I left my heart in New Orleans...

Last week for spring break I had the opportunity to go down to New Orleans for a few days with nearly 400 other Clemson students from FCA to do various forms of mission work around the city. We departed from Clemson in the wee hours of Saturday morning and arrived in the Big Easy around 5:00 that night. Saturday night and Sunday found us exploring and experiencing the unique cuisine and abundant culture of the city. On Monday morning, my group of thirteen students set out for the New Orleans Mission, our work site for the week. When we arrived, we were given a list of projects that the mission needed done. The New Orleans Mission is a homeless shelter for the people of New Orleans. They house approximately 150 men each night and a smaller number of women and children. I learned that the homeless population of New Orleans, which was about 6,000 before Hurricane Katrina, is thought to have doubled or tripled since the storm, to a number between 12,000 and 18,000. The mission can only help a tiny percentage of those who are still without homes, but the impact they have in the community is making a difference nonetheless. We originally thought we were going to have direct contact with homeless people, but we ended up doing odd jobs around the shelter. We built cubicles so that social workers can come in to the mission and have a place to meet with the shelter's clients and help them find jobs. We built shelves in a linen closet, patched a hole in the wall of the new addition to the shelter, and organized their warehouse and clothing donations they have received to make things easier to find and access. Overall, we had a very productive week at the mission. We were all sad to see the week end and come back home, but it was a very good learning experience for us all. This was my third trip to New Orleans, and I have learned more and more with each visit. I hope to continue going down there to help out because, although a lot of progress has been made to rebuild, there is still a long way to go.