Big Love in the Big Easy

It has been a very full few days learning about the city, meeting with residents, meeting with community members, and being involved with community-based projects. We had a great tour with Brandon who gave us an inside tour of Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. Brandon discussed the importance of the Catholic Diocese of New Orleans, which after the Louisiana Purchase, was the largest Catholic Diocese in the United States. We even went all the way to the bell tower and view Jackson Square through the clock tower. A view not many people experience. The dining experience in New Orleans is always a treat and one day we had lunch at Café Reconcile. Café Reconcile is not just a place to eat but is a program designed to take youth and help them turn their lives around. Youth from the community are trained in all aspects of the hospitality business and in turn have turned the food at Café Reconcile into award winning cuisine (check out their website link on the right hand side).

Everyday the students work in an afterschool program right across the street from where we are staying. The program is called the Children’s Freedom School and modeled after the program started by the Children’s Defense Fund. The students get involved with youth in a learning environment that promotes academic achievement, leadership, and empowerment. Every night the students come back with great stories of working with the Children. In addition to the tutoring, the USD students and children collaborated on a mural to highlight the main them of the school, “Harambee” Swahili for “Let’s Pull Together.”

The last couple of mornings before the students tutor at the school we worked with an organization called the “4^th World Movement.” The goal of the 4^th World is to alleviate poverty and they were founded in France. In New Orleans we helped them with their street library project. Teams of volunteers host literacy and art days in various communities using mobile art and library supplies. Our job was to build an art display, a mobile library unit, and easels. Although we have never built these before, the team did an excellent job! And by the way the students also revitalized two community gardens for the 7th Ward Community Center.

Tonight we are hosting a block party and inviting all the community members and kids we have been working with to celebrate our last evening together! We have had powerful evening reflections and I wanted to share the following reflection written by Jared:

“Going through college, we get a lot challenges that face us on a daily basis, whether it is deciding what major we want to end up pursuing or what step we want to take next… There is a lot of self-analyzing and procrastinating going on up stairs in the cerebral area of a college mind. This NOLA (New Orleans) immersion/service trip has been a time to put away all our daily routines and constant anxieties, and step into the unknown. From traveling around French Quarter, eating beignets at Café Du Monde, talking with the locals about their experience in New Orleans with some of the challenges they faced post-Katrina, tutoring local elementary students at the Freedom School, getting a VIP tour of the St. Louis Cathedral, and working with Fourth World Movement to build the community… These are just a few of the social and service activities we have done in the past 4 days that have had such a huge positive impact on our group’s interaction with the community and tasks at hand. As we continue to grow as group and within the community, we would like to thank you for your support on making this eye opening experience a reality. P.S… We love it when you post comments on our blogs, keep them coming!”