February 20, 2011 - A visit to the Lower 9th Ward Village

It was a ‘Cousin Vinny’ type of night – except for 1 train – I think there were like 5 or more that came through.  It seems like we are always on top of train tracks.

Now, in the very early am, the early morning crew is up pre-6:00 CST.  That means at least Jay and myself, but this am we are joined by Greg L. and we have an early am philosophical discussion about the NYC educational system.  Who would think one has to think this hard this early in the morning?

We’re due in the lower 9^th at 10, so for one morning, the crew can sleep a bit late before the early mornings of the next several days begin.  Also time to check out the Sunday NY Times.

Not even 8:00, Jay, Lance, Charley & Evan are off to the Waffle House leaving Dayle, Josh and Pastor Scott to talk about different branches of Catholicism and Judaism and in which order the WCT kids should visit the area churches.  Heavy stuff!

Lower 9^th was mostly left to the rest of the crew as me and a few others were diverted for reasons that I can’t get into.  By the time I made it there, Mac was holding a reflective session – which we are probably better suited for at the end of the week.  But still to get some pre-week thoughts before we get into the heavy lifting tomorrow was rather interesting.    Will be interesting to compare thoughts with end of the week.  Then we had lunch – and a few hours in New Orleans French Quarter.  Just have to have some Beignets at Café DuMond.  Z.K. couldn’t get enough of them.   A beautiful day in the neighborhood.   A few of us visited a very cool Judaica shop.  Saw a vertical Seder plate.  If not for the price – it would already be on the way home.

Now it’s back to Camp Restore.  Our friends from DFLC are at a 5:00 service, while the rest of us freshen up for a 6:00 dinner.  Dinner was Chicken & Veggies – not too bad.

Just finished putting some photos on FB.  Videos to come?  Who knows.  Kids are all playing in various forms right now, while the adults catch up on the electronics.

We have a bunch of other groups here.  1 group from Canada left in a snowstorm on Friday morning and arrived Saturday night.  There’s a teen group from Weston, MA – seems like they followed us from Camp Coast Care last year.  There’s a SUNY Albany group (who heard of getting President’s week off in college?) – someone actually knows L.S.!  There are others on the way.

Time to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening – the hard work really starts tomorrow, but we got a good start today.