Thursday, March 29, 2012

March 29, 2012, last day of work


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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