New Orleans

I spent the past week in New Orleans, part of an organization that rebuilds people's houses after hurricane Katrina. It was astounding to me how much of the area was destroyed, and still remain in ruins 5 years after the storm. I learned a lot about New Orleans, its ecosystem, the flooding, and stuff like that. The city itself is 6 feet underwater, which leads me to believe that whoever initially founded this city was begging for something tragic like this to happen at some point. Learning about the disappearing wetlands reinforces this thought, but regardless about what is happening with the environment around them, the people who lived there and had their homes destroyed need help. So many of the homeowners we met this week had contractors take advantage of them and take all of their money so that they didn't have the option of rebuilding their own homes after that. It's not like these people didn't plan ahead, get insurance, and try to rebuild on their own. They tried to do everything right on their own means, and all their money was taken. It's amazing how many people can take advantage of people when they are so in need.

The culture of the people there is different than in any city I have ever been to. The people of New Orleans are absolutely in love with that city. A few of us asked some Katrina survivors what made them stay after the storm (I mean, if Erie was destroyed by massive flooding after a storm, I would have no problem finding a job somewhere else and moving on...). But they all had a similar response: that they couldn't dream of leaving the city that they love, this was their home. It blew me away, the passion all of these people had for their city. I hope to have that same passion for the place that I live some day. I like Erie and all, but I've never had a deep connection with it ... my life will go on somewhere else just as well as it does here. For them, leaving wasn't an option.

My flights back were unreal. We were supposed to fly from NO to Ft Lauderdale then to Philly then to Pittsburgh, landing in Pittsburgh at 5:20 after leaving NO at 9:30. Sounds terrible already. Instead, there was terrible weather in Ft Lauderdale, so we were diverted to Tampa until the Ft Lauderdale airport reopened. Luckily, we didn't have any connecting flights (we had the same plane and crew the entire way). We finally landed in Pittsburgh at about 10:45pm. After getting our bags and driving back to Erie, I finally went to bed at 2am, after waking up that morning at 5am. 20 hours of being awake :-) Lots of travelling. Good times.