Notes from Day 1 (Sunday April 6, 2008)

A bunch of the XL group met at the New Orleans airport at about 1pm and headed toward Camp Hope after jamming massive amounts of luggage into a minivan. The drive was quite interesting with the scenery dramatically changing along the way with varying degrees of devastation. We passed by the Superdome on the highway where hundreds of people huddled waiting for assistance after Katrina passed. While driving to St. Bernard Parish we passed house after house that were no longer someone's home. and were just shells of where a family used to live. So many were so severely damaged that they were uninhabitable. There were missing roofs, windows, doors, siding and in some cases entire walls were gone. It's very sad to see all this and to take notice of all the people who are no longer living in this area. The current population, more than 2 and a half years after Katrina, is 60% less that was it was. There are so many businesses that never rebuilt and many more that just didn't reopen.

We arrived at Camp Hope at about 4pm and met Bruce at the front desk. Bruce is the Assistant Director and has been at Camp Hope for several months as a long term volunteer. He helped check us in as a group, gave a quick orientation and quick tour. As we were checking in there were a few other small groups getting settled. Bruce said that Camp Hope can hold about 800 volunteers and just before Christmas the number of volunteers exceeded that. This week there will be about 180 volunteers staying at Camp Hope with about 50 from AmeriCorps and another 15 are long term Camp Hope volunteers.

After settling in at Camp Hope we took a quick shuttle over to a nonprofit cultural festival with music, food, beer, games and some arts and crafts. They had jumbalaya, gumbo, gator sausage and other local fare. People were dancing and having a good time. We then drove into the French Quarter and walked around Bourbon Street which was quite interesting. The French Quarter was bustling with music, people, lights and other activity. We had dinner at an outdoor eating area with some local jazz musicians playing what sounded like classic New Orleans music. I had chicken and sausage jumbalaya which is a rice based dish. It was very good and a bit spicy. The whole eating experience was very cool and what anticipated such a New Orleans experience would be like. It was a perfect evening to dine out with the temp around a perfect 70 degrees. We met up with a Kathryn and Juliette at the W Hotel. They had lots of goodies for us including t-shirts, backpacks, and other stuff. We had a drink and chatted a bit before heading back to Camp Hope at about 11pm to get some rest.

The first day in New Orleans was eventful and bitter-sweet. This is my first time in New Orleans and I love to see new places with such a rich history. It's just really hard to see what is there along with what probably was with all the devastation and decimated communities.