To infinity and beyond (voodoo, swamps and slaves)

Right outside of New Orleans there is a NASA testing facility for rocket engines and other thrust components. It is called Infinity at Stennis Space Centre.
They test all the NASA rockets including the Saturn V and the space shuttle engines.
They have a real Saturn V on display, a real rocket engine where you can see how it works, a simulator and so much more.
There were school kids there, we made paper airplanes together and tried to fly them through hoops to land on a runway. It was so much fun trying different aerodynamic models and try to beat each other.
A bus took me to see the testing grounds. It is unbelievable. They have a whole buffer zone around it so the really loud sound of the rocket engines (especially the Saturn V which is very very loud) doesn’t affect the population living in the area. However the guide said that you can still feel the trembles for over 10 miles away (he lives there and can feel the tests).
They are now modifying space shuttle engines, working on the Orion mission – getting people to Mars.

In Louisiana and Mississippi there are huge long bridges, they travel across the Mississippi River.
These bridges are so high to allow room for boats to travel under.
It is AMAZING!
The Mississippi River is next to New Orleans and the delta is full of life – animals and plants. The soil is very fertile there.

I went to see the Honey island swamp.
There was a tour guide who took me and other families around the swamp showing us and teaching us about the wildlife and plants. It was an eco tour.
There were alligators surrounding the boat and the tour guide made the alligators jump out the water.
The tour guide stopped our boat near the shore and a wild boar came to our boat. She had babies.
Along the swamp there were houses that the only access to them is with a boat – I can’t imagine living without being able to walk anywhere.
The swamp floods often so all the houses are on very high stilts to be raised higher than flood level.

New Orleans is a very old city and has a lot of history, culture and old superstitious myths such as voodoo, hoodoo, vampires and more.
I was staying in the French quarter, the French quarter is the oldest part of New Orleans.
The Main Street is Bourbon st. It is absolutely hectic, so many people, everyone partying and having a good time. So noisy and crazy but it is full of life and spirit.
New Orleans is famous for its Jazz music. We went to a Jazz performance. It was really good.
Later at night I went down into Bourbon Street where I had a voodoo tour.
A voodoo priestess took us around the city showing us all the haunted and scary parts of the city.
She told me about all the major stories that make New Orleans spooky. It was very interesting to hear the history of New Orleans and how it ties up with old superstitions. Did you know that New Orleans old houses have metal balconies to protect them from vampires? In the old days, they used to believe vampires will stop at iron. It really effected the architecture.
Another example: an awful brain disease called Encephalitis caused by insect bites would make people’s brain swell. As the brain swelled, the people would have headaches, walk funny, spew, be bloated and feel very stiff. So they walked in a funny way and made no sense until they died.
That is how zombies originally came up. People realized it had something to do with brains and that became a myth that zombies eat brains. The disease was real and back then without good hygiene, people kept getting bitten.
Anyway, I learned a lot about voodoo and gained a few new skills BAHAHAHA

I went down to Laura plantation right on the Mississippi river.
A plantation is a site where sugar cane or other plants were grown and slaves were used to work there in the 1800’s.
The slaves had to work so hard, in the sun (it gets SO hot here) and were working in very hazardous conditions. They didn’t have many rights.
The plantation has a long history of Creole (French, Spanish and some African origin) families and traditions.
If people living in the area were Creole they would paint their houses in bright colours. If people were local Americans they would have white houses.
I took a tour with a man whose mother and his grandmother were slaves, he was awesome and did a good job explaining the history and the civil war (union vs confederate).
The house is designed and built by slaves, the Masters’ house is posh and lovely while the slaves hut is all rusty and open.
After the civil war, the slaves were freed from their masters but they only knew how to do one thing…. Work on a plantation.
So the owners of the plantations would say you can stay and work at the plantation and we will pay you (around $5 a day). It was still the same conditions, which I think is very unfair. Some of them received little plots of land and stayed in the area.
I bought a book which was written by a woman who lived on the plantation all her life, it is interesting to see her perspective.