week 7 the phoenix of new orleans

alright! i'm getting back into my blogging routine! hopefully! :)
i haven't even been in new orleans a full week yet and i already love it! the weather is about a zillion times better than denver, the people are a whole lot nicer and i'm much more used to this sort of lifestyle.
we're staying in the office building of the phoenix of new orleans which is in mid city 4th ward. we have a kitchen, living room, washer and dryer, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. and although it's sometimes difficult living so close to ten other people constantly, our living arrangement is pretty good.

the neighborhood we're in isn't too bad but we were told not to go outside at night alone and only go if we have a purpose. overall, i'm not too worried about our safety in this neighborhood.
we're really only two blocks away from canal street which is super nifty!
so far, the only place i've really been able to explore is bourbon street which i must say is not my favorite place. i was completely shocked to see how many people bring their children there. i would definitely be completely ok if i never stepped foot on that street again!
we drove through the french quarter and down magazine street and i think those two areas are definitely my favorites.
we also took a tour of the area where katrina did the most damage. we rode around the 9th ward and saw where the flood walls broke. we learned all about new orleans during this past week from our sight sponsor. we learned about how scientists had a simulation called hurricane pam a year before katrina hit and how they warned people that this could happen. we learned about how the people laughed at them and didn't take them seriously and didn't even allow them to finish their simulation project.
we learned that new orleans is a bowl and that the mississippi has been flooding the region for hundreds of years and that in order to make new orleans inhabitable the city had to make 92 pumps to constantly draw the water out. we learned that even if all 92 pumps are running at the same time they can drain 1 inch of water and hour. we learned that the armycorps of engineers made the flood gates after a huge hurricane in the 20's and yet they didn't dig deep enough. we learned the basic physics behind the flood gates and how the  pressure the water will exert on the top half of the wall has to be completely balanced by the part of the wall that's buried deep enough in the ground.
we learned the difference in a flood gate and a levy and how the levies are much bigger both in height and thickness. we learned that the levies didn't break and if they had the damage would have been much worse. we learned how much smaller the flood gates are and that they are only made to manage the canal water.
we learned how building the levies and flood gates in order to stop the mississippi from flooding new orleans has cause the marsh lands to almost not exist. this means, when hurricanes hit, there's no buffer from the storm, no trees to break the wind, no land to try and calm the storm.
we also learned about the phoenix of new orleans. so many people have donated time and money in order to help rebuild new orleans but so much of the focus is going into the 9th ward. people don't really gravitate to the areas that were still affected but not as poor. the hurricane didn't distinguish between social classes. it affected everyone. and the good thing about pnola is that it is helping the people who have money but just not enough. so many people came in to new orleans after the storm saying they would help rebuild homes and they would charge the people right up front and then get their money and disappear, leaving these people without a home or money to rebuild. so, pnola comes into these peoples lives and finds out how much money they have, whether or not they have a job and can keep their house and then they work with the family and what money they do have in order to rebuild their house. so, the family pays for all of the supplies the houses need but pnola supplies the volunteers to do the work. i think this is awesome because when you think of tragedy you think of the people who had nothing and now have even less. those are the people that everyone wants to help. but these people have money just not enough. so now we're helping them. i love that.
overall, i think pnola is a wonderful organization and is doing a ton of great work. i can't wait to see all the good my team will do here!
i hope everyone is having a wonderful new year so far! i'll update again next sunday!
xoxo,
B