First Impressions

        New Orleans, what can I say. I've heard countless stories of this city from friends, Mr. Kane and my brother Nick, but I never truly understood what the hype was. Well, now I do. We had an amazing first day, and we've had a great start to a second. The first thing that struck me as out of the ordinary when we got of the plane Friday night was that it wasn't below freezing. It's been in the 70's and gorgeously sunny so far, which is fantastic! A little too fantastic actually, because I already have a sun burn (sorry dad) but I'm getting the zinc oxide out today, so I have my fingers crossed. We started out yesterday by touring the lower 9th Ward, which is the part of the city worst hit by hurricane Katrina. Learning the history of the area and seeing the devastation first hand was eye opening, and really put into perspective the reasons we are taking this trip. We continued the day by visiting Blair Groceries, an organic garden in the heart of the lower 9th. Blair is the organization that prompted the growth of our community garden in North Middlesex, so seeing where the first ideas blossomed from was spectacular. We then volunteered with project green light, an organization that replaces incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient CFL lightbulbs around the city of New Orleans for free. This was the first real service we had done, and even though it was not very demanding, it gave us a good opportunity to see the city and it's people. We ended the day with a visit to the French Quarter, where the first Mardi Gras parade was taking place.

        Even though the French Quarter was by far the most fun part of the day, the most significant for me was the few hours we spent at Blair. The head of the organization, Turner, explained how they began and what they have been doing with the community. He also helped me understand some of the issues in the lower 9th that have arisen since Katrina. As he continued to speak I became captivated by his views on sustainable living and food justice. It wasn't until he had stopped doing the talking, and had asked us what we could do to expand our school garden and further help the community, that I had my breakthrough. He had been talking about how little work it is to raise chickens, and how you can make a profit by selling their eggs, that I knew that's what I wanted to do. Not only because it would be a sauce of income, but also because it would help my community by allowing easy access to organic eggs. After we finished up at Blair and started to leave I talked to Turner again and asked all of my questions, which he happily answered. So dad, can we get chickens?

        -- Harrison Adami-Sampson