Danielle Sutherland’s Blog

So obviously I’ve been a little preoccupied with the intern missions trip to New Orleans and haven’t posted anything in a while, so I figured its about time for an update. I’m going to be honest, when I heard we were going to New Orleans instead of Vegas I was slightly disappointed. I knew tons of people who had gone to N.O. years ago***(thought stars)how could there possibly be anything worthwhile to do out there, I mean I’m sure everything is pretty much done. They are probably back on their feet and forgetting all about the disaster.*** But as we were getting off the plane the woman behind me stopped me and said that she was a N.O. resident and just wanted to thank us for coming out and doing what we were doing. That was definitely a morale booster. Then as we drove through the residential area to where we would be staying it was obvious that they were not back on their feet. My heart broke as we passed house after house that had been boarded up and spray painted “DO NOT TEAR DOWN”. That night when we got to where we were staying, which was absolutely amazing, we talked to one of the men who worked there and boy did he tell us some stories. He said you could go outside and just see babies floating on top of the water because of their diapers Then once the flooding stopped they would find 6 or 7 dead babies on the curb in front of their house. I cannot even imagine!!! Then on our first work day we drove through the neighborhood we would be working in, it seemed like for every house that was rebuilt there was another ten that were condemned. Some of the these people’s living conditions I really think the people in Uganda would have felt sorry for them. But we worked hard for 4 days. Our group was always the last one to leave for the day, and sometimes the first ones there. But after our hard work was done we have two floors to two different houses to show for it. But needless to say there is still soooooo much work to be done. I am seriously considering making another trip down there, if anyone would like to join me. Well anyways the last 2 days were fun days we got to hang out around N.O. and lets just say its an interesting place. We got about ten steps down Bourbon St. and had to turn around because it was just so nasty. Then there were plenty of street side bands who were actually really really good. So I think thats enough writing for now. I let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

*The group downtown New Orleans on our first night*

*The first thing we saw when driving into the neighborhood we would be working in*

*The house right next to the house we were rebuilding*

*Screwballs from the Ice Cream truck, I know the Sutherland children know what I am talking about!*

*Mmmm crawfish!*

*A little rain (or a lot) didn’t stop us from getting that floor done*

*The girls out on the town*

*The church we stayed at had all their guests sign a shirt…we took it a step farther*

*This is what I would look like if my mother was Carmen San Diego*

This picture needs no caption