N'awlens

New Orleans is a cool city. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it. And if you go, find a way to invest yourself into a community while you're there, whether painting a house, volunteering at the Ashe Community Center in Central City, or anything else you might find. The people in New Orleans are amazing, and this is a way to truly get to know a few of them.

Becky and I just spent two weeks on "tour" with the high school youth from our church, driving on a school bus to New Orleans and back. The ELCA (Lutheran) National Youth Gathering was in New Orleans, and a big focus of the Gathering this year was service--this involved over 36,000 youth going out and volunteering in the community over the course of three days. Our group ended up at the community center mentioned above, and we got to participate in the ongoing revitalization of the central city neighborhood near downtown.

Speaking of downtown, what a fun city New Orleans is. I have to admit, after Katrina--having never been to New Orleans--I was one of those people thinking, "are we sure we want to rebuild a city that is pretty much built on swampland below sea level in the middle of hurricane territory?" But now, having been there, I realize that besides being completely unrealistic, the idea of not rebuilding is culturally irresponsible. There is so much of worth here. And I'm not talking about Bourbon Street. Proceed there at your own risk (although you will find a lot of good music there if you can handle the rest). The rest of the French Quarter is indicative of the rich history of the city in general. Such a fun place to walk around, and not completely overrun by tourism in the way many of the most beloved parts of American cities have been. And again, the people are amazing. Walk into any shop, any bar, and the people will make you feel like you've lived there your whole life--even if you talk like a Yankee (and a Californian is a Yankee).

More on the trip later - just wanted to say a bit about New Orleans for now.