 |
Off-Campus Studies | |
||||
| Admitted Students | Current Students | Parents | Faculty & Staff | Alumni | Churches | Donors & Friends |
| Admissions | About Us | Academics | Student Life | News | Athletics | Make a Gift |  |
| |||||||||||||
 |
Molly "It's the Third World down here," a New Orleans local told me on the airplane trip from Denver. I thought to myself, "Are you kidding me lady? Have you ever seen the Third World?" We spent today in New Orleans. As I fell into a rugged hole on the sidewalk outside of the bustling flea market, memories from my time in Central America came flooding back. The narrow streets, the odor of something sour lingering in thick smoggy air, and street musicians seeking an extra buck gave me the illusion that I was back in Nicaragua. This experience came only after visiting the Anton Haardt Gallery where local artists display their work screaming of years of oppression and injustice endured in the south. Various renditions of Rosa Parks and the "Freedom Bus" and the work of poor sharecroppers on the plantation of a wealthy landowner are common threads among outsider artists. This evening, after eating a delicious seafood meal at the House of Blues, I was reminded by a young man that just months ago he and his family were brought to the point of looting for food and water in order to survive after Katrina. A second employee explained that much of the city remains un-lit and the residents still wait without mail service or land lines. It is difficult for children because schools are out of service and those with school-aged children have left with little hope of return. After today, I think my friend on the plane may be more familiar with the Third World than had originally given her credit.
Back to Off-Campus Studies >> Online Travelogues >> Gulf Coast Study Program >> |
|
