SUBMISSION DATE: MARCH 2006

VOLUNTEER: Manuel Rosaldo

NOTES: During the week of the 12th we had several volunteers come into New Orleans to gut homes on their Spring Breaks. Since we were short on housing, the Sheraton Hotel generously donated 10 doubles for our volunteers.

Each evening we had a meeting to discuss our day and to answer any questions volunteers had. It was during one of those meetings that Manuel Rosaldo and other volunteers shared their thoughts with us.

......One of the most important parts of my day was talking to two reconstruction workers who were picking up hazardous waste from the site where we were working.

They are both New Orleans residents and both of them said that nearly all of their families and friends have left (New Orleans) have not been able to return because they have no where to go.

One of them lives in a small house with a hurricane damaged roof and had to host 9 of his family members for several weeks. "Look around here," he told me. "We live in the richest country in the world, and yet you don't see a single house being rebuilt here in the 9th ward. It's been seven months - where are we supposed to go?"

Manuel Rosaldo
NYU