Person I meet in Chalmette

While going door to door in a community that I was unsure of I can honestly say had me nervous. I didn’t know how to interrupt the reactions that I received or even how to react. Many of the people either ignored me and my partner, or were very inviting. Although I met many rude people, there was one individual that stood out to me. Her name was Mrs. Jeanee, she was a seventy-four year old woman that had lived in the area for forty years with her husband, two daughters and her disabled son. She told me of how her son had experienced many health difficulties, such as bronchitis, asthma, and sever headaches. She then told me about how her daughters couldn’t even play outside at times especially in the summer time when the smoke would engulf the entire neighborhood and leave residue for days. I stayed and talked to Mrs. Jeanne for about twenty minutes and she told me how the plant has taken over their lives and how they go around paying off the people that live in the common it to not report and to keep quiet. She then told me that money cant buy her silence because her silence for years has lead to the illnesses of her children, and herself. She has regular doctors appointment because her son not only is disabled, but has asthma attacks regularly because of the chemicals that leak throughout the cracking in their home and uproars his condition. This woman has shown and made me so fortunate that I live in a clean community where I was able to play as I pleased and have no medical conditions from chemicals entering my body uncontrollably. The chalmette area in my opinion shouldn’t have to suffer and increase medical condition that range from the elderly to young children just because of money. The people that cannot afford to relocate shouldn’t have to experience poor living conditions because they aren’t privileged enough. Humanity shouldn’t have to suffer because of money influences.

A person I met in Chalmette

During our Service Learning project we took a trip to Chalmette, an experience I was both nervous and excited about. For our project we went canvassing door to door take surveys about the air pollution and any possible affects of the refinery located near the community. This was very interesting. I had never done canvassing before. The day started off kind of slow. awe knocked on some people’s doors and a lot of places no one answered, but the places where the people did answer they were usually very cooperative and forth coming. The person I remember most is the lady that we met at the end of our canvassing as we were heading back to the bus. She was sitting outside with her two sons, neither of them couldn’t have been any older that 6 or 7. When we asked her about any issues she had that may have occurred from the refinery she gave a lot of information. She said that there would be dark smoke and big fires (larger than a normal one that burns during the day) when she went outside at night sometimes or at around 2 or 3 in the morning. She said there was almost always a horrible odor in the area. This lady also told us that her two sons would often have a cough and say their chest was hurting, and more frequently than her’s would. She seemed genuinely concerned. She knew a lot about what was going on in her community, but she didn’t know what issues could have arrived from it. When we gave her the pollution map card she seemed like she would be one of the few to actually participate. She even said she would spread the word to her neighbors. I felt like this lady would be one who could help the LA Bucket Brigade and her community. Her concern and interest and her sons are really what helped me to remember her the most.

Blog 9: The Person I Met

One person I remembered meeting was a man named Robert who was actually the first person my partner and I had a chance to talk to and get extensive details. At first, he said he was busy but after explaining to him why we were they he opened up to us about the troubles that he and his wife has been going through. It was sad to hear that Mr. Robert’s wife has been in and out of the hospital for respiratory infections and she has asthma. Her infections have been so serious she needed steroid shots to cure the sickness. By her being sick so often she couldn’t get any more shots because a person can only get so many of those shots a year. According to Mr. Robert is wife is constantly sick and he has reported to the refinery multiple times and they have not done anything about it apparently and they claim they are not the reason for sickness. Another thing that has happened to the family was tiny pieces of rust on the side of their house. Mr. Robert said it had to be from the refinery because it is a wood house. And this rust was also found on the bumper of one of their brand new cars. After reporting this to the refinery to tell them about the damage, refinery workers came out to inspect and seen what he was talking about and agreed to pressure wash his house for him. Well here is the part that is mind blowing, instead of the refinery pressure washing the whole house they only washed the one spot that they seen damaged. As far as the car goes they claim it was from something else. I hope that Mr. Robert’s wife gets better. It is a shame what these people in that neighborhood have to go through for attention and get the help they deserve. I wish all of them the best and pray for them to get cured.

Someone I Met During the Service Activity

I didn’t know what to expect when going to volunteer for the service learning project with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. When I first step off the bus into the Chalmette neighborhood, I could already smell strong sense of the pollution from the refinery. The streets that my partner and I had to go to where to far right side of the refinery. While we were walking, we discussed about if people would talk to us about the pollution and the refinery. When we stop at the first house, we meet a lady. She was in a rush to bring her child to school so we didn’t get the chance to talk to her. The next few houses we went to there was nobody home. However, when we did meet people they told us that they didn’t have time or wasn’t interested in talking us about the refinery and releases of chemicals from the refinery. The first person who really talked to us was a young lady. We introduced ourselves to her and told her about the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and the recent accidents from refineries around Chalmette. She told that she lived in Chalmette for a few years and told us there is always a rotten egg smell and how the pollution makes her have headaches. She thanks for us stopping by to her house and giving her information on how to voice her opinions on the refinery accidents to stop further accidents of releases of chemicals. The next person who was willing to talk to us was another lady. She began talking to us about how the refinery releases so many chemicals that the chemicals would stick to her house, and car. Then she talked about her husband, Frank who got really sick from crossing the river on the ferry. We told her about the incident that involved a ferry where a lot of passengers got really sick from the pollution coming from the refinery. She was very happy to see us going around to houses recording experiences of people who live near the refinery. She was sick and tired of how much chemicals the refinery was releasing into the air. I really enjoyed hearing the experiences of the people of Chalmette and how they felt on issues about the refinery. I thought the service learning project was a good experience for me.

Blog 9

The Freshman Seminar Service Learning Project in Chalmette, Louisiana could be described as eye opening, interesting, and dynamic. The fact that it involved me approaching the members of the Chalmette Refinery’s fence line community made it so dynamic. It was also dynamic because you couldn’t predict the response you would get from the residents when you knocked on their door. I would depict it as eye opening, both for me and the residents, because some people did not even know that the Chalmette Refinery had recently had accidents that caused the release of chemicals. They said that they didn’t notice anything wrong with their environment when their neighbors, just right next door, said that the smell of natural gas would seep into their home and that sometimes they would go out at night and the whole sky would be lit up because of the flares going off.

The most interesting part of the service learning project was the gentlemen that approached me and my partner. He was riding a bicycle to a home and we asked if he lived there. When he said no, we assumed he didn’t live in the area, so we thanked him and continued on. However, the gentlemen stopped us to further inquire about our purpose. When we described what was occurring in his community, come to find out, he reiterated the complaints of his neighbors of the natural gas smell. He said that his whole family suffered from health problems but there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t afford to move out. He was doing the best he could to take his young children to the doctor, which helped, but consistently living in the environment that was causing your illness isn’t exactly conducive to a speedy recovery. This gentleman was the most interesting person I met throughout the entire day. I wish I could’ve done something more to help him and his family out.

Someone I Met During the Service Activity

The service project made me realize how many people are oblivious to the fact that they were being poisoned by air pollution. Several people knew about it, but they did not think the pollution was a serious problem in the area; most of these people worked for the chemical plant so they were most likely refusing to speak out against the hand that feeds them. Some people were religious about making reports to the Louisiana Bucket Brigade because they were aware of the chemical plant’s illegal activities. Most people refused to answer the door, who could blame them on an early Saturday morning, or they most had already left home. Out of all the people who I had seen that day, one family in particular stood out to me.

My partner, Alex, and I were on our second to last house before the lunch break, and there were four children playing in the front yard.  When we got to the front door, the children’s father answered the door, but he did not speak English so he had to call his wife to the front door. I was not exactly sure where the family was from, but I was positive that they were Latino. The wife had an extremely thick Spanish accent, and it was obvious that English was a new language to her.  After Alex and I explained why were at her door, she was relieved to get some information as to what was going on with the air, mainly the rotten egg stench; moreover, we explained the health effects that the pollution could have on kids. Her children had some symptoms described on the papers that we were giving out.  This struck me because this was a family new to the community, and they did not really know anyone, or what was going on.  She just thought that the town had a bad odor that lingered around every so often.

Someone You Met During Service Activity

A lot was learned from the service activity in Chalmette, Louisiana. Not only did I learn about the air pollution that may have been going on in the neighborhood, but also I learned about the various reactions toward the problem from the people in the city. Some saw that it was a problem, some worked in the refinery, and others seemed to be offended. The people who were offended when asked about the situation surprised me the most. It was like they did not care that we were trying to improve theirs lives in the neighborhood. There was this one house that was a prime example of this situation. When this house was first past, I decided to not bother because I notice that the husband would answer by the pick up truck being in the driveway. However after coming around and getting a better feel of the day, when I came back to the house I decided to knock since the husband left and the wife showed up (vehicle change). When she opened the door she did not seems very approachable. However, I began to tell her what I was there for, and she was like okay. Then when I began to ask her something, before I could finish my question, she blurts out, “I’m not signing it.” I told her she did not have to sign anything and that I was only looking for her answers to question. She then told us she did not want to talk about it and closed the door. She was my only bad experience of that day. Her responses and reaction did not rub me in the right way because I expected her to at least be somewhat caring and sincere; It was the reason I even went back to knock. Luckily she was my last house I had to visit that day.

Blog 8: XU Professor

If I had to choose a professor that has really influenced me, I would have to say my Intercultural Communications teacher Dr. Gendrin. She is a short woman with a unique French accent. Dr. Gendrin is such a great teacher because she is passionate about the subject that she teaches. She loves for students to interact during class. Most teachers don’t really want students’ input because they prefer to lecture and for the students to listen, but Dr. Gendrin wants class discussions to be a conversation. She even gets a little upset when the class is too quiet. She is not afraid to pull us out of our comfort zone and make us role play different cultural scenarios that we could possibly encounter. She has broadened the way I view other cultures, and I have really been considering doing study abroad because now I feel like I have enough knowledge to thrive within another culture. She has allowed me to not only understand different cultures around the world, but also distinguish the co-cultures that abide all over the United States. I’ll admit that I chose this class because even the thought of doing public speaking gave me anxiety, but Dr. Gendrin has brought me out of my shell by making me feel that the little things that I share in class are important because they identify my cultural upbringing. Dr. Gendrin also tells us about her culture so it’s not just the students sharing. We’re all learning about cultlure through one another. I think this class is really enjoyable because Dr. Gendrin tries to incorporate activities and scenes from movies from different cultures so we can observe their behavior. Her personality and enthusiasm make the class so much fun especially when she role plays. I’m so glad I chose this class because I’ve learned so much, and I appreciate having a liberal arts education because I’m introduced to teachers and classes like this.

Blog 9: Someone I met during the service learning project.

I don’t exactly know what I was expecting when I found out that a part of our service learning project would be knocking on people’s doors. I was automatically nervous because I tend to be more on the quiet side so this was way out of my comfort zone, but I decided that I would get over myself and do it for a good cause. Emily and I met a lot of interesting people from a man who answered his door in only his boxers to the sweetest elderly women. After a few houses, I started to get the feeling that this particular Chalmette neighborhood consisted of a lot of elderly people. One elderly man that we met stuck out the most to me among all of his neighbors. Mr. Rodriguez was a really nice elderly man, well only after he finished mildly scolding us as liaisons for the LA Bucket Brigade. He told us that he already called the number when the incident occurred. He was given the number a while ago by the LA Bucket Brigade. I was really surprised when I heard this because after going to a few houses and being turned away I was really starting to believe that no one in that neighborhood cared about the danger they were in. Mr Rodriguez made me feel like if he was the only one in the streets Emily and I covered to actually use the number then the work we were doing as a class that day and the work other LA Bucket Brigade volunteers have done wasn’t in vain. Mr. Rodriguez also was under the impression that the LA Bucket Brigade was supposed to immediately solve the pollution problem in the area. We had to explain to him that the process is very long which is why reporting his experiences is very important. He then offered to take Emily and I out to dinner when he gets his money. I’m not really sure what money he was referring to, but I thought his offer was very endearing.

Someone I met In Chalmette

The trip to Chalmette in a way to me was kind of thrilling. It was great to go to another city  and just see different people and how they live on a daily basis. I know we had been discussing refinery companies and how they are located so close to the homes of American citizens. It really did not click how close these oil refineries are to people and the affects of the pollution on their health until I actually got to walk the streets of a Chalmette neighborhood. No matter how far we walked into the neighborhood, you could never lose sight of the oil refinery and the smoke coming from the flares. After going from door to door for awhile, my partner and I began to get restless because many of the people were not at home or did not even want to talk to us about any of the problems the pollution had on their health. The people who were more than willing to speak to us really gave helpful information and really shared their experiences with us. One man in particular shared his experiences with us regarding his wife and the reoccurring illnesses she had been suffering from respiratory infections and headaches. He even went on to tell us about the multiple times the company had come to his house to power wash the soot but they never did the job correctly and would leave soot on parts of his house. He even told us about how he complained to the company about the chemicals from the refinery were taking off the paint on his cars but the company did not claim that the damage to his cars were from the refinery. After talking and listening to his frustrations, the gentleman was more than willing to take our information and iWitness card to utilize it whenever he sees or smells something weird from the refinery. Overall, I enjoyed the service learning project and the people who actually took the time out to speak and share their concerns.