Epic Education

Today was one "Epic Education."  We have met so many people - a number who have supported us from the beginning of our project, so it's been really fun to actually meet them in person.

Ms. Prout - she is one of our donors who contributed a large amount of money through Donors Choose, making us all realize that people care about us, even when they don't know us personally.  She is from NOLA, and traveled with us all day today - she is really special.  She'll be with us tomorrow, but one thing we learned about her, is that she was a former teacher and she volunteers for Kaboom!  Kaboom is an organization that builds playgrounds.  Stay tuned for pictures and her involvement with us tomorrow.  

Another person with great influence is Ms. Massey.  We learned so much from her, and her energy really made us feel great.  Thanks to her knowledge, we saw a bunch of sights, including the: 

Superdome from a distance  

Fats Dominos house

MLK school - the only one rebuilt in the Lower 9th Ward 

Xavier College 

Congo Square

French Quarter

levee 

canals

Mississippi River

Lower 9th Ward 

We also met Mr. "Mack," the executive director of the Lower 9th Ward Community Village - a center he hopes to build to its fullest complete with computers, books, tutoring opportunities, meeting spaces, and entertainment.  He was inspiring, telling us three lessons:  1) Do everything in our power to protect your light, 2) Make your job never feel like it's a job, and 3) When you find your purpose, I guarantee you that if it's service, you will be happy.  Mr. Mack told us that he's really jealous of us because we are getting to volunteer and do service now, and it took him a lifetime and a disaster to learn how to care.  When he shared his story with us, he told us that he personally things it's going to flood again.  He said he learned that he will leave for the storm, but that he will ALWAYS come back to the Lower 9th Ward.   Mr. Mack is back in his community, but not back in his house.  He was amazing to spend so much time with us.  

Ms. Perry helped us understand the true impact a disaster has on a person.  Her home is across the street from the Lower 9th Ward Village, and she chose to rebuild instead of move out of the Lower 9th Ward after the Flood.  She had only lived in the 9th Ward for three months when Hurricane Katrina hit.  She was so great to explain the Make it Right Foundation http://www.makeitrightnola.org/ to us, giving us a sense of what it is like for residents to return to the Lower 9th Ward and accept that their house will be rebuilt, but not in the way it once was.  She traveled with us throughout the day too.  

After lunch, we went to the Sara T. Reed High School.  The Americorp volunteers were ready for us.  They gave us a brief orientation to help us assemble the Literacy Kits, and reviewed the plan for the garden.  Sara T. Reed is a high school with many challenges, including only 20% of the students are at grade level for academics.  In addition to this, many of the students are young mothers, so they are faced with many demands related to being a teenager still in high school.  Our work went pretty fast, especially the Literacy Kits.  It's hard to believe we accomplished two small mini projects in a day.   One thing that happened was we used our skills from the Sherman Garden to help plant theirs, and we brought a trellis, stepping stones, and garden tools to help them start their garden.  We planted marigolds, petunias, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, cantalope, basil, okra, rosemary, celery, and many other things that they will be able to pick and eat and use right away.  We felt pretty satisfied.  

We built a fence

This ground was just dirt when we arrived.  It looks so pretty now. 

 We ended our day at City Park - it's huge, 1300 acres, and the sixth largest park in the United States. It's amazing to see it so beautiful, since the Flood really damaged it, and it was at one time under water.

Ask any one of us, and I think we will all agree that today was - in Torshia Lee's words, "An Epic Education."  Tomorrow we will interview other kids to ask them why they think our New Orleans trip fits this description.  Until then, thank you for your support!  

PS:  Follow us on our Facebook page:  New Orleans Service Learning Project.