Due to evening schedules, we have a solo blog post coming to us tonight from NOLA. Thanks to Derek for his great thoughts and time. More pictures from today to come soon...
Today in New Orleans we woke up a little bit later than we usually do. Me and Connor were still a bit late (We love showers). So we ended up walking around the French quarter of New Orleans. We stopped at a little breakfast place, That sold French Doughnuts that were awesome, didn’t fill you up but they gave us that happy feeling inside. Dominic got his new nick name other than mini D; we all now call him Mini Diesel because he’s cool like that. After walking for another 45 Minutes we got to the Convention center which has one of the biggest indoor spaces I think I have ever been in. There were workshops where you learn about poverty and living on a dollar a day or making a mask’s. We then got to have dinner with Milwaukie’s Bishop whose son goes to OHS. After talking and learning more from the bishop we walked over to the super dome where I listened to some of the most amazing, deep and touching stories I have ever heard from anyone. A boy by the name of Michel Chikwanie talked about his experience in Africa being a Child soldier and how he was forced to shoot his own friend just so that he would hope of ever going home again. Michel talked to us about when he first came to New Orleans a couple of years ago, he said that it reminded him of when he was with his parents in a refugee camp. He talked about the stories he was told about America and he was shocked when he saw that America is a lot like Africa with the suffering and the pain. After listening to Michel I realized that every single person no matter who you are rich or poor can suffer in any way, I also realized that at your lowest low there can always be hope NO matter what happens. Another man by the name of Spencer West talked to us about his life, he lost his legs at the age of five he had to overcome being laughed at and pushed around. Spencer talked about the things that he tried to do when he was growing up to fit in like sports and clothes and other things like that, but it was when Spencer traveled to Kenya with a group that he realized that there is hope all around the world. Spencer’s speech really seemed to move me because I know that almost everyone in the stadium realized that he’s a person not an object to be poked and prodded with questions that don’t involve the actual person. He talked about how people don’t even ask for his name when they meet they just ask about his legs. That really touched me because I think I do that I judge people before I even know who they are, and I don’t think that there is one person in the world that can tell me they don’t or haven’t done that because it would be a lie.
But other than that we are all having a blast in the SUPER HOT weather here in New Orleans. I hope that we can make as big of a difference as everyone is saying. But I have hope.
P.s. I am proud of Dominic because he wore shorts AND IT WAS BALLIN
-Derek Potratz
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