I'm proud to report that everyone was very well behaved and a lot of hard earned fun was had by all. True U of W ambassadors all week long. Even some of the Habitat builders joined the students on Bourbon Street.

We headed back for our last night in the Habitat Hilton and I went to bed happy knowing that it would be my last day of having to deal with overflowing toilets and plunging them. Apparently the septic truck comes to the school four times a day to siphon out the waste! The problem got a little worse on Friday as more spring breakers arrived and the population grew to as many as 700.

As a result of the problems with the school conditions, they made the decision this week to halt all further renovations and instead move the operation down the road and demolish this building. I guess the students' hard work on painting the Lancer logo on the wall will soon be destroyed.

After packing up our very messy dorm room and loading it all on the bus, we headed back downtown. We had the pleasure of taking a two hour steam boat cruise down the Mississippi River. The day was picture perfect with sunny skies and a high of 72 degrees! The river bank is largely industrial, but is filled with a rich history which was narrated to us as we moved along.

After disembarking, we moved on to a guided bus tour around the city. More great history and information about the city, a visit to one of the aboveground cemetaries made this a great way to see the city and the areas damaged by Katrina (80 percent of the city).

So after that we got back on Casey's bus and headed out of the city around 6:00 tonight.

Since being here we have seen the best and worst of the city. We've been both tourists and workers. We've been each others' friends, co-workers, problem solvers, coaches and mentors. We've been inspired and inspired others.
I've tried to make it my mission this week to get toi know each of the students and to commit their names to my memory. Since I have a terrible memory for names this has been quite the challenge. As of tonight, when I wasked to the back of the bus and tested myself, I was pleasantly surprised that I remembered 27 out of the 31 names! I'll have them all by tomorrow.

So back to some more thoughts. Although there are literally thousands of people coming to NO each week to help rebuild, and because there is so much to rebuild, it's easy to think that we can't make that much of a difference. However, seeing how fast we were able to work as a team to move a huge and intimidating pile of sand, it confirms that we each can work together to collectively make a difference. Plus, the the people here are so appreciative of our efforts and are always telling us so. One of the greatest ways they showed us they appreciate is when they drove down our build site and honked, waved and shoiuted "thanks". Pretty simple, pretty powerful. So I guees I learned that it's important to always say thanks because it does make people feel good, from the dishwasher to the builder.

Last summer I had the pleasure of visiting my grandfather's hometown in Ireland for two weeks. While there we saw some beautiful scenery, met wonderful people and delighted in the traditional tastes of gourmet food.
In some ways this trip was a huge contrast as you can imagine. But, in other ways it was just as interesting. Before I left, I knew very little about the deep culture and traditins of New Orleans and assumed that this trip had but one purpose to work on helping rebuild. Having had the opportunity to get to know the spirit and resilience of the people of Louisiana has definitely made me realize that I will be back again. At the risk of sounding like a travel agency, even if you never think that you would be able to help with a build project, I would highly recommend getting to know this city.

Well, we are now in Alabama and it's getting late. I think I will try and curl up on this double bus seat and get some sleep. One more night and then I get my bed back. Just imagine how all those people missed their beds.
G'night!