Jerusalem at the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering: Friday: Practice Justice!

Today was our practice justice day! We woke up very early and left the hotel at 7:00 to walk to the SuperDome, which was our launching site for our service project. Once there, we joined in with our project group and worshipped. We then took off on our walking tour. Our Practice Justice experience was Cultural Literacy. We were privileged to serve the people of New Orleans by letting them serve us. When the gathering team was planning this event, they asked the people of New Orleans what they wanted us to do for them. In their list, they included some experiences that they wanted us to have. For our Cultural Literacy Project, we walked to the French Quarter to the New Orleans School of Cooking, where Chef Kevin led us in a cooking demonstration of some traditional New Orleans foods, which we then ate for lunch. We had Crab and Corn Bisque, Jambalaya, Bread Pudding, and Pralines. The meal was fantastic. Chef Kevin was an incredibly gifted and funny man. He spoke to us about the importance of food to the people of New Orleans. He shared that it is not about what is on the table, but about who is around the table. He also shared that it doesn't matter whether you show up in a Bentley, a Rolls Royce, a truck, or a skateboard. What matters is that you showed up.
Interesting fact: by lunch today, we had already walked over 3 miles!!
We then headed to a nearby hotel where we had a debriefing session to talk about what we learned from this cultural experience and had a discussion about Hunger.
We attempted to do a little shopping and explore the French Quarter, but some crazy rain came pouring down. We splashed through the streets, in water up to our shins in some places, to get back to the hotel.
We returned to the hotel to dry off and relax. We then ate a delicious dinner at Drago's Seafood, which is located in our hotel. Ryan and Jason even enjoyed the lobster. Don and Dylan had some great gumbo.
We then took another shopping trip to the Riverwalk and then enjoyed an evening of relaxing in our hotel and going to bed early.
It was a full day, full of wonderful and surprising New Orleans experiences!