Thursday; Hitting the Streets in Central City, NOLA

Wow, what an experience! Today, I, along with 4 of my classmates went into the streets of Central City to gather signatures for a petition. We were assisting Miss Audre, from Central City Community Partnerships in attaining signatures from community members. The petition was in regards to Home Depot "setting up shop" in the community. The members of the coalition wanted to ensure that Home Depot be responsible to the community for three points in particular:
1. Hire local residents @ the living wage
2. Contribute to the rebuilding of Booker T. Washington H.S. (a historical
Black H.S. in the community, not yet reopened since the storm), and
develop an apprentice program for the students
3. Assist in the rehabilitation of homes of the senior citizens in the
community.
After arriving and speaking to Miss Audre about our task I was a bit nervous to say the least. For one, I have never been to New Orleans, let alone Central City. Secondly, I am not in the habit of walking up to strangers and engaging in a conversation, let alone trying to convince them to support a cause and sign a petition. When we went to our first stop and the owner expressed his views and did not want us to "bother his patrons" with a cause he did not totally agree with, I knew this was going to be harder than I thought.
But, when we went door to door in the community, speaking to the community members I experienced a totally different reaction. Many of the people I spoke to, when told about the cause jumped at the chance to sign the petition. I had such a transformative experience today. I did something I would not have seen myself doing a week ago.
But it was not what I was doing that influenced me as much as it was the people I met. Listening to their stories touched me on so many level. I truly understood, after this day, why I was here--this is definitely not to take away from the week's earlier experiences.
Though Central City was not one of the hardest hit areas by the storm, I could still feel and see the devastation Katrina and the aftermath caused this community. Though many people have come back, many are still not home! It is hard to explain in words what I experienced while doing this work. Words could not and would not do it justice. I wish I could find the words so that you could vicariously experience what I did, see what I saw, hear what I heard, and feel what I felt. One thing that I want to convey is that the residents are resilient people. I felt the passion they had for their community in the tone of their voice, the way their body moved as they spoke about the love they have for Central City, the look in their eyes as they shared with me stories of their lives pre- and post- Katrina.
I haven't processed everything yet, but I do know that this experience has re-confirmed that everyone who can physically come down to NOLA needs to make their way down here. As much as we hear that things are getting back to "normal" and "business as usual," this is not the reality for many of NOLA residents. I cannot express enough the necessity for everyone to "pay it forward" to the folks in the Gulf Coast that continue to deal with the devastation of Katrina and the aftermath that followed!
-Nichelle