I think that after listening to numerous speakers and seeing the situation of neighborhoods like Mid-City and the 9th Ward while doing construction work or volunteering at the Blair Grocery Project, I have a much better understanding of what the situation of New Orleans is like. Its one thing to read articles and watch movies, but its another to see something with your own eyes. Five years after Katrina and Rita, there are still so many homes in certain areas that need to be fixed, which I knew before I came down but actually seeing it had such a strong impact on me. One of the things that I also found interesting was the talk from Malcom Suber about the situation of race and the corruption of the police department. Never having been in the deep south before, I guess I was unaware of how present racism is as opposed to the northern states where racism still is present but much more discrete. It seems that New Orleans is a city still has many race issues that also relate to the corruption within the N.O.P.D. Malcom Suber told us that the corruption of the police department has become more corrupt after Katrina, when you’d think would really be the opposite way around.

When thinking about service work and volunteering, I think there is a big difference between the two. I would consider Blair Grocery Project and Pheonix of New Orleans two organizations that do service work. They are really making an effort to serve the specific communities that they work in over a long period of time, where as the volunteering we do has a much smaller impact. I also think that our volunteering has a larger impact on us than it does on the people/community that we are trying to help.