Way to be friendly.

While in my service-learning group I got to hold the clipboard. This is important to the person that I met but, that will be revealed shortly. Allah (correct spelling) and I were partners. We met several of people because, Im so friendly and I literally talked to everyone we saw including the construction workers that were smoking marijuana on the job. The people in the houses that were in a private neighborhood that had only one street were a toss up. Some of them were extremely nice and some of them were so RUDE! They would come to the door and look at us after ignoring our ring of the doorbell. It turns out that 97% of the houses we went to has a dog that came straight to the door as soon as we looked down the driveway. Well, my partner is terrified of dogs and that made me laugh all day long. We met a lady names Mrs.Sally she was elderly Caucasian lady that insisted that we come in out of the heat for at least a minute. This was probably the nicest thing that I experienced that whole day. Due to the fact that it was so HOT outside she gave us an almost frozen bottle of water. On the next street we knocked on a guys door and it weirded me out that he said “Not interested” as soon as we stepped in his yard. So, we turned around and walked away. Almost an hour later we went to the opposite street and knocked on a door. Needless to say it was the same guys door. He literally yelled at us and said “I’m warning you to leave me the hell alone”. Honestly, I was terrified and that made me realize that you should leave people alone the first time.

Crazy, Old Man

Knocking on doors I expected to meet a lot of people that would not want to cooperate and expected a lot of doors to be utterly slammed into my face. I was completely wrong about that except for one man in particular. The first three streets my partner and I went on. Everyone was either helpful or not even at home. On the fourth we were planning on visiting four houses before we returned to lunch. We knocked on a certain man’s door and we noticed he was outside fertilizing his plants. He yelled and asked “what are y’all trying to sell?” We said we are students from Xavier University working with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, trying to prevent air pollution, then his whole demeanor changed. He seemed upset and told us that we knocked on the wrong door. he then started to tell us about how he works in a chemical plant and he knows for a fact that they’re not doing anything wrong to our environment. he said that air pollution was something the community made up in order to get compensation. he then started to rant and lecture us about how he knows all about chemistry due to his masters degree in chemistry. but as he was ranting. he shouted out many wrong formulas for certain chemical compounds, ironically. He also tried to give us life lessons on how to succeed, but they didn’t make sense because he compared our situation to people that he didn’t even know the correct names of. after about twenty minutes, he started to say “i bet you didn’t expect to meet a crazy old man today, did you?” After he said this, our team leader arrived and lead us away from his house, and by that point it was our time to go back to lunch.

A very interesting service day!

First I want to say that this has been a very fun and rewarding service project for me (although I hurt my ankle). I always enjoy helping the environment, and I personally enjoy doing service projects such as this, volunteering, and giving back to my community. Anyway, while doing this project, I’ve met many interesting people. Of course I had those that slammed doors in my face and that where very rude, but a part of me understood the ‘struggle’ because it was 9 in the morning! I met one interesting, polite, and courteous woman who was very interested in what I and my partner Bria were presenting. First, I met this wonderful and polite African American woman. The area was predominantly white and I only stopped at two houses where there were black owners. She was very interested in the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and she said that throughout college she herself did many service projects and was always involved. After getting to know the woman, I learned much more about her volunteer work and some of the nobilities and foundations that she was a part of. After talking for a bit we took her information and I am now following her on Facebook and Instagram. I later found that she also works with the ASPCA (Animal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Although I met a lot of friendly people I also met a lot of rude ones and all in all, I feel that it worked out pretty well. I believe it’s the rude ones that won’t give you the time of day to at least explain what your apart of, and they are the main people that follow lawsuits and complain when things don’t go how they feel because THEIR NOT INVOLVED. After all it is there health, and we are simply the messengers getting the information across.

Service Day

Our service learning project was an experience that I will never forget. I met so many interesting people with unique stories to tell. The most interesting person I encountered was a woman who was outside washing her car. This woman looked like she was having such a good Saturday morning. She had in her earphones and was singing the words of her song as if she was in the shower and no one was around. Her attitude was so full of life! My partner and I went on the side of her to get her attention. At first, she looked startled. When I explained the mission to her, her face lit up. She then revealed to us that she was a member of the AmeriCorps as a vista. She had been volunteering for years on projects just like this one. After the hurricane, she needed to get out of poverty and resigned. She even began talking about how her and a another lady would go door to door in Holly Grove after the hurricane to try and get people to talk about their experiences. Her volunteer partner was white and she said that the residents of Holly Grove were very skeptical when talking to both of them. They thought she was in “cahoots” with her and only trying to get them in trouble. I thought this was crazy! She went on to say that she started visiting their houses alone. By doing so, the residents thought she was like a niece or daughter who actually cared. She brought this up because I was working with Amelia from the LA Bucket Brigade. She said that we wouldn’t experience that kind of racism in this Algiers neighborhood, but to be careful. She was right, we didn’t. This woman’s spirit was so lively and inspiring.She was so helpful to us and even when we moved on to her neighbors, she would flag them down. She told the man across the street, “There lovely ladies would like to share some information with you!”

Blog 9

On the service day I me two ladies that I enjoyed talking to. The first lady was Ms. Julia. Ms. Julia was a fifty year old white woman. She was really the nicest person my partner and I had met all day. We started to talk about our mission to inform the community of the pollution that was being done and she say “No no stop right there. I know this. They’re only supposed to flare for five minutes every two hours…I know that. So I need your help to spread the word to everyone else. Make them aware! All I need from you are flyers with information on how to get the word out and a sign sheet.” I was really shocked that she knew that but I was also excited that someone in this community was actually aware of  the rules and laws that were placed upon the refineries! We gave her multiple flyers because she wanted to pass them out to her friends and we proceeded to tell her about the Bucket Brigade. She didn’t have a cell phone but she did have a house phone. She was so enthusiastic there was no doubt in my mind that she would report her environmental complaints. The other lady was an 40 year old black woman. She really had no clue about the laws or even that the refineries were causing pollution. She said she had lived there so long that the smell was something she had never noticed. Once w started talking about the Bucket Brigade she got interested. I told her about the bucket method and that she could go to the website and buy one. She was content on the idea that she would be able to do something about the environment herself. She talked to us about the flaring that se had seen but she never knew what it was.We gave her a flyer and helped her save the number on her phone and as soon as we saved the number she called her daughter to tell her about our movement. These two ladies helped me get through the early morning and the hot afternoon. We did make some type of impact.

Out the Kindness of her Heart

While participating in the Service Learning project with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, I was presented the opportunity to meet with and hear the testimonies of many concerned citizens in Algiers residing close by the chemical refineries of Chalmette and Rain. Although none of the residents reported any recent observations of seeing or smelling any air pollution, many were willing to share stories of past experiences. Some explained in great detail the way in which their experiences affected them, others we either too busy or too careless to recall. Overall, our group was able to knock on 159 doors, get 9 people to save the number of the iWitness Pollution hotline, and get three people to make reports. I was very proud when I found out this information because it assures me that my Saturday wasn’t wasted bothering people. Despite our team efforts, no one deserves more credit than our group leader, Amelia.

Amelia was an excellent group leader and I had the upmost pleasure working with her. She was very helpful with teaching us how to approach people, what questions to ask them, and how to get them to save the Louisiana Bucket Brigade iWitness Pollution and make reports. Before separating into our groups, Amelia did a test door with us to show us what was expected during our conversation with the residents as well as to make us more comfortable. She always called our team to ensure that we were ok and to keep track of our progress. The reason get actions were so influential was because of her motivation and drive. Some people turned her down, others did not wish to cooperate, but that did not prevent her from moving forward. Amelia is a really tiny person but her care for this subject is greater than any other person I’ve met. Especially considering that you don’t benefit in any other way from this job apart from helping the environment and communities negatively impacted by the operation of nearby chemical facilities.

Overall I appreciated meeting Amelia and I appreciate her care for this subject. It shows how selfless of a person she is.

Service Day

This past Saturday was one of the most interesting days I’ve had in a while.  Not only was I up early enough for it to be a school day, but it was quite warm outside and I also met about 90 new people within hours.  Some of these people were very nice and interested in what my partner and I had to say. Those who didn’t want us to say two sentences and cared less what we were talking about were clearly still tired and very cranky.  From the people that were polite to us and listened to us about 10 of them were actually very excited and passionate about protecting their environment.  They would ask questions and even give some background on their past experiences with air pollution or even pollution in general.   At one point this group of ladies we came across sitting outside on their porch started asking us questions about the environment in general and what health effects could be possible from the emissions of the industrial companies.  Once we started informing them of the possible emission types they started talking about the sickness them and their grandchildren were feeling around the time of a known industrial mishap.  These ladies are the ones that stuck out most to me and probably will be the ones I remember the longest.  No other house my partner and I went to actually told us of any health issues they were having from the air or any other way pollution can affect a person.  Overall I would say the service learning project was a great success.  It not only gave students a chance to do community service, but it provided some with the good feeling like they actually helped someone and made a difference in their lives.  I would definitely refer some friends to volunteer with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and inform more people about protecting their environment.

Someone I Saw

Well there were a lot of different people who I met doing the service project. It was quite interesting going through out the neighborhood and seeing how different the residents could vary from street to street, even from door to door. When I thought of who to write about, I started to think about all of the shining faces I had seen and than it dawned on me who I should write about.

One man, whose name I forgot, had an interesting mind. After we asked the standard questions, he responded like many on the residents that did not go outside replied with. As we were turning to go away, the man began to tell us how he felt about environmentalists. While he was talking, I was constantly waiting to strive into the offensive territory that man older people can venture into. However, he made some great points. He used to work in a refinery similar to the ones across the river and he strung a story about the different small infractions that the environmentalists would complain about. While his disposition was a bit disgruntled, his story did explain why he felt that some environmentalists focused too much on the small things, instead of the bigger picture. He then told us how, even though he was in a wheelchair and blind in one eye due to diabetes, he commonly went up the city council meetings to voice his opinion about a lot of environmental issues. This man had even been thrown out of a meeting for speaking on how the council members were using money in ways that should be going back to some important environmental issues in the community. While the older gentleman did not seem like he was going to be a very good candidate for a discussion, he really showed me that you can not always judge a book by a cover or even first glance.

Someone I Met on Service Day

On the Service Day we all visited a lot houses in different sorts of neighborhoods. I was paired up with Jessica and we walked down streets of both middle and lower-middle class neighborhoods. We got an interesting mix of people to answer the door. After lunch and near the end of out set of streets we had come up to or last house. It was right on the corner and was honestly a lot more yard than house. There we’re three people hanging around on their porch eating lunch. We trekked through the giant and well shaded yard space at our own pace. They could see us conversing while we walked over. On the long walk, it took probably about two minutes to get to these guys, we organized ourselves a bit to easily hand out fliers. We thought about all of the past houses and what we had done with them. It’s not that we had planned to make this house the greatest attempt at having someone kindly make a report, but we could maybe get them to save the number.
When we had finally gotten to the guys we talked, it was the usual spiel for us at first, introducing ourselves and explaining what we are talking about. Eventually the old man interrupted to give us, what I could only really take as, “real life” talk. Generally about how the government and big business would never take heed of people’s calls and complaints. He goes on for a while with us giving an occasional “that’s not true” and a reason or example. In the end we can’t really convince him or the father and son otherwise. We just handed them each a flier and went across the street to sit on the levy under the huge yard tree shade. It was a pretty discouraging chat.

Blog 9

During the service learning project in Algiers, I met numerous people with various lifestyles. Some people were interested in learning about the bucket brigade, while others did not care at all, and there were some who already knew about the bucket brigade. There was not anyone in particular that I met that stood out who was particularly interested in the bucket brigade nor were there many people who appeared concerned about the chemical plants across the river. One man that my partner and I met was a middle-aged man that lived in a house close to the river. He seemed to know a great deal about the industrial chemical plants across the river. He said he worked in various chemical plants and he knew about the regulations, rules, and laws about the three plants close by. He appeared concerned about the activities of the chemical plants perhaps because he had worked in the industry before. It was interesting to see someone who worked with the plants concerned about their activities even though he worked there. Also, there was an old woman that said she lived in her house for a few decades. She said that her house was getting damaged by the chemicals released by the plants. Her house looked rusted, and she asked for assurance that by reporting the flaring she sees from the factory, that the bucket brigade would get someone to investigate the situation if there were enough reports in the area. She was a little aggressive in asking for assurance, but we said we could make no promises. These are only a few of the individuals we met in making our journey to inform the residents of Algiers about the potential harm that could come to them although most we met did not know or care that much to take action in helping themselves.