new orleans

I haven’t flown during a busy holiday season for a while… forgot all about the coughing, sneezing and sniffling that tends to eventually blend into the chorus of babies crying, three year olds screeching and the endless drone of video games turned up way too loud. Did I mention the cute little seven year old whose feet were digging into the back of my seat?

It was freezing cold in the Dallas airport. So I am now sporting a stylin’ orange and gray Longhorn sweatshirt. A couple of people with Texas accents approached me to ask what I thought of the end of that game yesterday. Unfortunately, I was clueless.

Aw, what the heck… hook ‘em, Horns!

I cruised into Slidell with the “Ragin’ Cajun” blaring on the radio of my rental car and tried in vain to find something beautiful on, near, or kind of near the highway.


Everything still looks really torn apart. The trees are dead and twisted. Signs are mangled. Many, many homes along the way are still heavily damaged or just completely destroyed.

In the converted warehouse that is now our home, I’m in bunk #18, next to a woman named Amy from Atlanta. The food tent is in the parking lot, and the showers are a few steps past that. We’ll be up bright and early tomorrow morning to begin our assignment. Believe it or not, this is all very exciting for me!

For those of you who come to this blog to read about Africa, please bear with me for a few days.

There is no way I could ever be doing any of this (Poland, Uganda, Louisana) without the encouragement and support (emotional and logistical) from my unbelievably wonderful husband, Eddie. (Those of you who know the guy know that I am not exaggerating about the unbelievably wonderful part).