Witnessing the Positive in New Orleans

By Elizabeth Saville
March 18, 2010

A group of students, faculty and staff has decided to spend spring break in New Orleans, helping out in the Lower Ninth Ward. They'll be painting, cleaning, and doing mold remediation to benefit those hit hardest from Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to being a student at NCC, Elizabeth Saville also works at Country Meadows, a continuing care community for seniors. She decided to return this spring break because she felt "as though my work wasn't finished."

March 17 and day three. Whoa - we are making progress! The day started out rainy and very gloomy, thankfully it didn't set the mood of the group. We were ready to get started!  Today we are in charge of doing installation on the house we are painting. None of the group members has ever done this type of work. Once we got the hang of it, I started to have some fun.  Broken up into teams, we got into a rhythm and even got the work done before lunch.  It was very exciting!

After lunch it was back to work. We were back on the porch priming the roof for paint.  I held the ladder while Kiki (Dr. Vasiliki "Kiki" Anastasakos, associate professor of political science) climbed up to make sure no spots were missed. The rest of the group was finishing the painting on the sides of the house and scraping off the old paint, getting it ready for a fresh new coat.

By mid-afternoon, the sun was shining. While we were working, two cars had gotten into an accident up the road from us. It took about two hours for the police to come.  The question on my mind is why did it take so long?  Was there a larger problem that we didn't know about?  These are the kinds of thoughts that run through your head when you see two people waiting for hours for help.

Although the day started out rainy and cloudy and we were worried about the people who were waiting for help, I can't forget to mention the positive changes I have seen happen here over the course of a year. Witnessing a school bus dropping and picking children up, FedEx trucks driving through the neighborhood and even trash being picked up may seem like ordinary things, but they were not happening here last year. These positive changes help us to keep upbeat and full of hope, even when faced with the negative.

Tonight is St. Patrick's Day and the group is ready to see some parades and see how green the French Quarter can get.

Here is to a good day tomorrow and wishing everyone a safe and happy night!

If you missed Saville's first blog installment, click here.
If you missed Saville's second blog installment, click here.
If you missed Saville's third blog installment, click here.