Leslie's Still Here... 7/16/06!

Leslie's Post

**These few words I have written no where begin to describe the experiences I am having down here. You have to see it to believe it.**

Again, I have had problems getting Internet access and time to blog, so a lot has happened since the last time I've blogged. First and foremost, the kids I'm working with are absolutely amazing. It really has been a beneficial opportunity to extinguish my stereotypes about natural disaster victims, impoverished neighborhoods, and the overall ideas of what it is like to be living in the black community.



I cannot emphasize enough how much I love these kids. I never thought that I was here to pity them, but the closer I become to them, the more I realize how much I used to subconsciously feel pity for them. Now it is not pity, and I am so proud of them and respect them to the highest regard. These kids are amazing and I am sad that I will have to leave them soon.



Through talking to residents down here that are my age I have come to a conclusion about these Hurricane Katrina survivors. Hurricane Katrina really had nothing to do with their oppositional, behavioral, psychiatric, and emotional problems. My friend Nicole said, "Hell, I'm sure they liked getting evacuated at least they got to go on a vacation." The poverty was in existence prior to Katrina and the hurricane is only what brought it to our attention. The children we have the most problems with have been in public housing and foster care prior to the hurricane. Actually, we have a lot of problems with a little girl from Kansas City, who is in New Orleans for the summer to stay with her father. Her issues do not stem from Katrina. In the Critical Media Studies course, the teacher showed a picture of 50 Cent holding a gun. She asked the kids how many have seen a gun in their life and in every single class every child raised his/her hand. Many have witnessed and experienced domestic violence, shootings, drug use, being raised in single parent homes, and struggles to make ends meet. All of these were factors that were in place prior to Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was what brought them into light however. One thing that struck me was when we asked the children what they wanted to do as a community service project a little boy raised his hand and suggested that we clean up all of the syringes and needles in his neighborhood.



The camp emphasizes a resiliency model and that kids are usually able to bounce back from things. However, that is not to negate the kids that are unable to bounce back from tragedies. It is not just Hurricane Katrina that is causing some of these kids problems, it is the accumulation of traumas, instability, and lack of opportunity throughout their lives. There have been instances in which the police have come to escort kids out, and kids being sent to mental institutions.



The kids are very in touch with what is going on in the relief effort and it seems to discourage many of them. They wanted to do a community service project for the elementary school down the street- we need the key for the barbed wire fence which we should be getting next week. Last Friday we went on a field trip to the iMax movie theater and the school bus we took over there was not in tip-top shape. A 7th grade girl "M.R." got on the bus and sarcastically said, "I bet this piece of crap was one of the ones that was under water!" Another child said, "Where'd you rent this bus from, FEMA or something? Is that why it's so bad?" Because there were so many school busses lost in the storm it is very expensive and hard to find busses to rent. We did not rent with a credible company this time and will not be renting with them again. The bus stalled on the bridge going over the Mississippi river and started rolling backwards. I saw the kids' affects change immediately when the bus started rocking backwards down the road. I was terrified myself but the counselors tried to calm all of the children down. Looking over that body of water in an unsafe vehicle hit close to home to them. Kids were holding hands with one-another praying and others whipped out of their cell phones and making calls. The bus eventually started rolling the right way but the entire atmosphere on the bus changed. A girl near me I noticed had stopped her previous conversation and had her head a fixed gaze with her head leaned up against the window. For a moment it made me better able to conceptualize what it must have been like to evacuate.



Something that I have noticed down here is that in the poor areas of New Orleans, the entire demography is make up of black folks. Immediately upon entering Uptown and the French Quarter, the demography becomes nearly all white. It is just a concrete example of the role that race plays with class and how much these two are interrelated. Out of the nearly 100 children at our camp-site, there are 2 that are white, 1 is Mexican, 1 is mixed, and the other 96 or so are black. Our camp is located in a very poor neighborhood. I have never seen such a concrete representation of the relationship between race and class as I have seen down here and I am ashamed. We have a long way to come to live in harmony with one another, because here I can see that the lines between black and white are still clearly defined. There's also tension between those that are darker black and lighter black. I learned about the "brown paper bag" test. It means that any boyfriend or girlfriend you bring home has to have a skin tone lighter than a brown paper bag because if you are a light black, you only date light blacks and vice versa.



I will write again soon. The things I am seeing and experiencing down here still need a lot of processing and analyzing. Again, this summer is like none other and I cannot imagine being anywhere else this summer! I am already obsessing about returning home just to finish my degree so I can hurry up and move on down here!!!

**Leslie Thompson** =)