It's Sunday afternoon, 3/30.  Most of us have returned home to the Asheville area.  It was a great trip!  And we highly recommend that others go to New Orleans for a "vacation" -- i.e., a different experience which may be physically taxing at times but is well worth it for the spirit.  You'll definitely be doing, seeing, experiencing, speaking, learning about people and places which you'll remember far longer than most any other vacation!  Talk about renewed energy for life!  It's yours for the volunteering.  And, as a bonus, financially cheaper than most any other vacation you could take!

Just ask any of us:  Anne Bordeau, Russ Bordeau, Benoit Delcourt, Anna Olsen, Clark Olsen, Norris Ohrbach, Bena Shallit, Grace Shahrokh and John Spitzberg.  

Here are photos of locations where we worked, people whose houses we were repairing, park areas we were refurbishing, etc.  Plus moments of jollity and celebration.   The pictures also include many UUs who worked with us and many who stayed with us in the "volunteer" quarters located in the First Unitarian Church of New Orleans.  We nine volunteers from Asheville were joined by others from Chapel Hill, Lancaster PA, Portland OR, and Wisconsin -- a total of about 50 UUs.  

Work assignments are coordinated by a UU Service Committee staff person who serves full-time in the New Orleans office (located in the church), assisted by two Americorps members.  These people work with local New Orleans agencies in identifying the most appropriate projects (homes, parks, animal shelters, etc.) for volunteers to work on each week.

P.S.  Anna and Clark were able to visit the home of someone in the Lower Ninth Ward whose home our UUCA friends and others from the Thomas Jefferson District worked on last August.  She is a young mother who gave up a blossoming career in NYC to return to her roots and family in New Orleans following Katrina.  She greeted us warmly and said she expected to be in her newly-furbished home by the end of April!!  Last summer hers was the only home being refurbished on her block, but there are now four other homes either occupied or well on the way to completion.  All were flooded by about eight feet of water in August 2005.