Twende Bluluu!

We woke up gradually, without setting any alarms, since we didn't have a specific time to leave or arrive in NOLA (except for check-out, I suppose). We ended up leaving around 10:45ish, and drove from Memphis to New Orleans, with a quick Subway/gas stop in between. Some of us were really shocked to see how flooded some areas were, especially around the Mississippi River. As we got into New Orleans (finally!), we drove over a bridge/raised highway that was really cool and swampy. The drive, as we'd hoped in our last post, was pretty uneventful.

After getting over the cool bridge, we saw a lot of palm trees and got kind of excited because we knew we were getting close! We managed to avoid getting lost, despite having three sets of very different directions, ultimately trusting the TomTom. Seconds after we arrived at the church we're staying at, before all of us even got out of the van, we saw a trolly come down the middle of the road and decided we had no choice but to take it wherever it goes at some point during our trip.

Pastor John gave us the grand tour, along with some pretty interesting details about the church (like the division of various religious sects in NOLA before the Civil War, finally rejoining right before WWII). The church is gorgeous, and both the kitchen and bunkroom are huge! Also, we are all really excited that there are enough showers for all of the girls to take showers at the same time, which will save us plenty of time getting ready.

Pastor John told us more about the trolly, and directed us to the nearest Winn Dixie and Starbucks for groceries and WIFI to post this blog. We expect to be back each night (or every other night-ish) to add to the blog.

And Keegan just asked some strangers about the origins of "Who Dat," receiving some pretty interesting backstory (I'll let you look it up yourself, if you're interested!).

Also, we learned from Pastor John, a Swahili professor at Tulane University - he accepted the position after Hurricane Katrina claimed the life of the previous Swahili professor - how to say "Go Blue" in Swahili!

Twende Bluluu!

Love and Jambalaya,

The PNOLA Team