26/10/18 I drove to New Orleans, bought my Morticia costume and makeup on the way, and found Marion house around 7pm. I met 2 of her Belgian girlfriends and after putting our costumes on we went to an afrobeats night at a local bar. Dress code was black and we got that right but we were the only ones with Halloween makeup ?. By 3am we were back home.
Marion partnered with a friend to open her own alternative school. Her concept is very special and I like that she is using Agile concepts to support the project. Basically the kids drive the programme and they decide what they want to do and learn. It is only the beginning but I know she has what it takes to make it grow.
27/10/18 As the weather was nice we took the bikes and went to 2 popular brunch places hoping to get a table. But on a sunny Saturday, we were not the only ones with that idea and the queue was up to 2h wait so we went to a 3d place, sort of Mexican bakery inside a supermarket to have our breakfast.
Later I drove to the busy French Quarter, went to the Louisiana info centre and queued 1/2h for the beignets at famous Café du Monde, which were nice but not as good as the ones we have back home.
Marion invited me to a friends party that night where I had time to go for one drink then at 10pm went to a Halloween party as I booked my ticket a few months ago, a fundraising event organised by the LGBTQ community of New Orleans. Music was great and there was a costume contest which was very entertaining. But as I walked a lot in the afternoon my back was tired so I left around 12.30am.
28/10/18 I joined Marion for a bbq at a friends place for lunch then we went for another bike tour of the city along the Mississippi river. We stopped by a vegan restaurant for dinner where I had a coconut burger then we went to a nice live jazz set at the preservation hall, an authentic building in the French Quarter. Thanks to her friend we were on the list for the set so were sure to get a seat ?.
29/10/18 My first stop was the Toast brunch place that we could not get in 2 days ago. No queue this time and I had nice blueberry waffles. Then I drove to a MinuteKey self service machine to get 3 extra keys for Marion’s house, as she only has one left. She welcomes people all the time and people often forget to give their key back.
This is a job for which we don’t need a human anymore. In a minute, you choose a key design, you pay and the machine replicates the key. Impressive!
Next stop was the Oak Alley plantation, where I was hoping to take a picture of the beautiful alley leading to the beautiful main plantation building but they built a welcoming area for tourists so you need to buy a ticket to get in. As I booked a tour at 2pm at another plantation I didn’t pay for this one.
I had lunch at the Creole House next to the Whitney plantation where I had a Po-Boy, local sandwich with shrimps.
By 2pm I was at the Whitney plantation for my tour. The site is beautiful, with palm trees, old style buildings and water. Ali our guide was very knowledgeable and shared many stories about slavery and the people who used to live/work on the site.
The Whitney plantation, built in 1752 was named after the favourite grandchild of one of the owners of the site. But it had many owners in the past and was mainly used as a sugarcane plantation. The tour did not focus only on the site but told us a lot about slavery in general. He explained how the enslaved people, mostly from Africa, were treated and how the French took away their human rights. Their birth names were replaced by a new first name only, their cultures, religion, values, heritage were taken away too. Using mental, psychological and physical abuse, the slaves who still wanted to live had no other choice but obey their master.
The mortality rate was -30%, so for 100 new enslaved people coming in, 130 would die. Their life expectancy once they arrived on the plantations was 10 years on average, regardless their age. Their working conditions were really though, with high temperatures, dangerous wildlife, diseases and the risk of accidents while working with machetes and under exhaustion. You were considered an adult once you reached the age of 10, and you would be sold ‘as a package’ with your mum under 10, individually over 10. Families were separated on purpose so you feel alone, so less chances to get support or fight back. You would be punished if you were found with pen and paper, as you were not allowed to get any education.
The value of a slave was about $250, but in plantations their value was around $1000 (people from Africa were strong, more resistant to the heat and to some diseases). So they were considered as financial assets, property, around $20,000 of the current dollar value.. If you killed a slave from someone else, you would be sued for money.
The de-humanisation and concept of ‘divide and conquer’ was also used by Hitler who studied what has been done here to learn how to destroy the ones he considered inferior.
In 1807 slavery was abolished which does not sound like a long time ago.
As a white women on the tour, I felt so ashamed of what we have done to those people. I agreed with the tour guide who said we should never forget and teach history to our children to make sure this never happens again. Even though some concepts are still used across the globe today, we just wear different costumes, in politics for example. We abuse of poor and uneducated people to generate wealth. But at least we have more human rights and a chance to fight for them.
Marion and I took the bikes and we went to a food court for dinner, and we had time to stop by the French Quarter to listen to the street bands before going home.
30/10/18 I said goodbye to Marion and had a raspberry and Nutella French toast for breakfast at the Ruby Slipper. Then as I was worried about my teeth on my way out (so much sugar!) I realised I forgot my toothbrush at Marion’s house. So I drove back to pick it up then went to the World War II museum. I paid parking for 3h and when the time was up I was freezing inside the museum (the aircon was really cold) I decided to leave. The museum is really big, interactive and equiped with modern technology, I could have stayed longer but I was too cold. Luckily I watched the movie narrated by Tom Hanks first then explored the museum.
I didn’t really learn anything new, as we learn history at school, but it was interesting to see it from the American point of view. And they have lots of photo and video archives, various objects and vehicles I enjoyed. They have a dedicated wall or room for every country involved in WWII, sometimes a particular city where a battle took place had its own section like Normandy. 65 million people lost their lives across the globe. Again, it is hard to imagine what the people and soldiers have been through but the museum is honouring them beautifully, and not only the Americans. The welcome lady at the entrance asked me where I came from and when I answered she said ‘’well you also had your lot of war in Belgium’. Indeed we share the memory of our grand parents who fought for our rights and freedom.
I then drove through the uptown area as Marion suggested it would be nice to see that side of the city before leaving, where some really nice houses can be seen. One of them had some visitors taking pictures so I parked and checked it out – their garden was full of Halloween squeletons with costumes with funny silly names, it was worth a stop. Game of Bones army of the death, MarrowLyn Monroe, Bona Lisa, Pelvis Presley, Luke Skullwalker (May the corpse be with you), Scary Poppins and of course Louis Arm’Strong were a few.
I stopped by a Pandora shop to buy a special little charm from New Orleans to add to my bracelet and drove towards Jackson for the night.
It was really lovely to share some time with Marion and as she took me to parties and places, I had an insider view of New Orleans. I never really felt unsafe despite all the warnings I received from people around me before coming here. It is a beautiful and vibrant city, driven by the music you hear everywhere.
