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.

Yesterday the group left New Orleans and moved to the Dulac community. The van ride was about an hour and a half. For the most part I slept through the whole thing. I also didn’t feel well the night before which was probably why I slept most of the day.

Once we got settled in our new community we took it easy the rest of the day. Everyone really needed a day to catch up. The evening ended with watching Inception!

Today we are off to help within the community of Dulac!

The system in NOLA is one that must be looked at realistically and analyzed with an understanding of the living conditions of its citizens. The monsters in NOLA aren’t the people or police but the culture and mentality of these individuals. Some of the police are corrupt individuals who follow the truths of the all mighty dollar rather than serving to preserve justice and peace. The city council members are monsters who will do anything and everything to build themselves up while leaving the communities that they “represent” to wither away to relics of their former selves. Even the churches, which are supposed to build up communities, segregate the locals and force them to choose ways in which to diverge from the whole. This is the real picture of NOLA. The children, in the 9th ward, are allowed to run the streets without any supervision or guidance from the “adults” in the neighborhood. These factors in addition to the storm are what has crippled NOLA and caused it to be a city filled with all the negatives that we try to strive to avoid. Although the situation is bleak there might be a glimmer of hope in the future.

There are people in NOLA that do care and want to see a society in which people respect and CARE about one another. These small signs of change have had an amazing impact on me and my journey on this trip. I was concerned about how this day would go especially since I have titles picked out before the day even starts. I was thinking “Monster” what am I going to learn today or right about that will pertain to the song title. My inspiration came in the form of a gay African American male that taught in Harlem and has since relocated to NOLA to start the our school blair grocery. He really gave a tangible entity to the conditions under which the poor live in the 9th ward. The idea that we, even as volunteers, could be monsters was something that was addressed and was shocking. As much as we want to do “good” do we actually take time to understand what that good is. Although, building a house made us all free great about our accomplishment and knowing that someone would have a home for the holidays is amazing we never considered the after affect. We are building houses and not a community. The houses that we construct might not even go to the people who truly deserve them. Since the storm housing in NOLA has quadrupled leaving the poor, mostly black, with no where to return to due to financial constraints. This in addition to the lack of good hospitals like Charity and medical personal NOLA is in a downward spiral. The Monster is the system in which we live and give power. The poor get poorer and the rich accumulate more wealth. The middle ground is starting to get larger and larger while the middle class gets smaller and smaller. Times must change and we as a society need to respect the culture of caring which is over over looked.

Today we arrived in Dulac! It’s a lot different from New Orleans, but I expect that we will work outside more which I think I’ll like. Last week was pretty wild. I did construction in 3 houses and got to explore the area once the work was done. We also went to an urban farm on saturday. It was a mini version of the plant nursery I grew up on-lots of greenhouses and raise bed gardens. The best part of this experience was the talks we had with Nat-the guy who runs show. He talked about a lot of things, one of which was social activism. In a nutshell, he basically motivated us with the ever popular question “if not now, when? If not you, who?”. I’ve heard this many times and never really thought about it until Nat put it into context for us. One idea he gave was to get kids from the poorer schoools in schenectady and run with them, to promote good health. He said that Michelle Obama has a program within “Let’s Move!”-her campaign for healthier kids, where if you document an after school program that you do with the kids that promotes better health, then you can get the school a significant grant of money. More details can be found here: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthierus/index.html. I think I might try to initiate something like that when I get back to school. You can check out the farm’s blog here: http://schoolatblairgrocery.blogspot.com/.

Another thing that was interesting this week was my encounters with New Orleanians. At the Rock N’ Bowl I met a guy named Ben who taught me how to swing dance. It was really fun and he was interesting to talk to. He told me that he is from Mississippi and comes down the Rock N’ Bowl every week! A stranger encounter occurred while walking in a french quarter: I gave a homeless person a dollar and he offered to sing for me. I couldn’t really say no so he took my shoulders and sang to me about “Keep on, holding on” very close to my face. It was very uncomfortable. It almost felt like this guy had seen so many people walk by and ignore him, that the first person to really interact with him, he felt the urge to really engage. I can understand that one must feel very isolated being ignored all the time, wanting to explain themselves or just plain talk to someone (besides the woman and child who were with him). All in all the week in New Orleans was filled with new experiences.

This has been an interesting first week. One of the most important things I have learned while in NOLA working on Sgt. Johnson’s house was that the perspective of the volunteer is recognized by those who are assisted. It felt like this moment of relief to know that our work was appreciated by him and that we were doing what he expected to his house. I was very happy to meet him and I was energized after he came by his house. Volunteering is one thing and service is another. We were doing a service even though we are voluntourist. We need more people who work to tackle one thing at a time instead of mindlessly working towards no tangible goal for anyone but themselves. I have learned that the city of New Orleans is more intricately complicated than I originally believe. With so much historical tension, corruption, poverty, and under development of many sectors there is no way to truly understand the situation in under a lifetime. I am thankful to have the opportunity to come down here with this group of people.

Week 1 has come to a close in New Orleans, it has been an amazing experience getting to meet both the people of New Orleans as well as those who have traveled from elsewhere to offer their help. I don’t think any amount of training or number of movies watched could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here in New Orleans. It was really rewarding to be able to help out someone who truly needs it, and see the progress made as well. Having never worked on a house before it was really awesome to show myself that I could do it and even that I would love it so much! There is still much more work that needs to be done here, and I seriously doubt that it will ever be truly finished, however I think that each small effort amounts to something great. Southern hospitality is apparent here, for almost everyone I have come across here will go above and beyond to make sure that you are as happy and comfortable as possible, even when thy themselves may have nothing. It is a really admirable way of life and one that has been a breath of fresh air to visit. Also all of the strength, hope, and kindness of those here show that New Orleans is definitely worth the efforts to fix the broken society of this area. The way that society has treated these people is a major problem, and one that should be addressed honestly and fixed, but for now we are doing our best and making a small but worthwhile positive change in one persons life, as well as bringing attention and awareness to the crisis here in New Orleans. This week we will begin working in Dulac, restoring the wetlands and I look forward to making a difference here as best I can!

We are half way through our adventure in Louisiana, having moved to Dulac this morning.  Today I am asking the class to blog their thoughts on two questions:

1. What did you learn this week about the situation here in New Orleans that you didn’t expect or hadn’t thought about or were surprised by?
2. What have you learned this week about service? What kind of volunteers do the groups we’ve worked with need?  How is good service distinguished from just ‘volunteering’?

After yesterday’s restful day of bowling and touring Tulane’s gra school it was back to normal work grind. Heading to the work site was anything but usual today because although the roads hadn’t changed we had. We also knew that this was our last day working on something that was more than a project or just a chore. In addition to the change in our perspective we were also changed because we knew that we were gonna meet dem saints. We got to work and had a small debriefing followed by getting down to business which was slightly interrupted by the camera crews asking us for permission to be filmed. It felt like the Real World New Orleans. We had to work as if the camera wasn’t around which was quite difficult because they would get in the way and then ask for us to redo jobs for the video lol. Soon enough it was almost time to leave when all of a sudden this super clean BENZ rolls up with black 22 inch rims and tinted glass. I was more pleased with the car then the subsequent events. So #41 Harper of the New Orleans Saints hops our the car and his “PR” person hops out his SUV. He sign shirts, papers, anything. As a crowd begins to form the next door neighbor comes outside yelling “WHO DAT?” Most of us were so excited about the football player in our midst that we neglected to respond. She then goes “I know ya’ll heard me say WHO DAT?” and one of us responds a saint. I have never seen some one boogie so fast and get dressed. With the cameras flashing and the “celebrity in our presence I could really see how Kanye West must feel lol. All of the lights was definitely the theme o the day which was followed by a jazz show in the french quarters.

Today was our last day working on a house with Pheonix of New Orleans. On Monday, we walked into a house that had been gutted because flood water had caused it’s insides to mold after Katrina. Today, we left a house that had all new drywall. It was really starting to look like a place someone would call home. Actually, that someone would be Sergent Johnson, who we met earlier this week. He seemed extremely happy with what we had done for him, and had a lot of wisdom to offer about positive thinking and having faith. Coincidentally, the lessons that he had for us rang true with much of what we have learned about this week; despite their circumstances, the people of New Orleans are some of the most hopeful and positive people I have ever met. After each person told us their story, be it waiting out the hurricane because their husband couldn’t leave work, post-Katrina issues of domestic violence, not seeing any meaningful change in the corrupt governing forces, or other issues such as wetland devastation and the oil spill, they would always, without fail, go back to something like “but I would never leave New Orleans because…” In other words, no matter how many forces working against New Orleans exist, people always seem to think that staying would outweigh leaving. They all seem to be saying and living the idea that New Orleans just isn’t like anywhere else. I could only hope to feel so passionate about my community! I think it is wonderful that people here are so open with one another and really value togetherness and just having a good time. I think the people of New Orleans, maybe because they have had to face so many hardships, are really a people that we can learn a lot from.

I realize I have not blogged since we got here so:

1st day of work:

After we finished breakfast and cleaned up my group of six loaded up into Jan’s van and headed to PNOLA. We were greeted by one of the two permanent employees of PNOLA, Jen, who oriented us and discussed the work that PNOLA tries and accomplishes for those people who continue to need support five years after hurricane Katrina made landfall. She also informed us that their goal was to have 14 houses built in time for Christmas. I was really surprised by the fact that there are only two members of PNOLA; it just seems that, based on all the work they have accomplished they would have more permanent staff members.

When we arrived at PNOLA, we were also greeted by members of Americorps, three of whom would be joining us later at our work site. The fact that these volunteers, from different parts of the country were giving their time and effort to those affect by Katrina makes them heroes in my eyes. I am strongly considering joining Americorps after I graduate. After introductions had been made, we left to go to the work site and we learned that the owner of the house was a victim of contractor fraud and so the circumstances fit the criteria for PNOLA’s assistance.

The first day at the work site was comprised of clearing out the debris inside the house, installing insulation, and in the remaining time, we begun putting up sheet rock. My favorite part of the job was definitely putting up the sheet rock because, although it is a tedious process, you definitely feel a sense of accomplishment once the sheet rock is up, the walls begin to look more like, well, walls. I was thankful for the help of the PNOLA members, Chris, Taylor and Cane, who assisted us during our work especially since I struggled at first with installing the sheet rock. Once I had installed the first piece, I felt much more comfortable. A lot of my sense of nervousness stemmed from wanting to do a great job. This was someone’s home I was working on and if I was going to work on it, I wanted to make sure I did the best job I could.

The speakers we had that night talked about how the BP oil crisis affected the people of New Orleans and many other areas along the coast. It is still very shocking to hear about how unsafe seafood still is to this day and it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that our government did so little both in response to Katrina relief and the oil crisis. Someone brought up a good point in the discussion that some Americans think that if it’s not immediately affecting their region of the country then they have no responsibility to help when that is clearly not true. The same thing can be said about the government or corporations, if a disaster does not affect them directly often they show a lack of interest because it may not fit in with their agenda.

The other issue is holding government accountable to some degree for a crisis, whether it is at the national, state or local level; it is so easy to simply say that a natural disaster can not be prevented or is simply too big to help victims after the fact. Katrina has definitely exposed the government’s inability to help communities either through lack of interest or a lack of committing the necessary resources. It is quite obvious that more could have been done before and after Katrina made landfall otherwise we would not be helping out five years later.

That’s all for now, next blog coming soon,

~James Cernik