July 6th to 15th, 2007.

Seattle to N’Awlins, West Coast to Gulf Coast.

The Youth Group for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, Washington (USA)(www.ststephens-seattle.org) has gone one mission trips for many years. Last year (”’6) they went to N’Awlins for a post-Katrina hootenanny. Salvage and restoration operations were the focus. This year we  went back…

 We are staying at St. Paul’s Episcopal in the Lakeview District of New Orleans. This is a neighborhood that generated nearly 50% of NO’s tax revenue, according to one of St. Paul’s hosts, Gilbert, yet less than 20% of the population remains.

On the Denver-N.O. flight, I sat next to a guy from the neighborhood we’re working. He said it was the nicest, wealthiest neighborhood in the city and state to be so utterly destroyed, disbanded, and abandoned. It’s grim & ghosty out here, giving the impression of the middle of night actually occurring during the middle of the night.

 The carnage is everywhere, boarded windows, piles of trash, etc.

Crime lingers throughout N’Awlins.

 As does Jazz.

As do many a good hardworking citizen who is trying to build their house back up.