We have now been down here for about two two weeks running the Kitchen at Camp Hope. For those of you who don't know, Camp Hope is the base camp for Habitat for Humanity volunteer who are working on rebuild projects. I am on the dinner shift and work from 12 to 8pm every weekday. The dinner crew is comprised of 4 of my team members and myself. We come in at 12 and plan the meal and then decide what needs to be done when. Dinner starts and 5:30 so we have plenty of time to prepare any meal we decide on, and to take a break or two to relax some. It has been a very laid back project so far and lots of fun cooking with my team mates. Here we are, The Dinner Crew.
My whole team is living in one co-ed room together. Camp Hope used to be a middle school but was devastated by Katrina, so we are essentially living in a classroom filled with bunk beds. I've got a full bunk bed to myself and I share another one for storage. The camp has many facilities such as a small weight room, computer lab, lounge rooms, tv rooms, and a book room so life here is pretty comfortable. The biggest challenge is finding personal space while living in a room with nine other people.
Over all I am loving this project and New Orleans. There are many locals that come for dinner every night and they each have their own amazing Katrina story. It's truly incredible how this devastating storm is now such a defining factor of everyone's life who was affected. The french quarter of down town New Orleans is a very cool and interesting place. We have managed to go down there a few times a week so far and discover someplace new every time. There is a whole lot of culture down here that you don't see anywhere else in the world. Here's a picture of one of the many musical performances going on all the time in New Olreans, you can't escape the music in the air.
