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.

The past couple of days a group of nine of us have continued to help rebuild a gutted house from hurricane Katrina. When we first saw the inside of the house there was nothing but the main frame of the house and outlined portions of wood and clutter all around. The nine of us split into smaller groups, which included some Americorps volunteers as well. The first day we had to put fiber glass in the walls of the house for insulation and start measuring the walls for sheet rock. Day 2 and three consisted of all of us sheet rocking the entire house. Today (day 3) we manged to basically finish all of the sheet rock and we started putting special mud to fill in the sheet rock.

During day 2 while we were in the middle of  our lunch break, a man dressed in a army uniform greeted us and told our group that we were rebuilding his home. He told us he was in Iraq when hurricane Katrina flooded his home and has been waiting patiently to live in his home again. Recently, a member of the Saints football team has helped pay for the finances to rebuild his home while we volunteer to fix it up. He was wounded while in combat and he could not thank us enough for taking the time to lend him a hand. It was the first time since we arrived to really meet a local from Louisiana and even though he was not here during the disaster, the hurricane still had a large impact in his life. He was so thankful for what we were doing for him and listening to him helped me appreciate how lucky I am and everything that I have been blessed with.

In the past three days I have learned so much about sheet rocking, power tools, rebuilding home, and the stories people went through during this disaster. After each work day when I have called a family member back at home it is hard for them to image how I am a part of a group that is rebuilding a home for a person affected by hurricane Katrina!

Today we went to a local church that was near our work site and many members of the community just went up to us to thank us for taking the time out of our lives to visit their community and reach out to help them. Hearing their stories and receiving their kind words made me feel so grateful and excited to fix homes in their neighborhood. The people in Louisiana we have met so far have been very kind to us and cannot thank us enough. This continues to make the community service mini term so much more rewarding!

After being on campus for a week I cannot wait to finally arrive in Louisiana! I am excited to leave cold Schenectady and get to work in warm New Orleans and Dulac. On Friday we learned how to handle and use power tools, sheet rock, and electric saws. At first I was a little nervous to learn how to use the tools, but now I am excited to put my new skills to use! I am really looking forward to meeting the people who live in the Dulac community and hearing their personal stories from Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for my thesis. I am interested in gaining an understanding on how their lives have changed since the disasters, how they are trying to cope, how they see their situation in the future, and how they see the government is helping them deal with the disaster. By going to Louisiana it is going to be much more of a learning experience to actually witness the situations people have been going through from what we have been reading and discussing about first hand .

This trip will be amazing cultural experience to learn about a different culture and community. I can’t wait to arrive this afternoon and begin the trip with our great NOLA Community Service 2010  group!