2011-Year 5

We’re back! A year has passed and Gann is once again in New Orleans on a service trip. This year we are once again teaming up with lowernine.org and St. Bernard Project. After meeting at the airport bright and early today, we had an easy travel experience with JetBlue and Enterprise. And what do you know, Danny Ainge, of the Boston Celtics, was there “waiting to greet us”. Ainge was nice enough to take a group picture!
We loaded up the vans and headed out to learn a little more about the city. The group took a short driving tour of the area and was able to see the how the storm affected different areas. We ended in the lower ninth ward where we were able to see just how devastating the flooding was in this area. It is hard to envision though. Where there once was a house is now an empty lot of grass with a rectangular concrete base.

What once was neighborhoods filled with houses now looks like a housing development just getting started- a housing development though that does not build at anywhere near the pace that we are used to seeing in the New England suburbs.

We also got to spend some time at the levees of the industrial canal that burst open destroying the area. We will have an opportunity to learn more about the levees later in the week.

Now it is time to transition into Shabbat. We are excited to spend the weekend with Shir Chadash. They are a beautiful community and have opened their doors to volunteers. While we won’t stay at their synagogue the entire week, the work that they are doing has made it easier for Jewish organizations to volunteer in the area.

Shabbat Shalom