Chiana Montesi

This trip has been very eye opening to me. I have always had more than enough provided for me my entire life, and when I realized how much I took it for granted. The lower ninth ward has so much to offer to its community, but without the funds or support it seems as if the community has no positive influences. Walking around the village and lower ninth I saw how happy the people were even though they were still rebuilding from practically nothing.

The part of the trip that really moved me was seeing the holes in the houses. For those who don’t know when the hurricane hit people inside their homes had 12 minutes to go up to their attics and cut a hole in the roof. Those who couldn’t successfully cut the holes most likely died. It’s a breathtaking site to see, and really shows how you should never take time for granted. After I took in the scenery, I wondered why the buildings were even still up. Why after 6 years do these people need to see the remains of what tore their city and lives to pieces. But then I realized that it was a reminder to volunteers like myself, that these people still need help. They have come so far, but still need help. Even though these people are incredibly strong and amazing they cannot do it alone.

Another site that was eye opening to me was the x’s. The x’s show four things; the date that people came and checked the house, the group that came in, the number of animals that died, and the number of people that died. Luckily no one died in this house, but the place was still a mess.

Coming back to the community center I had a new motivation. I wanted to make it more suitable for kids and the community. Along with others I decided that we should paint a mural on the wall of a map of the united states. We decided that on top of the mural we were going to have the logo Building Dreams for New Orleans. Underneath there would be a map painted with all different colors. As schools like ours came down to help renovate the community center, you mark your state and draw a line and label it with your state. Having this can be inspiration to other schools so that they could leave their mark on the community center. I also believe that this will also further inspire other children who come to the community center to get involved with community service and groups like Habitat. By inspiring this community and building this center, I hope that it will inspire them to stay involve and stay off the streets.

When we were viewing these scenes, Mack brought up pa very interesting point. He said that 6 years after the fact there are still volunteers that are coming to help. He said it’s not by the media, because in that case we would have heard about the progress when the Saints won the superbowl just 2 years ago. Instead were spreading the word about the community by mouth. So by coming here and by having this blog hopefully we can continue to spread the word and continue to build dreams down here in New Orleans.

Oh yeah! I also adopted two awesome puppies down here! One girl named Blues, and one boy named Bourbon! They’ll be making the trip back to CT with us when we leave!

For more information about the Lower Ninth Ward Village please visit their website here and if you would like to make a donation, you can do that here.