alternative spring break in new orleans
i think i’m in love with new orleans.
day 1:
chelsea and i wake up at 4am and make the dark trek to campus with our luggage before the sun rises to meet up with our group. we fly from LAX to dallas, and then from dallas to new orleans. flying makes me sick, but it’s all worth it in the end.
as soon as we get off the airplane, i immediately notice how humid it is in new orleans. after a long drive from the airport, we arrive at camp hope, a volunteer camp for habitat for humanity in violet, louisiana. there are 700 other volunteers staying at camp hope this week, and the sleeping quarters are super crowded.
our room
everything is rationed here. dinner is small and served by americorps volunteers. they tell us to conserve water and energy. the walls of camp hope are filled with the names of the universities volunteer groups are from and inspiring quotes.
a hallway at camp hope
i love the quote in the meeting room
there are no ceilings at the camp, so everything can be heard from one room to another. sleeping isn’t difficult though because we are exhausted from traveling.
day 2:
today is our first work day. we are abruptly woken up at 5:50am. the time change is rough. it is still dark, and we blindly climb out of our cots to get in line for breakfast. while in line, we pack ourselves a sack lunch to eat at our work site (2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and 1 piece of fruit).
on our way to the welcome meeting for all the habitat for humanity volunteers at musician’s village in the upper 9th ward, our van gets desperately lost because a lot of the streets are still unmarked from the storm.
when we finally find musician’s village, i am so excited to see a street full of brightly colored houses habitat has already built for families in new orleans. musician’s village is a habitat for humanity neighborhood that promotes the music culture of new orleans and will have a 40% population of musicians.
some of the brightly colored homes of musician’s village in the upper 9th ward
we get a tour of one of the homes, and the group and i spend most of the morning doing odd jobs like moving dirt and climbing under the houses to level the soil. after lunch, whitney, chelsea, and i learn how to make a stool out of 2×4 wood. i learn how to hammer for the first time. hammering is a lot harder than it looks.
we make our first trip to the french quater for our haunted tour. bourbon street lives up to its stereotype well. tons of alcohol, jazz music, tourism, and partying. i can’t even imagine with mardi gras is like here.
bourbon steet never sleeps.
the haunted tour of the french quater is so interesting. our tour guide leonce gives us a walking tour of the french quater and tells us about the history of new orleans as well as a lot of ghost stories that happened in some of the buildings.
the back of a beautiful cathedral in jackson square where at night the shadow of jesus calls upon the sinners on bourbon st.
leonce is the cutest old man. several cars stop on our tour and shout out that he is the best tour guide in new orleans.
day 3:
i’m getting bitten by mosquitos left and right. everyone else seems to be okay. it doesn’t really make sense.
we work at a site near musician’s village with an americorps volunteer named kelly. next to the new homes that we are building, there are many homes around us which still have not been gutted. the neighborhood seems abandoned because very few families have moved back to new orleans after katrina.
an abandoned neighborhood of upper 9th ward
our group working on a home
at 2:30pm, we immediately go from the camp site to the french quater for a disaster tour. our tour guide tells us his story from katrina, and it was really touching. i can’t even imagine what hell it was after the levees broke. we drove around the entire city. most of the city is still damaged from the storm. the height of the water lines on the homes that were sitting in water for over a month are so high i can’t even believe it. he told us that it will probably take 20-30 years before the city will ever be the same.
a house in the lower 9th ward
the superdome, home of the new orleans saints where reggie bush plays
we drove by a swamp area and learned that the oil refineries in this area is a lot of the reason why the city is sinking.
swamp area of new orleans
the locals are all so supportive of our volunteer efforts. our tour guide joe almost starts crying when he hears that we are in new orleans to spend our spring break helping to build houses.
we explore the french quater more after the tour and visit a local 24 hour cafe called cafe du monde. it is famous for it’s beignets and cafe au lait in which their coffee is brewed with chicory.
one of our nightly visits to cafe du monde
day 4:
we spend the morning at a wherehouse taking apart walls that other volunteers had made for the habitat homes. there seems to be a lot of miscommunication and disorganization between volunteer organizations here. the walls that we take apart did not fit in the homes. it is sad that all the effort put in by other volunteers are now being undone. a storm suddenly hits in the middle of our work, and we are sent back to camp hope
to build bunk beds for the 900 volunteers coming next week.
our group gets together to meet and reflect on the work we have done thus far in new orleans. the meeting ends up being more negative than positive, and we all sort of leave the meeting feeling frustrated.
chelsea takes me out to visit her aunt, uncle, and cousin while our group takes a trip to magazine street. her family gives us a tour of uptown new orleans and the garden district. i get to see some of the most beautiful houses i’ve ever seen. a lot of these southern style mansions were built in the 19th century. we pass by tulane, and i can’t believe how pretty it is. we shop and eat on magazine street and end up running into some of the people in our group. new orleans has some of the cutest boutiques.
day 5:
thursday our group splits up, and we work on two different sites. at lunch, we leave the site on whim in search of milkshakes. we finally find a burger king, and halfway through ordering we realize that we left the house we were working on wide open. we hurry back, and find our leader already back and hard at work.
one of the homes we see while driving around
after work, the group goes on a swamp tour. i decide not to go, and a group of us go to the french quater to explore some more. we visit a cute french market near the mississippi river, and i bargain for a silver fleur di lis pendant.
the mississippi river
rasika, janice, and me in front of the cathedral in jackson square
we eat some local new orelans food at a restaurant for dinner. i love the new orleans culture. the food, music, art.. everything. after dinner we wander around the city a bit and check out some art galleries. i wish i had enough money to buy some of the beautiful art work in new orleans. one day. i promise.
okay, so maybe i’m a little obsessed with the cathedral. but it looks so pretty at night!
day 6:
our last work day. we finally get a chance to help with framing. i spend most of the morning helping some boys from idaho build walls and the afternoon hammering them into the house.
usc habitat for humanity alternative spring break group in front of one of the houses
chelsea, lena, and me in front of a house we built walls for
on our last night, we all go out to eat at a cajun restaurant that has a live band. there is the cutest old man at the restaurant who invites people to dance with him on the dance floor. he was wearing this electronic sign that said “let’s dance!”
janice, whitney, chelsea, lena, and me in front of the cajun restaurant
chelsea and i in the restaurant
after dinner, we went to explore some of the jazz clubs around the french quarter.
one of the jazz clubs on bourbon
as we are walking down bourbon st., the st. patrick’s day celebration had already begun. people throw down green beads from the balconies, and i catch a few to take home.
we get back to camp hope at 1:30 am and decide to make our mark in new orleans by painting a sign for musician’s village and on one of the walls at camp hope.
we left our mark at camp hope
day 7:
we finally get some sleep. but not really since once one person moves, everyone wakes up. after we wake up, we pack up and get ready to fly home. our group meets up on magazine street for brunch, and we get to see the beginning of the st. patrick’s day celebration. green beer, green jello shots, dogs dressed in green. i love it.
a boxer kissing booth. so cute. i had to donate.
we fly back to L.A. in the afternoon. i’m so sad to leave new orleans.
a nice shower, clean bathrooms, and my bed have never felt so good. i miss new orleans though. i will have to visit again!
RAVE// new orleans!
RANT// i’m so bug bitten. it looks like i have chicken pox.
