March 29, 2012
Sadly,
we embarked upon our final work day, packing our lunches and putting on our
already mud-stained work clothes for the last time. After a long day of
sanding, skimming, priming, and painting, we said a sad farewell to Andy and
Nicole, our superb site-supervisors. We then caravanned to the Levy tours,
where we heard Elise, one of the Americorps volunteers, give us all the
information we were lacking about the events that took place at the Levies.
After
much-needed showers, we traveled to the French Quarter for the last time
visiting boutiques and eating our second round of Beignets. When we returned
for a hearty meal of spaghetti and meat-balls, we were pleased to welcome
Nicole, a site supervisor, and her boyfriend Trevor to our final banquet. The thought-provoking
conversations that took place after led into our gift giving ceremony where we
continued to reflect on our journey. In pairs, we created meaningful gifts for
the group to take home as a reminder of what we have learned over this past
week. The gifts ranged from poems and awards to pictures and “thank-you’s.” We
felt that most importantly, these gifts reflected the personal connections we
have formed with one another.
Our
knowledge of hurricane Katrina has surpassed mere facts. This experience has
enabled us to begin to understand the emotional and intangible effects of the
hurricane. All the people we have met went through the same disaster, yet
somehow have entirely different perspectives. We met one home-owner who
fervently argued a conspiracy theory, in which she believed that every 40 years
people blew up the Levies as an act of terrorism. Some, on the other hand, strove
to focus on the positive impacts after the disaster. Even though this specific
experience has been once in a lifetime, we will definitely continue our
community outreach and bring what we learned home to our Gann family.
All our
love, from the NOLA12 familia,
Maya Warburg, Itamar Lewin-Arundale, and Hannah Hausman
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