The Law of Inertia

In my time in New Orleans, I can't help but ask the big questions:

Why are we here?
Do we need to be here?
Why is there still unfinished work after (over) seven years?
Why are some areas less recovered than others?

After pondering over this for most of the week, I've reached a satisfactory (and, admittedly, unconventional) answer to reach a conclusion within my own mind. I'm not sure whether or not it will mean anything to anyone who may read this, but I figured I'd at least share in hopes of making some sort of connection. So here goes.

The Law of Inertia states that an object in motion will continue to stay in motion (and, conversely, an object at rest will continue to stay at rest) unless acted upon by an outside force. I feel as if this has a direct correlation to the current situation in New Orleans and where we fit in the picture.

When Katrina hit, everything went back to zero. Any forward progress came to a standstill. All objects in motion stopped due to an outside force. And they would have stayed there if not for other forces facilitating the rebuild. Like the Musjid-ur Rahim. Like Tony Wilson. Like Miss Joanne. Like Queen Mary of Vietnam. Even like Brad Pitt. It took efforts from everyone to restart forward motion.

But why, then, is there still such disparity? Why are some places still so behind in recovery while others are relatively close to how they were ten years ago? The answer returns to inertia. Some communities had large forces to push the area forward. But New Orleans is a big place; it's three times the size of Minneapolis in terms of land. A lot of people needed a lot of help, and some areas got cheated. Why? It could have been a lack of monetary funds, it could have been a lack of human capital, it could have been a number of other factors. Whatever the reason, some areas fell behind. So while some communities like the Vietnamese communities got a great head start right at the beginning and started moving quickly, others remained in a sad stagnation. Seven years later, the discrepancy has only been exacerbated; the communities that got an early start are now leaps and bounds those that struggled to regain their footing.

And that's where we as volunteers fit into the picture. A great force was needed to propel the communities at the beginning that now have such a head start. A greater force is necessary to catapult the struggling communities toward matching the level of progress. And that's why we're here. Each of us is here to add our strength in pushing these communities forward. One house at a time. One person at a time.

Inertia.

And with that knowledge, I am able to justify everything that we have done here this week. Through both educating ourselves and simply rolling up our sleeves and working, we are using the law of inertia to our advantage. I'm confident that with enough hands to push, we can propel lagging communities so that they will eventually match the pace of the communities that were so advantaged. All it takes is a simple push.

- Andrew Brady

Thoughts

This week spent in New Orleans is soon coming to an end and I am experiencing this lingering feeling of dissatisfaction. Yes, visiting the touristy parts of the city has been enjoyable, the stories of the few visitors we have had will stick with me longer and more vividly than the bead covered cobblestones of bourbon street. Their stories, depicting their point of view of the effects Katrina has had on their communities, have provided me with a purpose for my work here. There is clearly a need and view my role in the recovery work a small one. I hope to return to NOLA in the near future for there is still so much work to be done. Its very overwhelming.
-Caitlin Myhre

The most frustrating thing about this entire experience so far is being utterly unable to describe what this experience has been like in a few words.
It has been so many different things.

Personally, I still feel like I am in the process of fully realizing what this experience is going to mean to me.

Today we visited the levees where Katrina flooded the lower ninth ward.

We have talked to many people this week. Each person had a different story and perspective. Connecting with those people has given us links to this community. Through these links, we have connected not only through our minds but through our emotions and hearts.

As I stood at the levees today, I realized that even though I have gained these links this week, I will never be able to fully fathom what it is that New Orleans went through seven years ago.
These people have been through something that I will never fully understand.

And even though that realization is ultimately frustrating, I will always be pushing against that wall. I have those links. I have those conversations, the afternoons building in that house, the reflections with my group members.

It is through these links that I will reach out to other human beings. It is through these links that I will take further steps to understand.

Being here has made is all the more clear to me how important it is for human beings to take care of each other.

Hopefully all of us will take these links back home with us.

- B.E., 3/22/12

NOLA

Today is the second to last day of our journey. I didn't really know what to expect coming here because I have never been to Louisiana before. I had only known a little information from the media about hurricane Katrina. But even then, I still didn't know enough details about the effects of Katrina and how it can make such an impact on people. Therefore, that is the reason why I came on this amazing opportunity to figure out what happened and to learn from it.
The first few days here, I kind of felt like a foreigner. I didn't know what the people, culture, or lifestyle would be like. We went to our job site, which was to help fix up a lady's house because she could not afford repairs after Katrina. To be honest, the first day it almost just seemed like working to me. As the week went on, we had the chance to interact with amazing people such as Miss Joann, Tony (alumni from Hamline) and MaryAnn. We also visited places such as the vietnamese community, the lower ninth ward, and the parades. After going through these experiences, I learned a lot more information than I could have imagined. I also learned more about myself. I realized that going to a job site to fix up a house is no longer just working... but knowing that I can make a difference in someone's life and help them, whether its a small or big way. It feels so good to know that just a simple act of kindness can mean a big thing to someone.
Tomorrow is the last day and I still have a variety of emotions. I'm so proud of myself for coming on this trip to help people in need, I'm also very sad to be leaving because I wish I could stay just a little bit longer to help out even more. In conclusion, I have learned so much in just one week of being with the most incredible people and inspiring surroundings. I am looking forward to completing another adventure like this!

-Becka

NOLA

Today is the second to last day of our journey. I didn't really know what to expect coming here because I have never been to Louisiana before. I had only known a little information from the media about hurricane Katrina. But even then, I still didn't know enough details about the effects of Katrina and how it can make such an impact on people. Therefore, that is the reason why I came on this amazing opportunity to figure out what happened and to learn from it.
The first few days here, I kind of felt like a foreigner. I didn't know what the people, culture, or lifestyle would be like. We went to our job site, which was to help fix up a lady's house because she could not afford repairs after Katrina. To be honest, the first day it almost just seemed like working to me. As the week went on, we had the chance to interact with amazing people such as Miss Joann, Tony (alumni from Hamline) and MaryAnn. We also visited places such as the vietnamese community, the lower ninth ward, and the parades. After going through these experiences, I learned a lot more information than I could have imagined. I also learned more about myself. I realized that going to a job site to fix up a house is no longer just working... but knowing that I can make a difference in someone's life and help them, whether its a small or big way. It feels so good to know that just a simple act of kindness can mean a big thing to someone.
Tomorrow is the last day and I still have a variety of emotions. I'm so proud of myself for coming on this trip to help people in need, I'm also very sad to be leaving because I wish I could stay just a little bit longer to help out even more. In conclusion, I have learned so much in just one week of being with the most incredible people and inspiring surroundings. I am looking forward to completing another adventure like this!

Identity Politics in New Orleans

As I prepared to come to New Orleans I didn’t expect the profound impact that this trip would have on me. I first became aware of issues that faced New Orleans in an interpersonal way, through a friend I met while I was studying abroad in Quito, Ecuador last fall. He was also there studying and through our emerging friends I learned about the political, cultural and social climate of New Orleans from an insider’s perspective and also from the perspective of an individual who has experienced many different walks of life within New Orleans. After that I knew one thing: I HAD to come to New Orleans.

As I am very interested in identity politics and identity development issues, New Orleans is a very poignant place to come. The consequences, privileges and significance of various identities can be very visible in a public way, but are also marked by less obvious undertones of both everyday interactions and the sociopolitical climate within the area.  

Conversations of the race, class, and other identities have been abundant throughout the trip and I am thankful to have a community of people to discuss these very complex issues with. To discuss further, identity politics play out both in interpersonal and structural ways, but is heightened to a further level when considering the duality of the image of New Orleans in itself. New Orleans in some ways is a city in crisis, but despite that it still works tirelessly to maintain a facade of being a laid back city welcoming guests to come enjoy, relax, and take in the many shops, restaurants and tours. However, despite hardships and the fact that being from New Orleans means many different things for many different people, there is a superseding theme: everyone whom I have talked to has expressed their love for living here and the deep investment they feel regarding their heritage here, whether that heritage is new or old. 

Learning about the injustices people face in New Orleans have both made me feel motivated and empowered, but also seem overwhelming and exhausting. The issues are so multifaceted. Katrina itself caused many problems, but also led to an exacerbation of many pre-existing issues such as the crime rate, poverty, and a lack of access to critical resources.

The interfaith aspect of the trip has shed light on the community response to these types of issues. To be honest, I do not have much background in learning about various faith systems, but I feel as if my time here has exposed me to how faith-based initiatives are making a lot of positive contributions to communities. These contradicts a lot of media messages that seem to focus on more extreme hate-based church presence in the community. 

Overall this trip has posed many questions I will continue to ask myself as I return back to Minnesota. Some of these questions are: 

What is my place in helping to rebuild a community that I am not inherently a part of? 

How do I learn about others’ realities and stories without being voyeuristic or patronizing?

What are more holistic ways of solving complex issues like poverty?

How do my privileges/identities influence the type of work I can do in communities that don’t have these privileges and my place and manner of doing this work?

How do I raise awareness about what I say in NOLA in MN?

What attributes/social problems that exist here are similar to issues that exist in Minnesota?

How do I not forget what I saw and how do I do justice to the narratives I heard?

-Rachel 

Casey and Michael here...

The first day of work was difficult but also incredibly illuminating. It’s overwhelming, to all of us, the amount of small-scale things that need to be done, and I think this really became clear today. We were in a woman’s house. She hasn’t been able to return and fix it herself due to lack of funds. Through United Saints, she’s able to have the free labor she needs to return to her neighborhood. But it’s going to take a LOT of work between now and then. We started priming and painting and stripping paint and cleaning everything, and we’re doing more of that tomorrow. A lot of small things adding up to a life-changing difference for this woman.

Her house is in New Orleans East, which was hit really hard by Hurricane Katrina. The neighborhood is still being rebuilt; there were houses completely empty and abandoned next door and yards that have grown wild.

Later, we went to a mosque to hear about their rebuilding efforts and some personal accounts of the storm and what’s happened to their community. Their hospitality was greatly appreciated, and their stories brought reality to the hurricane’s aftermath. Their community is doing some really great things with the youth affected by hurricane Katrina, and they’ve been slowly fixing up their block, turning it into a real community.