Saad Riaz

I haven’t been awake at 8am in a long time. Getting up from the bed at 8 and heading straight to work is something that I came down here to do, and it makes me happy. And it is fun! Lower 9th Village is one of the towns affected by the Hurricane Katrina six years back. But it’s the area in New Orleans that has not been given much attention. When I came here I was expecting some development in this area since it’s been six years since the catastrophe. But it hasn’t changed much within the last three four years. Houses here are still damaged and places that haven’t had any improvement. The towns nearby, that were affected worse are way better off than the lower ninth village, since they were being helped, had sponsors but for no reason the lower ninth ward was left without help.

It was my dream to come here and help out the people. We came at the Lower Ninth Ward to a warehouse and have stayed here since then. It is supposed to be a Community Center and was our job to make it look like one and make it worthy for people to actually come and get help they wanted. The day we came, it was a dangerous place for children, due to all the tools and equipment lying around. Banners of Universities whose students have been here were all scattered around on the roof and hanging badly, library was just dumped with books and two of the rooms were filled with chairs and other wood stuff. In two days we changed a lot of that. Removing all the dangerous tools, shifting the chairs, tables, broken doors, pieces of wood, all the scrap metal, books and weeding the garden outside was hard work. Right now the library looks awesome, Andy and I did most of the poster arranging all day today- getting up on the ladder 15 feet high and hanging the posters, taking some off was fun. I also helped in putting on the wall on one side of the shed and also painting it. It is tiring but a lot of fun and that is what keeps everyone going. We also went to a ranch. It was far from the warehouse but we had a lot of fun there. We got to ride horses, give them baths and had an amazing dinner. We also cleaned the stables, helped with cleaning the land and came back around 6pm.

We took tour of the city and saw all the damaged houses; some had holes in their roofs. These holes held a significance because what Mack, our guide, told us was that during the hurricane at the moment the water was rushing in the streets and into the houses they had just a few seconds to make a hole in their houses and escape, and that way their houses too could have been saved. But many died in the attics and a few made it out. Also something what I came to know were the crosses on every house in the town. The crossed had numbers on two sides and writing on the other two. One showed how many people had died in that house; one that how many animals died and the writing was letters that showed what company helped them.

This trip so far has been really good. Though we didn’t get to build much but there has been a lot of other stuff that is also something that is helping the villagers here. I came to know about some great stuff, about New Orleans and how it was affected.

A Village to Rebuild 

A hand to lend 

A Great Experience

Andrea DiGioia

     From January 4^th to January 10^th I will be spending my days and nights in the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans. I am spending most of my time with thirty nine fellow habitat members at a community center run and maintained by an inspirational man, Mac. Here, we have heard Mac time and time again tell us of the devastation that this community, as well as many others throughout Louisiana, have suffered as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Families watched as their homes filled with water up 32 feet high, giving them 12 minutes to make it to their attic and break a hole to freedom. People lost their possessions, their pets, and worst of all, family members.

     Six years later the people of New Orleans are still dealing with the aftermath of the storm. Many are unable to afford moving back to their homes, forcing them to die in unfamiliar lands. The lower ninth ward, once having 7 schools, is now forced to place all its kids, kindergarten – twelfth, into one school. Empty and abandoned houses occupy much of the area. People just want to go home and continue on with their lives, and they are having a hard time doing so.

     Here, in this area that has lost so much, we find Mac. Mac is a man of endless ideas and endless hope. Originally a member of  the Lower Ninth Ward community, Mac has made it is goal to fix what has been damaged. He sees potential everywhere he goes. It is Mac who has been our inspiration for this trip. As a group we have heard his ideas and seen what he hopes to do with his community center. Using his ideas as well as our own, we have continued upon his project that has so much potential. We are helping him to create somewhere kids and community members can come to read, play a board or basketball game, or just hang out.

      The community has lost so much and could use something to call their own. That’s what I personally see in this community center and Mac’s project. I see a place for the community to come together and continue to grow. It will give them a place of their own. Slowly this week we have been working on this center. I personally have helped to go through thousands of books that have been donated and work on creating a library for the people. Others are working in the yard, making it a safe place for the children to play. Slowly we are seeing the changes we are making in the community center and it makes me feel good to know that I will be making a difference in someone’s, if not many, people’s lives in this community.

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.