"A man-made disaster of fucking epic proportions"

We have moved again. This time the drive took us an exhausting eight hours, but now we are in New Orleans, Louisiana! For the final portion of this immersion, we will be staying at Camp Hope. This place use to be a school which was heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina, and now has been transformed into a center for change and reformation. In light of the last couple of weeks, in which we have been immersing ourselves in Civil Rights history, I think connecting to this disaster will be crucial for helping us see what injustice and racism look like today in the United States. We are now preparing to participate in Habitat for Humanity. I am so excited for the upcoming week. I do not often to get the chance to work with my hands, and I feel like this experience will be a great opportunity to actually make a difference in someone's life.

Today we were able to speak with Bethany's friend, Christo, and Janie's friends Emily and Zach, all three of which have been volunteering in the area for the last years. This was a great panel. Christo has been in New Orleans for the last four years. He came here as a part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corp., and decided to stay because of the wonderful people and his fulfilling work. Christo was really able to highlight some of the discrepancies with respect to racial equality and unequal distribution of resources which continue to be a problem in this city, especially after Hurricane Katrina. One of the most disheartening truths I learned was the fact that there is more violence in the schools then the prisons because of support, funding, and organization. Emily and Zach have been in working at a school for the last two years in Greensburg, a couple of hours outside the city. They received the position as a part of Teachers of America, which they acknowledged as a problematic organization. Although they enjoyed working with the kids, both Zach and Emily were very honest about the struggle they experienced as teachers due to the lack of resources, the grotesque environment of the school, and the separation they felt from the community. It was disheartening to hear about their horrific volunteer the experience, in which they seemed finally relieved to be leaving, but I do appreciate their honesty about their intense experiences.

The rest of our day was spent exploring New Orleans. We went to the French Quater, which is hot tourist spot for shopping and relaxing. It was a beautiful day. The French style of the architecture  and the streets filled with music, art, and music was so exciting and fun. I spent most of my day shopping with Lauren Johnson, in which she needed to find a swim suit for our beach trip in Mississippi tomorrow. Although we were unsuccessful in finding Lauren's suit, we did eat delicious coffee from Cafe Du Monde, taking pictures in front of Bubba Gump Shrimp, and even replacing my old wallet with a brand new Marvel Wolverine wallet. This city was amazing, and Lauren and I even acknowledged that we would be willing to live here in the future. It was been a great day.