Update - Common Ground

Maliq Rahim lived in the house that has become the Common Ground community centre. He is seen here talking to some of the soldiers patrolling the area. Aside from tech type work, days at Common Ground were spent unloading trucks of food and supplies which had been brought in from all over the country. Maliq's property was essentially functioning as a free store giving out food, water and other necessities to anybody in the neighbourhood who needed it.

There were about 20 or so volunteers, some of them Canadian, who were helping keep Common Ground going. Among the jobs allotted were covering holes in roofs with tarps, doing check-ins on specific locations within the city, keeping storm drains clear of debris and dead dogs, household duties, clinic support and several other jobs. The Common Ground was also doing initial response and outreach to the Houma Nation in Southern Louisiana. The Houma lost everything in Katrina and it is questionable whether their flooded land can again be viable.



When we first arrived in the Algiers section of New Orleans, this Carnival cruise ship was parked on the levee obscuring part of the skyline. The levee itself was about 800 yards from the Common Ground. It was a small grassy hill with a dirt road at the top beyond which was the Mississippi River.