We stayed at a presbyterian church in New Orleans and did work projects there saturday morning. Members of the congregation told us about the immigrant population, and how it boomed during the rebuilding after Katrina. In Harlingen, we had attended an evening conference on immigration that talked about the love/hate relationship our country has with foreign workers, that when it needs labor, it welcomes immigrants, and when the economy slumps, it despises them. New Orleans was an example in action. It needed a quick, able workforce to rebuild almost an entire city, and it drew in many latino workers.
In the later part of the day, we had a big shrimp fry with a former student, Aidan Bellew, who hosted us. We pigged till our guts burst with shrimp, artichoke, corn and taters. After that, we walked around the french quarter, had beignets and coffee/hot chocolate at cafe du monde, and came back for bed.
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