The Desperate Need for People to Return and Help

I learned a lot when I was in New Orleans this past week, but one of the things that struck me the most was how much help these people need and how much work still needs to be done almost 4 years after the storm. It was stated that Slidell, LA is about 85% recovered, but the acutal city of New Orleans is only 15% recovered. This information is very sad considering it has been so long since the storm. One of the worst places still is the lower 9th ward. We went on a tour to see what it looked like and it struck us all that some of the houses were still boarded up and had blue tarps on their roofs. We even saw houses that still had markings one them about whether or not anyone was found in the house when it was searched. Here are some pictures to give you some idea of how much help the people on the Gulf Coast still need.

A house that was in better condition than most of them. It was shown to us to give us an idea of what New Orleans used to look like.

A house in the lower 9th ward almost 4 years after the Hurricane

Another house in the lower 9th ward

A house in the lower 9th ward still boarded up

Site Seeing and Hanging Out

Even though we went down to do work, we did get a little time to site see and engage in the culture of New Orleans. One of the awesome things we got to do was take a Steamboat Cruise Tour on the Mississippi River. Then on Thursday night, we went and ate in the French Quarter.

The Steamboat we rode on

A Cathedral in down town New Orleans

A horse drawn carriage that gave people tours of New Orleans

Cafe Du Monde, which is a coffee shop famous for Beignets(French Doughnuts)

The Work We Did

While we were in Slidell, LA we worked on building a house for a woman who completely lost her home. My team was divided into two different groups. One group worked on putting up drywall, mudding, sanding, and fixing screws. My group spent the week putting up siding. We all learned a whole lot doing these jobs because not many of us knew anything about dry walling and putting up siding before the trip. We made a lot of progress and got a lot accomplished. Here are some pictures of the house and work! Enjoy!

The team with the owner of the house.

The house early on

Some of the team members putting up siding

Putting up siding
Hammaring in siding

Spring Break Missions Trip

For Spring Break this year, I went on a missions trip with one of the campus ministries on my campus. We went to New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina relief. Even though it has been almost 4 years since Katrina, there is still a whole lot of work to do. We didn't acutally stay and work in the city of New Orleans, but we were in Slidell, LA, which is a city about 45 min. from New Orleans. We stayed at a church there and worked at a house fairly near the church. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. Here are some general pictures! Enjoy!


The church we stayed at, Aldersgate United Methodist Church

The building we stayed in, which was specifically built for Hurricane Katrina relief.

The story about the building we stayed in

The actual flag that flew at the church during Hurricane Katrina on August 29th, 2005.

Life

Well, one of the reasons I haven't posted in such a long time is because I have been so busy. This past week has been crazy. I started getting sick last week, so I have been kind of under the weather. I have been coughing and just not feeling well all week. I also had two big tests and a lot of other homework assignments.

In general, classes are going well, even though they are keeping me busy. I am continuing to love nursing and be so glad that I changed my major. Anatomy & Physiology is continues to be work intensive, but it is so interesting. Nutrition and Global Agriculture are going well also. Really, the only class that is giving me trouble is American Literature from 1865 to present. As many of you know, I have a lot of trouble with reading and reading comprehension. Also the teacher that I have is not too great. We just took our first test on Friday and I don't think it went very well, but I will not know until later this week. I am persevering through this class and will hopefully pass it because I need it in order to graduate. I know that I had mentioned in my last post that I had a lot of classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which was not normal for me, and that I was kind of concerned about how that was going to work out. This has turned out to not be a problem at all. It was kind of difficult at first, but I have adjusted to sitting in class for so long and paying attention for the whole time.

The other big thing that happened this week is that when I went to the Health Center on Friday to get some antibiotic for my sinus infection, I found out that I have mono. This would explain why I have been so tired recently, but I can not figure out where I got it from. I don't usually share drinks with people and I definitely haven't kissed anyone at all. I must have gotten it from someone sneezing in my face or something like that. Apparently, it is extremely common on college campuses and is all over the place at UCM. In general, this should not be a big problem, but I am going to be extra tired for about a month or two. Hopefully is won't be that big of a deal, though.

Basketball Games

So, I am sorry that I haven't posted in forever, but I have been super busy. One of the things that I love to do as a college student is to go and support my school's sports teams. I can get into all of the games free when I present my student ID and I usually don't have much going on when they take place. To me, it is also a great form of entertainment. Well, today was a big day in the world of UCM sports. The UCM Mules (men's) basketball team was on national TV for the first time at home. We played our big rival Northwest Missouri State University and absolutely clobbered them. The final score was 78-48. I went to this game today and it was so exciting. There was so many people there and so much energy there. I made a sign to try and get on TV, but I don't know whether it worked. I think I might have ended up being on TV, but I am not sure. My parents said they didn't see me, but I know I got filmed by several cameras. Here are some pictures from the game.
The pep band.
The cheerleaders and Mulekickers during a time out.
Some of the UCM players deciding on a play.
Me holding up the sign I made. GO MULES!

I'm an Aunt Again!!!!

Well, very early this morning at 12:45 I became an Aunt again!!!! My new niece's name is Olivia Edith White, which is extra special because my Grandmother's name was Edith. She was 5lbs. 10oz. and 19.5in. long. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!
Olivia
Lilli meeting her new sister for the 1st time

Lilli holding her new sister