Hello From Camp Hope!

Greetings lovers!
Well here I am. I am currently writing to you from Camp Hope in St. Bernard's parish. I had a successful plane adventure here and arrived around 9 pm on Friday. Where have I been since then? Well I can't even begin to describe the incredible time that I have had so far. On Friday night I got to experience Bourbon street. A friend of ours from ASB last year currently lives in New Orleans and gave us the official tour. So fantastic. After getting home at 4:45, we woke up the next morning and wondered down to meet my friend from high school, Ryann. She also lives and goes to school in New Orleans. She gave us a heads up that the St. Patrick's Day parade would be in her neighborhood so we figured we would check it out. What she failed to mention was that it would be the best parade I would ever experience. Just so so much fun. It went on for hours. I mean, close to 6 hours, and was just full of beads, flowers, garters and vegetables. Yes, vegetables. Full out cabbages getting launched in the hair. Such a crazy time. Emily and I even made it into the parade for a few minutes. We got slobbered on by a bunch of drunken irishmen, but it was a good time regardless.

Today we've been running around picking up people from airports and the like and taking some time to look around the area. It really is so astounding that a town that is still experiencing so much suffering is capable of having such an amazing outlook on life. It is truly remarkable and speaks to the personalities of the people who live here. We are in the 9th ward which is currently where Brad Pitts foundation is working to rebuild and rebuild green. We got a chance to see those houses that they built as well as buy some really kick ass homemade candy that the kids were selling on the street. Pretty smart kids seeing that we found we weren't the only group of people who stopped to check out what progress was being made. Camp Hope is our home base and is in an old school that has been transformed for volunteers. I'm currently in the computer lab that they have for us to get in contact with the world. It is a packed house this week and the AmeriCorps volunteers are actually staying outside in tents.

What we know for sure is that our work time will be from 2-8. We have about 18 people on our team and we will all be at the same project. So tomorrow at 2 we will venture over to the St. Bernards Foundation and see what our actual project will be!

Thanks again to everyone who donated! If you haven't and you're feeling inspired, the site is a few posts down and there is still plenty of time!