We were in the campus paper!

http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/
storage/paper885/news/2007/01/12/University/
Students.Spend.Break.Providing.Free.Services-
2628330.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailytarheel.
com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

Bourbon Street....

Katie mentioned in one of these fine blog posts a small musical band we ran into on our first evening in New Orleans while walking down Bourbon Street to dinner. I actually shot some video of them as we walked past -- not all that much footage, but here you go, along with a couple stills I took....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/jderrick/
?action=view&current=bourbonstreet.flv

My first trip to New Orleans

Close your eyes and imagine a neighborhood full of people. Children are running down the street, maybe on foot, with others riding bikes or skateboards. Two weeks ago we drove through this neighborhood… with one thing missing – the people. Much of New Orleans is alive. Bourbon Street is thriving, with scantily clad tourists laden with beads around their necks and long-necked plastic hand grenade shaped cups in their hands who are walking, laughing, talking down the street. The voices of karaoke singers ring through the open windows of “Cat’s Meow” and music from brass bands leak out into the dark nights in the French Quarter. So much of the city is here, so many people are back working, living, and playing. However, we visited a part of New Orleans that isn’t so lively. We went to St. Bernard’s parish, one of the hardest hit areas outside the city limits of New Orleans and a parish that is still trying to begin the rebuilding process. As we were driving down the dark, empty streets we talked in our (ever so stylish) van about the fact that this neighborhood probably held so many happy memories for families. Some have returned, with their FEMA trailer now a permanent structure on their front lawns and masking some of the emptiness in the house structure behind. There are Christmas lights, and wreaths hung on the doors.

Everyone has seen the pictures and heard the stories, but seeing just a fraction of the destruction of the storm is still so powerful, even over a year afterwards. So much of our trip has been filled with orientations, videos, case files, preparations, instructions, interviews, walking, prisons, food, and laughter. It has been a great time with some even greater people. However, it was nice to be reminded today of why we are in this special city, the city where (as Mindy will confess) people create their own way of life that often influences much of the rest of the country. Paris Road is pronounced by locals as “Parish Road” which can be confusing to out-of-towners. A “roof” and a “room” are said with the same vowel inflection that we North Carolinians give to the sound a dog makes (ruf). New Orleans is such an amazing city, full of life, sound, smell and taste. The French Quarter has some of the most beautiful architectural structures I’ve ever seen. I will come back to this city for many, many reasons (the aforementioned hand grenades maybe?) but I am so glad that I got the opportunity to remind myself of the reasons I made my very first trip.

Did It Matter?

As my friends and classmates return to Chapel Hill for the start of classes on Monday, I’m often asked to tell my New Orleans story. I tell of interviews with inmates in Orleans Parish Prison, the hoops that we had to jump through to get interviews lined up, and the chaos that Katrina left on not only the legal system but also the city in general.

Often, the recipient of my story will ask, “Were you really able to help anyone?” or “Did you make a difference?”

Unfortunately, this is not an easy question to answer. Months later, the inmates that I interviewed will, unfortunately, still be sitting in jail, and the destruction that I witnessed will be far from gone. I didn’t change the world in a week, and it would be naïve of me to expect that I could. Having to answer this question has really made me think about what we accomplished in New Orleans and why we went in the first place.

One of our goals in going to New Orleans was to continue to make others aware that the devastation of Katrina has not gone away. A year and a half later, people are forgetting and New Orleans is no longer front page news. With our stories, we hope to remind others that the battle to rebuild is much more than just building houses and is far from over. At a university so engaged in community service, it is important for us to go beyond Chapel Hill, the Triangle, and North Carolina, and hopefully, we have spread this message.

Another way in which we helped was through our support, care, and understanding. Our presence alone told the inmates, the divorce and succession clients, and the attorneys that we want to help. One of the inmates that I interviewed didn’t realize that she had a lawyer, and when I explained to her that the state will provide her with representation, her surprised and relieved smile said it all. If our interview that afternoon brought that inmate some reassurance and optimism, perhaps we did make a difference afterall. Conducting inmate interviews also allowed the inmates to tell their stories. I will never forget the inmate next to me, pressing pictures from a photo album against the Plexiglas with tears in her eyes as she spoke to her interviewer. This was a woman dying to tell her story, and through the interview project, she finally had that opportunity.

Finally, working in New Orleans gave me a new perspective on the legal system. I understand now that change takes a lot of time, and problems cannot be solved in a day. I will never forget the horrors that the inmates in OPP faced (http://www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/26198res20060809.html), and I will never again see an inmate as an orange suit with a number. These are lessons that I will take with me throughout my legal career and will hopefully make a difference in my interactions with clients for years to come.

No, we didn’t change the world, but we definitely did some good.

Success in Successions

I think it was very appropriate that we took this trip to New Orleans just before Christmas. With exams having just ended and being on break, the last thing that I was in is a Christmas spirit. Two days after exams ended, we left Chapel Hill at 6am for our journey to the city of both despair and hope. When we arrived in New Orleans it was nighttime and we couldn't see anything, including the miles and miles of devastation that we would see on the way out of the city at the end of the week. Having never been to New Orleans (or even LA for that matter), I wasn't sure what to expect, but on the first night as we walked to dinner, we stumbled across a group of musicians playing on the sidewalk. It looked like a group of about six or seven, each playing a different instrument, wearing street clothes and attracting quite a few listeners. That was the last group of musicians I saw playing on the sidewalks and I was surprised. I thought that there would be music everywhere, livening up the city, but this emptiness seemed to be the theme of the week. As we began our work, we were given instructions on what we were to be doing and we hit the ground running. My group worked on successions, which is a process which one must go through to have a deceased relative's estate passed on to their heirs, regardless of whether or not a will exists. This process is unique to LA because of their civil legal system and it is very tedious. There are over 26,000 successions to do in New Orleans alone and as a group we only worked on about 35 so it sometimes felt like we weren't making good progress, but I got over that feeling very quickly when I began to speak with my clients. Those people whose successions the pro bono project is able to handle are of little means and are very grateful for the time that the pro bono project volunteers spend on their file. They were very eager to speak with us and would respond so quickly when we asked for documents and information. Our clients were so kind and grateful to us. It was amazing the kind of spirit these people still had after all that they have been through. They cannot even rebuild their homes until they can collect insurance and FEMA money, which they cannot do until they have their home in their name, which will not happen until these 26,000 successions are done. So we got to work and made good progress as a group. We got our first taste of writing petitions and affidavits and it tasted better than I had ever expected. Especially because we were working hard to make sure that by next Christmas, some of these people would be back in their homes. I left New Orleans in the best Christmas spirit I think I've ever been in. It was amazing to think what these people gave me this holiday season when they have so little to give, but that is what Christmas is about. Giving what you have when you can, even if it is the last you have to give may be just what someone else wants or needs. I am only a first year law student and my time and my service is about all I have to give these days, but it was appreciated. Some clients were surprised to hear from us when we would call, thinking that they had been forgotten and part of going down to New Orleans a year and four months after Katrina is to remind everyone not to forget and to remind ourselves not to forget what happened there or how many people still need help. There are still families with no home, no power in their FEMA trailers, no job, and no neighbors. But these people do still have a lot of hope and spirit and although nothing else was, that was beautiful to see. The last day as we drove out of town, we saw more of what we saw on our tour of the 9th ward, which was desolation and emptiness. Empty apartment buildings, empty homes, empty stores, empty motels, empty restaurants, and even an empty Six Flags. It will take time for the city to rebuild itself and to fill itself with laughter and music and people again, but with the help of those who have just a little bit of time and service to give, it will happen. Thank you to everyone who supported us in our efforts!

Judge Landrieu and The Misery Tour

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/jderrick/
?action=view&current=judgetour_0001.flv

The morning before we took The Misery Tour through some of the hardest hit areas of the city, we met with Judge Madeleine Landrieu, and here is some of what she had to say and some more of what we saw....