The day started with a powerful tour of the Whitney plantation, then moved onto exploring the lower ninth ward, onto the vibrant French Quarter, then to Louisiana’s #1 ice cream shop (according to Reader’s Digest (& according to Liz)), and finally walking around the affluent garden district.

My experience at the Whitney plantation was intense. Slavery is something they taught me about in grade school, when it was easy to separate myself from the reality of it. Actually being on a plantation and seeing the names and stories of hundreds of slaves who would rather have died than stay in the living/worki

ng conditions they were in was a reality shock. While processing how I felt about the tour, I started wondering what Talita- an international student from Brazil on our trip, thought about everything. It’s easy for me to learn about the gruesome realities of the Holocaust and wonder how in the world a country would ever let their citizens treat other citizens that way. But is how our country allowed our citizens to treat slaves much better? What does she make of the harsh beginnings of America?

After the plantation tour, we moved onto the lower ninth ward – the area of New Orleans that experienced the greatest devastation after Katrina in 2005. After telling a friend we were touring the ward, his response was “is there even still devastation there? Wasn’t the hurricane almost 12 years ago?” To be honest, this is where my thoughts were as well. Surely they have restored New Orleans since then. I quickly discovered that that was not the case. Although there are many houses that have been restored, there were plenty with stains about 12 feet up the building where the flood waters rose to, roofs caved in, holes in the walls, and spray painted black X’s on the doors. Why is this area of NOLA not fully restored, and yet the French Quarter has fully recovered and is alive with activity? Not even 50% of the residents who were living in the 9th ward prior to Katrina have been able to return to their homes yet.

After seeing the sharp contrast between the affluent areas and low income areas on NOLA, our team seems determined to jump in tomorrow to start restoring houses in the low income area.

I’m excited to see what we can get accomplished this week, and I’m excited to wear my Mardi Gras beads in the French Quarter on Friday.

#bearup

-Joy Sharp