Finally got online!

So I finally managed to find internet for my computer. I am currently sitting at University of New Orleans in their library on the third floor with about 5 or 6 of my group members all attempting to get online. I have been keeping a journal and will copy what I have written for the past few days below.

Today we woke up and got to work right away painting the fence at Our Lady La Vang church. We figured out our schedule for the rest of the week so stay tuned and you'll hear all about what wonderful things we have planned to do. I went grocery shopping and to Lowe's with Sharon. Shopping in NOLA is crazy. It was a Monday afternoon (3ish) and the grocery store was madness. There were people everywhere and the lines were crazy! We came here and when we get back we'll be doing dinner and meeting with a few Hamline alums (I think). Possibly we'll go to a thing that common ground has on katrina stuff. I can't remember the name of the talk but we'll see if we end up going.

3/17/07

Good morning everyone!

The first half day in NOLA was wonderful! Yesterday our flight arrived early (always a good thing for those of you who fly). We then drove to a couple places to drop other students from other groups off, the first was Xavier University. During the drive Sharon gained my trust as a navigator and I have been deemed trip navigator – I even have my own map!!! After the trip to Xavier we drove to the house I stayed in last spring and going there I got this sense of overwhelming emotion. The streets still looked the same, nothing had changed, not even the numerous houses that had pieces of the roof missing, or front doors boarded up, and the X’s on the front of the houses that marked when they had been searched were all still there. We met up with my group at Felicity house (the one I stayed in last year). Then we drove to where our house is which is the northern NOLA. We are staying with Our Lady La Vang, a Vietnamese church. It almost feels like a suburbs. The church that is hosting us is a beautiful church and they have been so generous to us.

Let me briefly describe our living situation. We are in a house that has been gutted, new sheet rock put up, the walls freshly painted, with one working bathroom (shower and toilet – no sink) and one working powder room (toilet and sink). The kitchen has no sink that works but a stove that does and I believe the refrigerator works as well. It is a lovely home or rather it will be eventually.

We got back here and Pa and I got settled (the two of us were the ones who came in yesterday whereas the rest of the group came in Friday). Father Antoine who speaks wonderful English took us all to dinner at this wonderful Asian buffet. After which we had a short group meeting and then all went to the French Quarter to experience Bourbon on St. Patty’s day. It was an experience. There was this random spontaneous parade going down the street. A float here, a large truck with people in the back throwing beads there, old men marching down the street in tux’s with large styrophoam rectangles that had lots of fake green carnations stuck in them which any woman could win simply by kissing the old man on the cheek. I got mine another way, I found it on a bench. I gained three strands of large beads during this rather unique parade. It was very enjoyable and then I managed to get us back to a place where we could be picked up by Sharon and went home.

This morning I woke up (one of the first I might add) to a bobcat and church bells, and many other loud noises. I’m headed out to see if there is anything Father Antoine wants me to do and to join the noise. Have a wonderful day!

3/18/07

I can’t believe it is already 11:30 in the evening. I am finding it extremely difficult to place today’s experiences in my realm of vocabulary and ability to describe. I’ll start by describing what we did. The actual stuff of our experience today.

The morning began with loud noises outside the doors and in the yard. I got out of bed, wrote my morning blog, and headed out to greet the morning. I got to do some small things with Father Antoine and then took a trip with him to Lowe’s. On the way I learned about the fate of the large oak trees that used to dot the street near where we are. They are all gone and there are numerous stumps. Father Antoine said they were all cut down because they died and the city used volunteers to plant new magnolia trees in their place. At Lowe’s I saw ‘do it yourself mold checking kits’, bleach, and Clorox bleach wipes. None of which I can recall seeing at a hardware store in MN or WI.

Our job for the day (or at least the one I worked on) was to scrape the rusted parts of this wrought iron fence they have going around the church and to paint it. I got to use a power tool with a metal filing round thing on the end to get rid of all of the rust paint chips off. Another group painted and another group did some planting of flowers etc around the building.

After our day worth of work we went to the lower 9^th ward. This is always an emotional trip and this year was extremely emotional. The changes in the 9^th were not at all what I expected. I really anticipated there to be some community members returning and living in trailors while they rebuild as there are in much of the rest of the city. I expected people to be working on making the environment livable, I expected so many things and the only one of my expectations that was fulfilled was change. I felt like I was walking into a jungle in the middle of the city. Everything was overgrown with green. The majority of the rubble that was there last spring had been removed and all I saw were empty lots that were overgrown with weeds. I saw 3 trailers (2 of which were FEMA trailers). From what I understand there were people living in all three of them. There were a few other residence sitting near their homes (or lots I suppose). I did not expect the 9^th to change from a living community of people to a deserted ghost town. The change was devastating. As a reflection piece my group stood in a circle embracing one another. Most of us cried, many of us were angry both with the lack of compassion for this lost community and the more than 1600 people who died and with a lack of respect for the community. There were 6 greyhound busses filled with college students on an “alternative spring break”. The majority of them never entered the 9^th they just stood on the outside and looked in. There were many vehicles driving around acting like tourists snapping pictures at other peoples disaster. In fact Common Ground said it well, they had a sign up that said “Tourists – Shame on you driving by without stopping. Paying to see my pain 1600 + died here”.

After the 9^th we transitioned to having a barbeque with a few members of the church and Father Antoine. The transition was just about as good as the one I just made (for those of you who don’t think I can use sarcasm in my everyday life and am very bad at it that was sarcasm). We then came back to the house we’re staying in and had a wonderful conversation about our thoughts and feelings throughout the day. We had some good starting conversations about race and the feelings race takes or rather took in this disaster.

I need to take a shower and will therefore end this passage doing very little justice to the feelings I’ve had today and to the experiences I’ve had. I’ve been here only a day and a half and I’ve already had a more meaningful experience than I did last year and I came home last year utterly changed and altered in my beliefs and feelings. This experience has been, is, and will be an amazing experience.