Hard times in Big Easy
By Brooke Boniface
This past week I went on an immersion trip to New Orleans with 10 other Santa Clara students and one adult chaperone. Working through Shirts Across America, a group started by Santa Clara freshman Laura Snowden when she was in high school, and the Saint Bernard Project, a non-profit in Louisiana, our group helped to rebuild one person's destroyed home.
When we first arrived in New Orleans, none of us really knew what to expect. We knew how devastating Hurricane Katrina had been for the people of New Orleans. But it has been five years, and we assumed that the city must be basically back to normal. As it turns out, we could not have been more wrong.
As sophomore Melissa Martin described, "Driving through the Saint Bernard Parish, where 100 percent of homes were severely damaged, and through the Lower 9th there are huge empty plots of land -- places where homes or buildings or small companies once stood. The place is desolate."
Open fields are dotted with small remnants of foundation, acting as placeholders for people's lives. Each one seems to call out, "A family used to live here," and yet so many have not returned. Thousands of families are still living in FEMA trailers and thousands more cannot afford to rebuild or rent.
Many of the houses that still stand are marked with an odd configuration of numbers in spray paint. One of the students asked Laura what the numbers mean.
"The top number is the date the house was searched by the National Guard and the bottom number is the amount of dead bodies found inside."
Luckily, all of the homes we encountered had a "0" at the bottom.
Despite its hardships, New Orleans is a vibrant city bursting with culture and optimism. Places like Bourbon Street and the French Quarter are still bulwarks of Creole music, food and lifestyle. Each person we encountered was extremely friendly, always ready with a smile and a "how y'all doing?" or "where y'all from?" Celebrations of moments small and large are recognized and commemorated by festivals and parades.
As recent graduate Vanessa Rodriguez observed, "Even though a natural disaster can take away everything they own, it cannot take away their hope and faith."
The people of New Orleans are still immensely fun-loving, hardworking and hospitable, but without the assistance of others it may take decades before their city can rebuild.
When a disaster strikes around the world, the people of all nations stand at attention. Funds are raised, volunteers are recruited and awareness of issues is abound. But after a time this fervor and compassion fades as new disasters occur and other causes seem more prominent. The latest "New Orleans" is soon replaced and forgotten.
But this cannot continue. No cause is more worthy and no people more deserving than any other, and all must be given due help and support.
I have seen firsthand that the people of New Orleans still crave and need the assistance of the world so that almost five years after Hurricane Katrina their lives can regain some sense of normalcy.
We who are so fortunate cannot halfheartedly support the cause of the moment until a newer, hipper one comes along. Each person must find what plight speaks to them and support it wholeheartedly. Then, and only then, can places like New Orleans truly be rebuilt.
Freshman Maggie Anderson, put it best by saying, "This is our global and national community that is being devastated and we have a responsibility to see our aid efforts through to the end. It is not unrealistic that this could be our homes, our lives destroyed. If it was me I wouldn't want to be forgotten about."
Brooke Boniface is a sophomore history and political science double major.