Friday Morning 12:30am

So our first update – we’re all here! We survived three delayed/overbooked flights, impending storms, 48 pound bags (in the plural, no less), and Mississippi gas stations, and we couldn’t be happier.

I kicked off my time here with a brief tour of New Orleans, courtesy of our fantastic friend of a friend host, Ben. He worked for and now volunteers for Common Ground, so he took me to their new building in the Ninth Ward. They have a lovely community garden, computers for local residents, a bioremediation project, a legal aide clinic, and I’m not even sure what all else. It’s an impressive organization. Seeing how empty the Ninth Ward still is was kind of amazing. The clean-up continues, but what it has left is empty blocks with one or two isolated houses looking like they’re out on the prairie. Katrina is far from over, that’s clear, although I also heard from Ben and saw at Common Grounds a lot of hope that the Ninth Ward will be fully rebuilt and will become home again for many. Live from the Superdome tomorrow!