New Orleans, Louisiana

One semester in grad school, everyone in my program had to do a project with a community organization. I was fortunate enough to be selected to work with the United Way for the Greater New Orleans area on a project around childcare workers post Katrina.

It was a great project, made even cooler by the fact that we got to take a trip down to meet the people we’d been working with and to do interviews with local childcare workers.

While we were several years removed from hurricane Katrina, the effects were still visible everywhere. From the waterlines on the homes on the Garden Homes tour to the boarded up former grocery stores to the flattened Ward 9 neighborhoods. One of the most heartbreaking things I saw was on our walk from our downtown hotel to an interview with one of the childcare workers. There was a tent city under the overpass for the freeway. It was clear that the residents had been there for some time, and no sign of better living conditions on the horizon.

That experience made me even more aware of the widespread, and long lasting impact of Hurricane Katrina on so many people. It is also the experience that convinced me to take the bus tour of the city. Before Hurricane Katrina the bus tour would have only gone to the touristy parts of town – places like the French Quarter and the Garden District. But while we were there it also included a trip to the 9^th Ward. It still seems crazy to me that people were making money capitalizing on the pain and loss of the people who were so hard hit during the storm. But, if in some way the proceeds could help rebuild, or employ people, I decided I could do it.

One of the things that stuck with me most was driving past a grocery store that still had not been opened and cleaned out, and the stories the driver told us about rotting fridges and the scarcity of food and clean water after a hurricane. The other image that will always stick with me was three front porch steps with a wrought iron railing piece sticking up from it in the middle of a grassy field – the only indicator that it used to be a block of houses.

Despite what it may seem, there were also some wonderful, happy aspects of this trip. Like eating beignets at Café Du Monde. 

And then there was the saxophone player who talked me into buying his CD after serenading me and changing song lyrics to reflect the pieces of information he got from our chit chat. He hold me it would be a better way to spend $10 than on a hat or a t-shirt. I wasn’t planning on getting either, but I do think it was $10 well spent.

I am grateful for the people of the United Way, and the child care workers throughout New Orleans who gave so much of their time and energy to making a difference – to making the most of a challenging situation, and for the opportunity I had to contribute in some small way.