Thursday, January 12, 2006
 Kathryn
Serra , College of Arts & Sciences
Today we gave our lungs, though not our arms, a deserved
day of rest. Xavier Prep, the school we are staying at, is
taking in students from both St. Mary’s and St. Augustine
while those heavily damaged schools try to repair their facilities.
Instead of doing demolition, we spend today as St. Augustine’s
cleaning crew. At 9 a.m., St. Augustine’s facilities
manager, Mr. Francis, armed us with Comet, gloves, sponges
and an antibacterial solution he warned would burn through
our skin if we weren’t careful – and showed us
his hands to prove it. We spent the next five hours scrubbing,
rinsing and drying every steel cafeteria table we could get
our hands on.
At first, it seems silly. Half of the city looks like a third
world country, over 150,000 homes need to be demolished and
rebuilt and here we are in a high school cafeteria scrubbing
tables! When I learned about the devastation Katrina caused
and when I imagined what it will take to get New Orleans back
on its feet, I certainly didn’t picture a bunch of college
kids using Comet to conquer cafeteria tables. But this is
what it is. It’s the accumulation of a lot of very small
contributions, like the cleaning that will ultimately help
a school serve its students again in the future.
Other than gaining a realistic concept of what rebuilding
is, today provided another chance to talk to people. A Jesuit
priest shared his evacuation story – his school, St.
Augustine, was home to 350 people at the beginning of the
storm. After Katrina, he had to walk eight miles to the Superdome
to find that they were no longer allowing people in and so
he slept on a bridge for three days. At one point in time,
he watched a man seeking shelter walk in circles for hours
because all the helicopters, water and noise made it impossible
for him to find his way.
What I will never forget about today is Mr. Francis’s
gratefulness. We were just a bunch of kids cleaning tables
as we listened to music and joked around. By the way Mr. Francis
treated us, you would have thought we were sent straight from
heaven – he even waited in line for 30 minutes to bring
us back fried chicken – “The best in the county!”
he bragged.
This man, like many of the people we have met on our trip,
has been through a complete nightmare, so far beyond my comprehension.
Yet he treated us with more generosity and kindness than others
who are far more fortunate than himself. Coming to New Orleans,
taking education a step further than just the textbook, has
been a powerful experience in learning, but has also exposed
me to a human spirit that can battle, survive and still see
hope. |
