I've got to finish this up before the next time we head there!!

Friday was the last day we were in New Orleans, and it was, yet again, pretty emotionally charged. We woke up late--around 9:30, and the house was already kind of buzzing. It was downpouring (the first time the weather hadn't been 70 and sunny the entire week) so we weren't sure if we were going to be able to work, which really upset us. Then a rumor started going around that Father Tim thought the house wasn't stable enough to have us go, just because a few people had fallen through the floors.

Matt Adams and Mandi organized a group meeting and everyone sat down at the table and discussed how we didn't actually want to leave New Orleans. We figured we could work all day Friday (when the rain cleared up, which it promptly did) and then head out on Saturday. We all wanted to go finish up the house. But then they dropped the big ball on us--they didn't think it was safe, and they thought the house would probably have to be torn down. Eventually we decided that a smaller group of people would go and finish cleaning up while others got ready to go. Some of the people who had only been at the house for one day stayed to clean up our house. I stayed because I thought I'd give my spot to someone who really really needed to go back. I would have probably just been pulling nails if I'd gone back. Some people said they needed to go back to get closure from the house (before it was torn down!?! or condemned??) but I was alright. Rumor has it that the houses needed to be gutted anyway before they could be looked at, so we helped that way, right? No one could have known for sure that the wood was so rotted through that it would need to be torn down...not even Father Tim. He felt bad afterwards. Maybe they won't tear down the house. Who knows?

Father Tim, John, and I went to the biggest Target I have ever seen in my entire life to get lunch and car supplies. It had two floors! And an escalator for carts!!

We went back to the house and made lunches, packed, and got ready to go. When everyone returned we ate and hung out for alittle while before we got into the cars for the 26 hour car ride home. The car ride home was a lot more fun than the ride there. We played "I went around the world", which was very difficult. We reflected on the trip. Ryan and Alexei were paired up and talked as Lester and Skeeter for four wonderful hours about how life is better on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line. We stopped at the Waffle House and Hardees. We're having a meeting on Saturday to get together and discuss what we're going to do from here, and that's pretty much the story.

I'm going to write up my other post for Father Tim now.