I'm writing this from my parents house!  We made it home safely and on time despite the storm in the northeast  - Wales wasn't so fortunate, or unfortunate perhaps, because they are stuck in London with hotels until Monday.  I'm still tired - our flight left New Orleans at 7:15, so we got up at 4:30 yesterday.  After going to bed at 12:30 - that didn't lead to enough sleep.  But we had lots of fun during our 3 hour Atlanta layover, and I bet we all slept well last night.

It was hard to leave.  A lot of us felt ready and able to take a weekend off and then come back to working.  It feels good to work with your hands - and you can see your accomplishments immediately.  It was also hard to leave a city that so obviously needs a lot more help.  Several people told me that parts of New Orleans would look more like a third world country, and they were right.  I think.  I;m basing this on pictures of third world countries...  Finally, most of us were in love with New Orleans by the time we left.  I don't know how to explain it, but it's a great city.  

So now, I am in the process of uploading the pictures I took, and sorting them.  I;m hoping to put them up on the internet this week. Thanks to everyone who supported me in many ways for this - it was wonderful.  Please tell people that you know that New Orleans still needs help - and while I didn't see it - I think the whole Gulf Coast does.  I know some guys from evans spent this week in Biloxi so maybe I can get info from them.  Anyways, pictures coming soon (and some of them are funny!).

This may come as a surprise, but today we gutted houses again!  We actually did two.  The first had been started by another group who seemed to have much madness and little method - they had done a little bit of everything (clearing it out, taking out trim, gutting, and sweeping) but hadn't finished any of it.  We finished it in the morning and then went to a house in Gentilly where we pulled up the floors - mostly hardwood.  I never realized how much wood went into doing hardwood floors until I saw it all piled at the curb.... So that went well.  We didn't get lost.  And we checked with Rebecca, and the one of us (not me!!) who feel through a ceiling yesterday (she was fine) didn't need a tetanus shot.  This is a good thing, because it's somewthing like a 6 hour wait in the ER. There aren't enough doctors.

We realized we've gotten a good tour of New Orleans.  The first house we did was in St. Bernard Parish, which flooded - I want to say 98% of it, or something.  The waters were over 8 feet, maybe 12.  The second house was in the Lower 9th Ward, the third was in New Orleans East (I don't know how much that flooded) and the last was in Gentilly, which also flooded a good 8 feet.

The two houses we did today were in neighborhoods which are definitely coming back - that was nice.  The second home belonged to an older couple who are planning to rebuild and who are currently living in a FEMA trailer in their front yard.  It was nice to see people who are rebuolding, and not neighborhoods which are abandoned.  Especially because they are contemplated turning abandoned neighborhoods into greenspace, so if only one or two people move back in, they may relocate the people and turn the neighborhood into a park.  Makes moving back risky unless yo uknow what your neighbors are doing.

The weird thing was there was a lot of water int he street in Gentilly, probably from last night's storm.  But it wasn't THAT much rain.  I didn't understand the big puddles.

We've been learning a lot. I knew next to nothing about NO before we came but it's so much fun - I even like Cajun music.  I didn't realize the mix of people that populated NO over the years - the French, but also Spanish, and Irish and Italians along with the africans and creoles.  The Irish apparently made the canals and died a lot in the process. I;ve also learned a lot about how important wetlands are (90 miles of wetlands would have nearly eliminated Katrina's storm surge!) 

Tonight we're going to a community dinner at a local church, and then hopefully going on a haunted tour of downtown, or maybe Zydeco night at the bowling alley.  If I figure out what zydeco is, I;ll let you know.  

Oh, and Mom - I saw something in the Times-Picayune about the levee pumps but have not gotten to read it yet.  I left the paper in the van in our mad dash for the showed, but I'll make sure to bring it home if it says anything important.

I was supposed to go out on the mobile medical unit today, but the doctors decided that the weather was going to be too awful and so they didn't go out.  I thus got a tour of the ninth ward, and then met my group at the house they were gutting, only I wasn't exactly wearing work clothes, which is too bad.  We tore out a LOT of in sulation and are all itchy.  The house was two stories, plus an attic, and huge.  It was sad because they had just remodeled the house right before Katrina.  This house was in the lower ninth ward right next to the industrial canal, which had the levee break, and it was only a little ways from where the barge landed on the houses.

By the way, it rained about two drops.  But my tour of the ninth ward with 6 deacons and Paul was interesting.

Tonight we're hoping to go to Cafe du Monde in the French quarter and get beignets.

We went to tbe bayou, except it turned out to be a lake by a hotel.  Then, we asked a cop where we could go, and he gave us directions to Lake Ponchatrain.  We were walking along the levee when a cop pulled up, flashed his lights, and started shining the spotlight and yelling through the megaphone.

Turns out, there was a barricade (not a good one) and the entire area is closed off at night.  Scary a little?  I think so.  Anyways, Glen explained, and then the cop pulled up to our car (we had already piled in) and Amanda apologized.  Then, the cop just said, no problem - thank you for being here!  We pulled away thinking that was probably a once in a lifetime experience.