Donna and Peter Buxton (Balclutha Rotary Club) reported on their trip on a Friendship Exchange to New Orleans – a combined 9980 and 9940 trip to District 6840 – Louisiana and Mississippi.
They had the opportunity to visit four Rotary clubs – all lunchtime clubs which were very tight on time. All meetings started with a pledge of allegiance to the American flag and singing the national anthem.
They shared a photograph of a 23 mile bridge which went from New Orleans which crossed Lake Pontchartrain to Covington.
Peter and Donna had a very full programme for the time they were in New Orleans with very little downtime. One of the events was a cemetery tour which was fascinating as the bodies were not buried below ground due to the swamp land. The body was left for 1 year and 1 day before remains were put in a plastic bag and shelved. The bag remained there until the shelf became full at which time the bag was shafted to the cellar.
The group also had the chance to visit an old sugar plantation, once full of slaves. When the slaves were emancipated, they went off for a short time before returning as they had nowhere to go.
The madigras was held while they were there and Donna shared a number of interesting photographs of the different floats in the parade. The bright colours – purple (justice), Green (faith) and gold (power) where evident everywhere, even in their special celebration cake, king cake. The amount of rubbish left after the parade was a site to behold. It is interesting that there is no recycling of rubbish in New Orleans.
The group also took part in a project planting trees in a dog park, visited a senior citizen, and attended a church service at St Charles, where a service has been held every day as long as the madigras has been going.
Donna also commented on the amazing music – jazz everywhere. One band they saw included a 93 year old on the piano and a 73 year old on the clarinet.
Both Donna and Peter highly recommended the trip and encourage people to take any chance to go on a friendship exchange if it comes your way. The group from New Orleans will do an exchange to Wellington and Otago in the future.
Thank you to Donna and Peter for sharing their experience with us.
