GCWT IV

A Report From a Member of GCWT IV
by Julia Wallace

New Orleans, Louisiana: A city so rich in culture and diversity. A place where jazz music beats down the streets and the jumping sound of street performers echoes across the town. New Orleans has been a symbol of the uniqueness of the United States for years.

And then you see the residential areas, after the storm. Homes damaged. Lives destroyed. The spray-paint on the walls, "One dog dead under house" or "Boy found alive in attic". The lasting affects of Hurricane Katrina shown to the world.

For me, one of the hardest things to do was imagine. Imagine what life was like before. The lower ninth ward, now just an enormous grass field, was once covered in hundreds of houses. Here, on this grass lot, was where a father scolded his young son for leaving his new jacket at the playground. Across the street, a recently married couple finds their first home together. And in the basketball gym, one of the only buildings still left standing in the ward, a little girl watched her big brother play ball with his friends until it became too dark to see.

Each morning we woke at seven a.m., grabbed something to eat, said a quick prayer and headed out to work on what many think is a lost cause. Each day we found ourselves drenched in sweat from the sweltering heat before we had even unloaded the car. But we knew we had to make sure that every nail was in place, every wall was square. We knew we were not only rebuilding someone's house, but their home, their life. Everything must be perfect, so that the new life these people are now forced to live might just be better than the last.