We made it!

As apparently the only "morning" person on this trip, (besides for Triny:-) I am doing a quick little update while everyone sleeps in. However, after our day yesterday they all well deserve it!

After a pretty chaotic EARLY morning we made it to Bradley and caught our relatively painless flight(besides for Julie's poor ears) to Ohio and then NOLA. Thanks again to my Mom, Dad and Megan's fiance Michael for bringing us. We are all thankful that we even made it out of Connecticut- from what we hear the weather is absolutely awful. (FYI- It is 70 and sunny here!) Hopefully the Hillel group was able to make it out this morning.

We arrived in New Orleans around 10am, rented our cars and spent the day settling into Camp Restore and exploring the surrounding town (East New Orleans). Camp Restore is adorable- we are so lucky to have found such an inspirational and accommodating place. Besides the short term volunteers like us (there are going to be 150 here this week alone) there are many people who have permanently moved here and reside in the back in their trailers. Their commitment does not go unwarranted however- even though there has been obvious growth we all could not help but notice how many businesses and homes still boarded up close to 5 years post-hurricane. I'm sure as our week progresses we will continue to see the devastation still present.

After exploring and trips to Winn Dixie and Walmart (a story which I won't even go into) we freshened up and spent the evening down in the French Quarters/Bourbon Street. Today we plan to do more sightseeing, hopefully make it down to the 9th ward area (where the hurricane hit the hardest) and more of the city. Tomorrow morning starts orientation and work!

More to come...

P.S.- Staci- you are missed and we all hope you are resting up and feeling better!