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From Jaime Reich, York University

These 5 days in New Orleans have been an experience like no other. When I first found out that the trip was going to be only 5 days, I was unsure how much of a difference we could really make and what we could really do in five days. After being here just one day, however, I knew that every person who came to New Orleans and every little thing that people do here and teach other people about, makes SO MUCH of a difference, especially considering the alternative being doing nothing at all. Just like the story about the Rabbi walking along the beach who throws the starfish back into the ocean, who is asked “Rabbi, why are you bothering? There is no way you can save them all, or make a difference” and as the Rabbi picked up another one, and tossed it back into the water, he said “made a difference to that one.” That is how I feel about anything people can do to help out in New Orleans or any other are affected by Katrina.

One of the things that really made an impact on me was when Leroy, our bus driver, was telling us about his experience in Katrina when we were on our tour of the lower ninth ward. He told us, as did many other people, that nobody really took the evacuation notice seriously, because every few years in New Orleans there was a big storm, people were told to evacuate, some did for a few days, and then the storm never hit New Orleans and they came home after a few days in a hotel. So this evacuation warning came, and some people evacuated, and some did not. Leroy’s family did evacuate for Katrina, and he told us “I put my key in the door to leave, and when I came back, my house was not there.” The only thing that really made sense to me was to automatically think of the Holocaust when I heard that story from Leroy, because just like in the Holocaust when no one knew what was going to happen and could not foresee having to leave their homes and not come back or come back to not the same home they left, the same happened when people evacuated for Katrina.

Overall I think that the most important thing I can say about my trip to New Orleans is that yes, its two and a half years later and yes, there is still work to be done, and yes YOU can make a difference.