nola

My summer has had a bit of a "whirlwind"start. I was home for a week, which was spent unpacking my college dorm and ridding my bedroom of things that were just too "high school" to keep around. After the room renuvation, it was time for a trip that would change my view on things forever. I went to New Orleans for a community service with a group of amazing Stetson students. We were only there for 3 days, but in those days my eyes were opened to things one can only imagine unless they are able to experience them with their own eyes.

We stayed in the Lower Ninth Ward in a house made of drywall, no air conditioning, and cots with rips that was a mansion compared to the other houses that were just outside our door. To call these abodes houses is a serious understatement. Our neighboring living spaces were not houses, but abandoned squares with nothing left but steps that once lead into the houses. There was a unheard of silence in the area. Not a calming or peaceful silence, but more of an absence of noise, only to reiterate the fact that the area that received the worst of the hurricane was still not even close to being rebuilt.  There was also a sense of being carefree among the locals. This sense was one that was found all over New Orleans, but in the Ninth Ward, this carefree nature seemed like more of a "I gave up years ago and now I'm just going with the flow" attitude. 

 

Astoundingly, just a 20 minute drive in our rented SUVs were the popular tourist attractions of New Orleans. I bought a t-shirt in the French Quarter, ate in a local restaurant, dodged those who were under the influence on Bourbon Street, and wished that I could spend the night in Jackson Square. But at the same time kept thinking of the devastation that was only a few miles away. The feeling of being in two different worlds had never been so strong. While walking around the popular streets and browsing stores in town gave the feeling of being on a vacation in a big city, the drive back to the Lower Ninth Ward brought on a feeling of depression that was inescapable. Visiting this city brought to reality that when something horrible happens, some things get rebuilt while other things get pushed aside. This may have been the only chance I will ever have to see mansions on one street and houses with boarded windows on the next, but the one chance was enough to keep the picture in my mind forever.

Summer has officially begun and I think it couldn't have had a better start.