…And We’re Home from New Orleans
This post was written by undergraduate student Marissa Ferber ’09
Goodbye Louisiana!
Yesterday before we boarded the plane for home, we took a trip to the lower 9th ward in Louisiana, where the levy broke and the largest impact of Katrina hit. The night before, Doug showed a few of us pictures from his trip to New Orleans a few years ago with other Babson staff. The first picture in his slideshow had a sign saying “tourism here is profane” and I took that picture very much to heart when we got to the area.
My van agreed that visiting the site was important because even though we stayed an hour away we didn’t know the state of that area—media coverage has lessened to almost nothing and we never really knew how bad things still were until we got there. We now feel a little more comfortable talking to others about what needs to be done there and spreading information, because we have seen the real damage firsthand.
At the same time, the area is still home for so many people. Seeing those who lived there, I really started to feel uncomfortable with others in my group wanting to take pictures. I thought about the “tourism is profane” sign and remembered the “black tourism” discussion I had with my suitemate when he came home from studying abroad.
Overall, the visit definitely left me with mixed emotions. It was horrible yet important to see the destruction in the area, and amazing to see how many houses were already rebuilt. I am definitely happy that the group made the decision to visit, and feel like my time spent in New Orleans is now complete. Being in your own world with a zillion things to do at school makes you worry that you’ll lose sight of what’s important, but being on this trip with the most incredible group erases any doubt. So all of my awkward blogging thanks go to Josh, Kevin, Doug, Billy, Melissa, Dan, Shiva Shiva What What, Christina, Natasha, Pat, Shin Shin, Dee, Peter, Alex, Christi, Haya, Victoria, and Jackie.
No more blogs for me!
Marissa Ferber