Bucknell Katrina Recovery Team

Hi, my name is Mina. I’m a sophomore at Bucknell and I’m majoring in Management. I’m really excited to go down to New Orleans to help out with the Katrina recovery effort. What motivated me the most to look into helping out was the fact that my brother goes to school and lives in the city. Although my life was not nearly as affected as those who lost their families, friends, homes, jobs, and ways of life, Katrina did have an impact on me, however minor in comparison. Having this connection to New Orleans, I became aware of the need to help rebuild the city and aid businesses and residents to get back on their feet.

Today was our first day on the job here in St. Bernard’s Parish. Yesterday was a long, tiring day of traveling. We left Bucknell bright and early at 7:30 in the morning and didn’t make it to Camp Hope, where we are staying while we are volunteering, until after 9 pm! We are staying at an old elementary school with other volunteers who are helping with Katrina relief efforts. Everyone was exhausted by the time we got here, but we had to get situated with the camp before we could finally go to sleep.

Today we went to the house of Chris LaGarde, the aide to Congressman Gene Taylor in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. This area was hit really hard by the hurricane, except the difference here versus New Orleans was that the water didn’t stand, it receded. So the homes were damaged, but I think it was probably easier to fix these homes. All of the houses along the beach were completely gone and only the cement bases were left. I could see plastic bags hanging from the tree branches, indicating how high the water rose! Chris LaGarde talked with us about the destruction and rebuilding efforts in his neighborhood. Many of the historic buildings and houses were destroyed. When we went to his home, we got to meet his family and then we began working on his house. He had been lucky because his house did not get destroyed by the hurricane.

Yesterday was so tiring that by the time we got back to Camp Hope at 10:30, I went to sleep. Yesterday, Sunday, we went into the French Quarter to go to an exhibit at the Cabildo on Hurricane Katrina. It was all photography by a National Geographic photographer. It was very interesting because the photographs were so colorful and pretty, yet they were depicting something so horrible and ugly, the destruction from the hurricane. There was one photograph of a car buried in sand, and it really looked to me like a toy car buried in a sandbox. There was also a part by fifteen high school students documenting life after the hurricane in the New Orleans area. I thought their photographs were especially moving because they included quotes describing their experience or a moment that was hard for them.

It's amazing how much volunteering in the Recovery efforts can affect you. It has definitely made me realize how hard life has been for these people. You get a completely different view actually being down here, and interacting with the people than being at home, watching things on TV or reading things in the newspaper. All the locals are so grateful for the volunteers. When I was in the French Quarter on Friday night, the jazz band playing at the club came over to talk to us and then dedicated his next song to us and our efforts! And when we would talk to vendors in the French market, or shop owners, everyone really was impressed and thanked us for doing what we were doing. To me, giving up a week of vacation didn't seem like a big deal at all. In fact, I never looked at it as "giving up" anything. I was excited to be able to go on this trip, and thankful to have the opportunity to participate in it!

Yesterday we went to another new house that had not been touched yet, called a “zero percent house.” It was a larger house than the other ones, but it was still one story. We worked hard to get all the furniture and rubble and tons and tons of mud out of the house. The house had pretty high ceilings so we had to get up there and take off the drywall on the ceiling and the insulation up there as well. It was also a pretty hot day so everyone was getting really hot and tired. We started early, when it was still a little foggy, and that kind of reflected the house when we arrived. It was full of muddy, dirty belongings and debris covering the floor; it was pretty dark and gloomy inside. Yet the more we worked, the nicer the day got too!
Each time we got rid of debris or knocked down a new wall, the house seemed brighter and happier. And by the time we had to leave, we had pretty much finished gutting the house (minus the attic, which I think is pretty impressive!), and the sun was streaming into the clean house. It’s just remarkable, each time I go into a house, I look around and just feel so overwhelmed by what’s in there, but as a group we manage to work together and get things done. It’s funny because even though I know we can gut the house, I always have that same feeling like it’s just too much to be able to accomplish.

Today we woke up to pouring rain outside! Everyone was pretty tired from the night before. We went to the French Quarter to go to a concert by Chris Thomas King at St. Louis cathedral in Jackson Square. He played some Christmas songs for about an hour. I went to eat at a Lebanese restaurant called Mona’s Café with a few of the other girls. The rest of the group went to eat at a Mexican restaurant and then came home after I had already fallen asleep because I was exhausted!