Who Dat?!
At the end of Christmas break I went on one of the Rockhurst service immersion trips to New Orleans. Who would have thought I could fall so in love with a place in just one short week? I've always felt drawn to it for some reason and I've known for quite some time that I want to spend a year working down there after school, but I didn't think it would be so difficult to leave after just seven days. It took a long time for me to feel at home again at Rockhurst, like I wasn't where I belonged anymore.
New Orleans is such an incredilbe city with a character and spirit that you can't encounter anywhere else, food that's beyond this world, and hospitality that you can only find in the South. While we were there we did landscaping at the homes of the elderly and sick who can't leave their homes, we did some organizing, cleaning, and painting around the Catholic Chariities Operation Helping Hands building, we got rid of vines and overgrown plants that were actually growing into the house, and we gutted a bathroom so it could be made handicap accesible (by far the most fun). Our group had so much fun working together and with the long-term volunteers. It was so incredible to hear people's stories, and everyone was willing to tell you everything about their lives. Ms. Kathey, the cook at OHH was one of the most incredible and warm women I think I've ever met. It was also so powerful touring the city, especially the Ninth Ward. It was absolutely heart breaking, but at the same time it gives one so much hope. You see all the destruction and hardship that's still there, but then you see brand new houses being built and people who just won't give up. And to see how people have made any building, tent, etc. they can find into a makeshift church so they can still give praise to God through all of the bad times and loss. It was beautiful to be a part of and to witness. Then of course there was the French Quarter. Need I say more?
On one of the levees
Tearing that bathroom apart
Love and prayers
Sarah
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