Postcard from New Orleans

Dec. 12, 2005
Dear MC Friends:

With a wake up of 7 a.m., Monday started fairly early for our group. The vans left the compound around 8, and we arrived at the Delgado Community College's West Bank campus to meet with the Chancellor and the members of the clean-up crew.

From there we headed to the City Park campus for our first real taste of Katrina's aftermath. Once we reached the campus we were given a tour by the director of clean up who explained each of the buildings and their former functions. The main buildings on campus such as the Student Center, and some of the classrooms were still standing, but had maintained structural damage and a few feet of flooding.

However, not all of the buildings were spared; the math and science building had been completely destroyed, along with another building containing classrooms. Following our tour we joined the clean-up staff for a true southern lunch consisting of salad, gumbo and bread pudding.

After lunch the work began, while the group leaders and chaperones dealt with some last minute complications the remaining students went to work cleaning the campus grounds that were littered with trash and building material.

Between 3 and 4 p.m. we reboarded the vans and toured the more damaged parts of New Orleans. Houses, cars, and general buildings we passed were marked with large Xs showing the date they had been searched, by what group, the number of bodies found, and the number of survivors rescued. Some of the buildings had marks on the roof from where they were searched in high water, and then searched again after the water receded.

No matter where we went Monday we were approached by people who could not express their gratitude for what we were doing at Delgado Community College. After speaking with them it became clear that despite the unexplainable devastation and countless months of work ahead of them, New Orleans residents are extremely optimistic. They are confident the city will be as great as it once was, and they explained that they just have to clean up and move on.

• Manda

Manda Scheub is a sophomore from Grand Rapids, Ohio. She is writing a daily postcard from New Orleans to relay what she and the 37-person traveling party from MC are doing at Delgado Community College and in New Orleans from Dec. 11-16.

Marietta College students help unload supplies from a truck in New Orleans on Dec. 12. The group of 33 students are working to help clean and restore a part of Delgado Community College's City Park campus.