Whew we made it!

So we finally arrived in N.O. and what a trek it was. Our group of 25 boarded the shuttle on campus at midnight and headed to LAX, flight at 6 am, connector flight at 12pm, lots of airport snoozing in between, then on to enterprise for our vans. Needless to say we were happy to arrive in Louisiana and excited for the trip to begin!

Once we arrived, we went on a "misery tour" and got shown the lower 9th ward, some abandoned projects, and of course the French Quarter...oh ya and Brangelinas little project site (Make it Right Foundation) which was pretty interesting. It's crazy how deserted some areas are; it's like a ghost town and a 3rd world country combined in some areas, but beautiful and lots of spirit, too.

Then it was on to our house to recuperate from a long day of traveling. We are staying in the coolest old house next to a beautiful church, with three really sweet "sisters" that welcomed us with hugs and a home cooked meal. It is called the Duchesne House, and belongs to the Religious of the Sacred Heart Church. Sister Mary Pat, who had worked at Cal Poly and moved to NOLA after Katrina, was our host and she is excited to have a Cal Poly group come to do service work. The house is awesome, much more than I expected, over 100 years old and really welcoming.

As much as we were all anxious to go out and experience NOLA our first night, we all resemble zombie like creatures and decided we should probably take it easy after our hectic day of traveling. So we decided to sleep early tonight, work all day tomorrow at the animal shelter, and then maybe go out exploring. Looks like it is going to be a great trip!