Rev. Crystal's Full Moon Blessings

I am going to do several blogs regarding the experience of the last weekend in New Orleans. I decided to do that so that one blog would not be too long and therefore not scare people away from reading them, LOL.

For those who may not know, I went to New Orleans with one of my closest friends who was moving there. This has been a long and hard lead up to this trip that would bring closure to this move that has been a long time in the making.

We flew out of the Oakland Airport Thursday morning at 8:00am. We flew into Los Angeles and caught our connecting flight to New Orleans. This process went smooth and without a hitch but after this point in the trip almost nothing went as planned.

We got off the plane and went to get the rental car. That was a nightmare and after struggling with the bank and the change in costs for the vehicle, we decided to rent the car for the next four days and return it when I flew home Sunday. From the airport we went to Jody’s new apartment in New Orleans.

As we got off the freeway and drove further into the neighborhood, with every turn we took the atmosphere continued to change drastically. The further we drove, the more “in the hood” we got. Looking around we saw people standing on the corner drinking alcohol, drug deals right in front of us, tennis shoes hanging on the telephone wires, a kid riding down the street on a bike with no shoes on, abandon building all around us and the projects were 2 blocks away.

I was in total shock and afraid to speak what was on my mind for fear of upsetting Jody and insulting her new place where she had a new lease, so I kept mostly quiet. After meeting the landlord and leaving we were driving away and there were two guys (obviously high on what I would assume was crack) standing in the middle of the street. I think this is the thing that took the cake. We got several blocks away and Jody finally spoke. And her words were “Crystal, I can’t breath. I can’t live there”.

And from there the conversation began. We knew we had just entered the infamous “hoods” of New Orleans that are known for some of the highest murder and death stats in the United States. We knew that this was one of the worst situations we could be in at this very moment.

We drove to the hotel, got inside our room and low and behold the air conditioner was broken. After finding the number and calling the hotel owner we then sat there and waited in the terrible heat until he could come and fix the air. At about 9:30pm we had air and just enough energy to walk and get dinner.

Of course all the restaurants were closing and unable to serve us so we walked back to the hotel and got a cheeseburger across the street. Sitting in the burger shop we began talking to the two waiters and asking about apartments. Jody told them she thinks she rented an apt in a not so good area. One of the guys asked, “How far is it from Orleans Ave”. Jody told them 2 blocks and both guys said “Oh hunny that is the hood!!!” Needless to say, that was the confirmation we needed but was hoping wasn’t true.

The rest of the night was filled with lots of tears, hysterical laughter, brain storming, hugging, phone calls, holding hands, prayers………………until we fell asleep.

And this was my first night in New Orleans. What a welcome.……………………….. hot, hungry, sad, scared and trying to reassure my newly homeless and discouraged friend that I love dearly.