Thursday, March 16th

Okay, so on Wednesday the other team went to go work on this woman's house who is a tour guide for the disaster areas of the city, so she wanted to take our whole team out to the most hit areas of New Orleans so we could see the destruction for what it was. We saw some pretty badly hit houses, we saw the levees that had busted, we saw a huge boat that had made it's way into a neighborhood, we saw the swimming pool of a man who had drowned during the flood because his wife's jewelry, which he wouldn't let go, acted as an anchor to pull him down.

Pictures would tell the best story, so here they are:


This picture was taken from one of the levees, the building on the left is Joe's Crab Shack. No renovation has been done to it whatsoever, even the parking lot is as destroyed as it was right after the hurricane. I'm not sure what the red roofed building was before, maybe someone who was there knows and can help me out?



This neighborhood still doesn't have electricity working yet:

We drove through the 9th Ward. Parts of this area are blocked off to the public, and people are still searching these houses for bodies.

This is the boat I mentioned:

This is the pool where the man drowned with the jewelry:

Once the tour was done, we went back to Larry's and knocked down some more walls and cleaned up. Rob had a conversation with Larry about Christianity. Larry told Rob that he couldn't quite get over the works vs. faith thing, but he said he hoped that would be something he could get over soon. Way to initiate good conversation, Rob, wow!

When we were done we raced home and the girls hit the showers because we had to get ready for our team dinner.

Right about now I want you to prepare yourselves for a story you will never forget.

So I was sitting with Alyssa, Lee, and Adam. We had a $10 per person limit. I had my heart set on a bowl of gumbo - $7.95. Lee had his heart set on bread pudding. He was willing to do whatever it took to get some bread pudding with his meal. Then Alyssa made a discovery! There was this feast thing that was $19.95, where you get gumbo, a main dish, a side dish, and a dessert. She said to us "hey, why don't we just get two of these and split it four ways?" Lee's face lit up and said "now that's an idea! For the two desserts we can get a brownie pie and bread pudding!" I was skeptical. My heart was set on a bowl of gumbo - $7.95. Lee started pretty much just begging us to do this, his heart was set on that bread pudding.

Alyssa was game...Adam and I were much more skeptical...then after much prodding, Adam agreed...at that point I could go no further! Yes! Let's do it!! Lee asked Karl for permission, Karl gave us the go ahead and we went for it.

Then the excitement started to build up, I even was getting excited about this! The waiter came over and I asked him if we played out this scheme would it be more food than if we just each got our own meals. The waiter said "absolutely not, you'd eat much more if you got your own meals"

Then Adam says:
"Let's do it anyway!"

So we did it, and we were all pretty sure that this was a meal we'd be telling our grandchildren about 50-60 years from now.

Then I broke a bottle of hot sauce all over the floor.



I should mention that we had eaten dinner in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was really cool to be there because this area of town did not really get hit by the flooding so it was kind of like being in a pre-Katrina New Orleans. We took a stroll after dinner and this guy was playing music with tuned water glasses. He played Happy Birthday to Krista because it was Krista's BIRTHDAY!!! And he made a really awkward joke toward Jon Dordal that we all laughed really awkwardly at, but all of us were thinking "that is so wrong." I won't repeat it.

Then we went down by the river, and looked at the bridge. I was pretty struck by just how beautiful it all was, but at the same time it was so ugly! There was litter all over the rocks, and just gross stuff all around, but the water was still glistening and there were these beautiful exotic looking plants sprouting from the trees. It was a weird amalgamation, you know? It made me really yearn for when we get to go home, to heaven - when all the crap will be wiped out, and nothing but the good will remain.

We went home, I fell asleep in the car, then when we got home, I walked past Lee with his keyboard. I was stumbling, grumpily, to the bathroom because I was really tired, and he invented this theme song that sounds like I should be skipping to it, joyfully, all the time.

Lee also invented other theme songs this night - Sarah's sounds like it would be in a holocaust movie. Jim's is kinda gangster. Will's is very victorious sounding. Rachel's is....just silence.

Then I went to sleep (but not until Sarah had stuck her face in my sleeping bag to talk to me first. I love this girl.).