Day 5 - New Orleans Again

Some of our Ohio group had helped a man two days ago. He had promised us that he would catch fish to make us dinner while we were here. When we got back to the trailers, he was there as promised, with his wife helping out. They fried fresh fish for us, served us dirty rice, salad, and hush puppies. Some of us went back for second, third, and fourth helpings of fish because it was so good and there was so much of it. Even when we stopped eating it, the man finished frying the fish and gave it to us wrapped up in foil. The leftover fish got stashed in the refrigerator of one of the FEMA trailers and people snacked on it later.

Then some of us decided to go back to New Orleans. We detached the tool trailer from the van and headed back into town. We did a lot of window shopping and sight seeing, and I bought souvenir key chains for people at work, along with a couple of postcards and a book about reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. On Decatur Street, we decided to split into two groups and see different sights. Before we separated, we arranged to meet back at the Cafe du Monde.

We either traveled on Royal Street or Bourbon Street until we reached Canal Street. A block or two from Canal Street, we saw an interesting painted wooden sign in an art and craft shop:

Not everything in life should be about money. Love is always found in the things we do that don’t always make sense. We were put in this world to get to know each other, share each other’s food, and say it is good.

This reminded me of dinner last night, so I tried my best to memorize the message. We returned to Decatur Street and headed toward Cafe du Monde, where the other part of our group would meet up with us again. Before we went inside the cafe, we saw a Vietnamese man come and shout a greeting to us. He was one of the people from California, and the rest of the crew from California was in the Cafe eating. The California group invited us to join them, and started rearranging chairs and tables to make a big circle for us all to sit with them.

We ordered more coffee and beignets and sat and talked with the Californians for a while. Before I said goodbye to the Californians, I shared the quote I saw with them. They thought it was a good message also, and they told all of us that we all were some of the nicest people they had ever met.

I was glad to have met the California crew again. I think they're some of the nicest people I've ever met.