Volunteering in New Orleans

Today was one of those great teaching days.  I was supervising half the students at a work site in the ninth ward.  Every student was working at something he had never done before and they were all doing professional grade work.  Of course their speed was not up to pro standards, but they were all using their tools well, paying attention to details, and problem solving as they went.  The ceramic tile, floating flooring and the trim work all looked great.

One of our work sites on MLK Boulevard reminds me of those post apocalypse movies.  If you look down the side street, you see abandoned buildings, overgrown empty lots and trash.  People walk through the overgrowth looking for something to salvage.  We see a man wearing a child's pink backpack as he searches and another man rides by on a child's bicycle.  I have never seen a place where the rich live so closely to the very poor.