It wasn't just the homes in the Lower Ninth that were destroyed. This upscale neighborhood across town suffered nearly total loss when another levy burst nearby.

Meet a hero! He used his little boat to rescue more than 100 neighbors, taking them to a nearby church. He told me that from the time he heard the levy break until the water was at the eaves was only 15 minutes. One of the neighbors found another boat in a tree later. If I understood him right, one of the men at this house spent 7 days on his roof waiting for rescue. Mike told us with tears in his eyes about loading the boat at one house but having to leave two people behind because the boat would not hold any more. He came back later to find they did not survive.

This is the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans where nearly 50,000 once lived. There isn't a FEMA trailer in sight and there probably never will be. The reason? Most of these houses were rented homes. FEMA will not help a renter rescue the houses they called home.

This is where the levy broke. There should be hundreds of houses in this picture. They are just gone...washed away. All that remains are the cars and some concrete slabs where a once thriving neighbor hood stood until August, 2005.

This boat is now named Katrina by her owner. She was used to rescue more than 100 people in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

I paid a visit to the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans last week. It was a sad day. This picture shows the water lines on one house. The actual water level was about a foot and a half higher than the highest line.

One of my friends asked me to post a picture of houses in Taiwan. I haven't seen many rural buildings since we always seem to travel between cities at night. This is the street behind the outdoor market I visited this morning. As you can see, space is minimal and the standard of living is somewhat less than middle America.

We are in Hsinchu, Taiwan for the rest of the week. Today was dedicated to shopping after a late night bus ride from Taichung. This is a picture of the ancient Shinchu gate to the east. It is both a symbolic gate to China and a spiritual gate to the east. This part is reconstruction but the main gate and the remains of the ancient tower are just behid the gate.

One of my friend asked me to post a picture of me standing with our Mandarin translator. It's a funny picture, I know. I'm about twice her age and I probably weigh three times as much.

This is Becky with Jiun, our interpreter, standing in front of the National Monument. Becky is not a very tall woman but Jiun in her 4 inch heels makes her appear to be huge.

We got a little sight seeing in between events at the conference yesterday. This is the National Concert hall in Taipei. The scale is deceptive. There is a group of dancers in front of the door if you look closely.

The worship team was great too. They persisted in singing some of my favorite Hebrew songs in Mandarin though. I really had trouble singing along. It was way too much fun trying.

There are a group of dancers from California who have been teaching Israeli folk dance.

The main reason we are taking this trip is so that Bridges for Peace can reach out to the World. Becky has been teaching and dealing with the business of BFP all along the way. Yesterday, she was teaching about God's love for Israel and the Jewish people to a congregation in Taipei that has very little teaching on this subject in the past. Her translator, Jiun, is wonderful but I have no idea what she said. The people seemed to laugh at the right times though.

I saw these guys cleaning a street lamp and wanted to give them credit for an efficient solution to a difficult problem.

Downtown Taipei has more scooters zipping through traffic than I have ever seen before. I know there must be more somewhere else but there are truely plenty here.

July fouth in Hong Kong. Nice light show but no explosive rockets. It will do.

It's in the Guiness book of world records! It's the longest escalator in the world. We rode it to the top but the darn thing only goes one way! We walked back down. Hot!

We were climbing back down from the central district of Hong Kong and I noticed this street from the walkway. There are cars driving down there! Back home in Jerusalem we say, "If you don't like the way I drive and feel like you need to stay out of my way, keep off the sidewalks." Now I see that Hong Kong has it's own version. "If you don't like the way I drive and feel like you need to stay out of my way, stay out of the grocery store!"

The sky was a little clearer today and I could see up the mountain toward Victoria's peak.

We're staying at the YMCA for two days. That is, the YMCA on the harbor, in Kowloon. We arrived last night and this is the view that greeted our eyes this morning.

There was a light show this evening at 8 PM. Rain started falling at 7:50 PM. The show was wonderful anyway and I took a few pictures but the best parts of the show would require video.

This it the view from Victoria's peak, looking down at Hong Kong and across the harbor at Kowloon.

Aberdeen harbor has a whole boat village with its own culture. If you don't get on well with the neighbors, you could always move your house. Some of them looked like there was some question of what would happen if they were not attached to the next boat.

Perhaps you've heard of the boat people? Well, now I know that some of them have boat dogs too.

I have offered to make a good cup of coffee for my wife fairly often through the years. She has always refused so far but I figure the day may come when she will change her mind. Imagine our delight when we saw this coffee shop as we were leaving Japan.

Hong Kong is hit by typhoons fairly often. When the storm hits, this is a safe harbor.