So, after a week in New Orleans I have seen and heard things I never thought I would. Some things which I may have preferred not to see… and others that made me want to stay in New Orleans for the rest of my life. It’s hard to pick which things you want to emphasize to the people we share our stories with. Yes, perhaps moments on Bourbon Street were quite memorable, but we can’t only talk about Bourbon street as it is only one street, in the great city that is New Orleans, LA.
I felt so many emotions during this week, from high levels of excitement and happiness, to devastation, depression, and confusion. Driving around the 9th Ward, seeing the houses that still had Xs on them, all of the empty lots, houses that were destroyed and decaying, that you knew, were once home to someone, really got to me. Seeing the amount of destruction that still exists 5 years after Hurricane Katrina, is honestly depressing, and makes you wonder, and honestly doubt, if the city will ever return to its original conditions. Seeing some of the results of this trauma up close, makes you realize how much so many parts of our world are truly in need of healing.
The lifestyle of the volunteers we worked with was a world outside our own. These “professional volunteers” work all day, come home, kick back at night with their friends have a few drinks, get up the next morning and do it again. They don’t seem to run a schedule, time doesn’t seem to be of much importance, they don’t seem to worry, and really seem to live by the slogan Renee came up with, with Racheal, Shanna and I, “ Don’t get salty, we’ll figure it out”.
Bourbon street was an adventure that pictures and words cannot begin to give justice. It’s something you have to experience for yourself.
As far as music and food go, New Orleans lived up to its expectations. There was live music almost everywhere we went, in bars, or on street corners, or in the parades during Mardi Gras. Music was everywhere. Bignets were amazing! As was Dots Diner and the shrimp po-boy I had on our last day.
Some of the other highlights of my trip were seeing the alligator in the swamp by the tree farm, Mike’s southern hospitality at the tree farm, breakfast at the common grounds house (raisin bran and soy milk with an orange or a banana) everymorning, PB&J sandwiches every day for lunch, wearing capris, t-shirts, and flipflops, mudding, late nights on the patio with my classmates, the French quarter/French market, meeting the volunteers from common grounds (wish we could have talked with them more) Zach’s phrases and his ever present smile, Mike learning all our names as well as working one handed, I was impressed all around, Denise, Boris, and.. Boris’s hair, Tiger, the rest of the volunteers whose names I can’t remember, Church with Pastor Keane, Kings Cake, Mardi Gras world, the parade of the Muses, catching beads, Renee honking her way through the busy streets, bill darting over the seats in the van to tackle Brooke, being outside, even though we were doing yardwork, it was great, drywalling, mudding and taping almost the entire house, dinner every night…….
I could write a book about all our experiences but really, New Orleans is just something you have to experience for yourself. No words or pictures can fully describe what we experienced this week. I am thankful that I was able to experience it, and to be a part of this trip. And although we were fortunate to get the best of both worlds, being able to volunteers as well as be tourists, I think we should remember this quote that my grandma sent me:
"The true measure of our journey through life does not lie in how many souvenirs we can purchase along the way but in how many lives we stop to touch."
So although we came back with masks, cups, coins, musezuelas and handfuls of beads, the true value of our trip lies in what we take from our experiences, the service did, the people we met, and the difference they (the majority of the people in New Orleans whom we spoke with) believed we made, no matter how small at times it may have seemed to us.
- Kim Hesse
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