I woke up at quarter of six pretty awake and ready to work. I went over to eat at seven a nice bowl of fruit loops and I was out and rolling. It was a warm, beautiful day: 70 degrees, the grass green the trees growing and the bright sun welcoming. I had not seen this weather since the beginning of school last year, and was glad to wear shorts. We hopped into the car and I was off to our site: Community Center of St. Bernard.
Let me start with a little background. It was started in August of 2008 by the citizens of St. Bernard's Parish via a petition. A parish is essentially like a district. The people of St. Bernard started to realize after the immediate disaster relief groups had to leave they would need to maintain themselves and sustain the rebuilding effort. That is why the petitioned for the community center, to provide basic necessities for those less fortunate: food stamps, food and clothing. Not only that they provide financial help classes, access to free internet and different nightly classes such as art.
After a tour we and hearing that we got down right to business. Our job was to take out pre-packaged weekly food boxes and distribute them to the elderly and then to sort out miscellaneous clothing so it could be organized to give out. The boxes though were about 30 pounds and so for the most part, we needed to help out bring these boxes to their cars. There was one thing that struck me the most. The people were so grateful when I brought this box out to their car, at times, almost overjoyed. It really didn't seem a big deal to me at the time, but time after time I was met by so much gratitude. These people really needed someone, and I was helping them to have what they needed. I talked to many of them and they all were so ecstatic that I was down here all the way from Mass. helping out New Orleans. Then a couple people tried to give me tips. That stunned me a little bit these people who seemed to have trouble getting by as it is tried to give me their hard earned, needed money out of sheer gratitude. It just blew me back.
But on a lighter note here is a funny little story as I was helping one of the ladies out to her car. She asked where I was from and I was like Massachusetts. She responded with "how y'all keep warm up there?" I really didn't know how to respond but i was like well fire first off... and then she cutting me off a little "was like y'all just have giant fires in all your rooms? That can't be safe." I laughed and said well we have natural gas and oil too. Again surprised she was like "don't all that freeze when it's cold?" I then explained it was underground and again she said "well yeah but the ground is freezing too right? So how's that work?" I laughed again and i said well it just doesn't freeze. It was pretty funny. Then came the end of the day and we had served 250 boxes, which accounts for 250 people essentially. This was amazing and I was so glad to have worked that hard. After dinner and four square we wounded down with reflection and a fire. In the fire I saw myself not stressed at school, at sibling or at drama; I was here to just help people and do community service. After that reflection I finally went to sleep ready for the next day's work.
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