After hurricane Katrina occurred in 2005, there was always information on television or in the news discussing some aspect of the disaster. Eventually all of the disaster hype seemed to slowly disappear. Five years after the disaster happened, it is surprising to see how parts of New Orleans have been left devastated and left in poor conditions. I expected that five years after the storm, the government and the people living in the area would take the initiative and the time to fix their city and make sure everyone had a decent home to live in and in proper conditions. I did not expect to see that the lower 9th ward had most of the houses boarded up, left deserted, or homes that still have to be gutted and repaired. It was shocking to see how it seems that repairing New Orleans has been left to volunteers and non profit organizations than to the government and other top organizations. Also, although that many thousands of homes still need to be repaired, the people of New Orleans that we met were very kind to us and very thankful for how we were spending our time helping their community. I would have expected the people to feel very bitter about their situations and want to move away from future disasters.
This week I learned that communication, patience, and dedication are the main factors in making service work smoothly. If people are willing to work together for the same goal and listen to each other a project can successfully be completed. The groups we have worked with so far need volunteers who are willing to stay at a project site until the project is complete. It takes much longer to finish a project with different volunteers only at a site for a week at a time then to complete the project at one time with people who are already familiar with the work. These groups also need volunteers who are dedicated to getting the job done well. I think good service is distinguished from just volunteering by getting the job done by seeing the project through and getting to meet and understand who you are completing the project for. The longer a group or person is a part of a project donating their time helps them learn about the culture and the surrounding environment, which can differentiate volunteers from good service.