New Orleans: A social experiment founded on perspective

As I mentioned yesterday, this week we are staying at Camp Hope in Arabi LA at the southeastern corner of the lower 9th ward.  Camp Hope started as an idea aiming to house the massive influx of volunteers that migrated to New Orleans post-Katrina.  For a very minimal amount of money, Camp Hope provides those volunteers with three meals a day, shower and bathroom facilities and, wait for it, beds!!!  Yes, we are finally sleeping on real mattresses, even if just for a week.  

While volunteers utilizing Camp Hope's facilities have historically worked with a multitude of organizations, our Bike & Build SUS14 team is partnering with the St. Bernard Project for the next five days.  

The St. Bernard Project logically targets rebuilding efforts in the St. Bernard parish.  I strongly encourage you to google the organization to seek out more information about their mission and their rebuilding strategies because, while I respect St. Bernard Project's efforts to help New Orleans recover, yesterday's social justice tour openned my eyes to a lot of the systematized racial issues that are so inherently linked to the city's reconstruction.  

I in no way want to mar your impressions of the organization but rather want to encourage you to form your own opinions.  I know that following this week of work and en lieu of our social justice tour, I will be doing me own research on the St. Bernard Project and establishing my own thoughts.  

This city is an amazing fusion of so many different rich and complicated cultures.  However, overlaid on this fruitful cultural scene is a dichotomy between the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the educated and the uneducated, the socially affluent and the underrepresented.  I feel as if I could live in this city for years and never fully understand the antiquated issues that plague it.  However, despite these concerns, there is no denying that New Orleans is the type of city you fall in love with.