This is New Orleans

New Orleans is a city that has a massive gap between poor and privileged and yet the two communities live practically on each others' laps – far too close to resist being completely appalled by the heavy contrast that exists among it. Still, what is being done? Throughout the week we have been volunteering in some of the most devastated areas of the city, from the Lower 9th Ward where the levee broke to St. Bernard Parish, to suburban parks and nature centers where we have witnessed the horrific and seemingly endless results of Katrina. On our drive to these work sites, however, little neighborhoods full of huge, gorgeous southern houses loom over the demolished, rotten, boarded-up, and abandoned houses and buildings waiting for someone or something to put the pieces together again.

We have labored all week over rebuilding darling Ms. Bessie’s house in the Lower 9th Ward (two blocks from the river where the levees broke), and though it seems immediately rewarding through her endless gratitude for every nail we hammer into her home, I just look around the neighborhood, down the street, and next door, to see that there is still so much work to be done. The devastation is truly overwhelming, and it’s going to take a lot more than 60 college students to help this city recover, accompanied by a generous timetable.

In spite of this incredible amount of damage and homelessness that New Orleans and the surrounding areas have experienced, visiting Bourbon Street and the French Quarter last night brought a new light to the city for me. Eighty degrees, a slight breeze, all of my new and remarkable friends by my side, I wandered through the narrow streets of the renowned French Quarter, filled with live music, bars, gumbo shops, restaurants, and this little patio courtyard where we all enjoyed some Cajun food, bignets, and a fantastic jazz trio, complete with the delicate French wrought iron tables and chairs and dancing couples spread about. This is New Orleans. This is how these relentless, motivated, strong-willed people survive. This is how they make it. The culture is so strong, so genuine, so deep – why would anybody want to leave? This is New Orleans; the city that will never leave my heart.

-- Callie Humphrey

April 4, 2008 @ 1:21 PM