see you tomorrow!

Reflection Day! And there were many. This evening we all gathered to share our thoughts on the week's experiences, but more on that in a bit.
To catch up on what has been going on, or what has continued to go on: the group working in the Lower Ninth Ward cleared clear to the end of Forestall St. today, which means that we've cleared a total of ten blocks and helped in between 75 and 100 families!
This afternoon we came back feeling accomplished and bit pooped. After the big packing to-do we gathered in the sanctuary to share some of our mixed feelings from the week. Several recent graduates noted how they had not particularly been looking forward to spending a week of summer with their "old school," in the words of Joe Shapiro, and then felt a certain amount of pride for the community which they were leaving. Kiln veterans couldn't help but compare the experiences of this trip to last years adventures, often missing the personal connections that our work in Kiln offered but marveling at the shear amount of work that we accomplished this time around. Going back to Mississippi reminded us that progress was being made and people do seem to come back eventually. Seeing newly-built houses there and hearing about houses soon to be built in the Lower Ninth Ward reminded us that eventually the community would come back even when our work sometimes seemed to be about managing damage rather than about bringing life back to a neighborhood. There were thanks all around- to the group for working together so well, to David for leading us so well, to John and Marco for daily frozen treats. A big take-away was that the work was not only important for what the work was but for the gesture of caring and remembrance of New Orleans. A few people even hoped that after this trip they will not look so far, necessarily, for a service experience but will try to reach out into their own communities.
Finally we need to send a big thank you to David Rost for being our amazing leader. We all missed him in our last few days here (but maybe not his musical morning wake-up).


And now (drumroll please...) some pictures from the week.

Here are some from Forstall Street in the Lower Ninth Ward (the street we cleared the entirety of in the last five days):











ICE CREAM!



(And here are the after shots!!)





These are a couple from Wednesday night, visiting Rick in Kiln, MS:




and lastly, some of our lovely friends here at Annunciation!



So that's about it! Hope you've enjoyed looking at pictures and hearing our little quips and anecdotes about our time here in New Orleans.

See you tomorrow!!!

-Molly, Sierra, Grady, and Sandy
(P.S. huge thanks to Robin for all of these pictures!)