Hi I am Shea Harrington…one of the many (4) Harrington’s on this trip. Today we were able to visit the 9th Ward or what is left of the 9th Ward. I was able to come on this trip last year with my family, and there is still a lot of work to be done. I guess I expected it to be a lot better by now, and the city to be as populated as it was before. The 9th Ward still looks like it was hit yesterday. It looks like most of the residents are not returning to their homes. But, some are rebuilding. The survivors of Katrina and Rita that have decided to stick around and rebuild their homes are some of the strongest people I know. Today I was blest to meet one of the survivors in the 9th ward, her name is Shirley, she is 89 years old (and could probably beat me in a foot race). Shirley is one of the three people we are helping on the mission trip. She’s very sweet, very small, and very spunky…and I cannot wait to help her. She is grateful for any and all the work we are going to do for her in the up coming week. I hope she has time to tell me her story.

After being able to look at all the homes and visit with Miss. Shirley we paid our respects at one of the memorial for all the victims of the hurricane. Dad (Michael Harrington) got all the students together and we talked about what we saw. Then, Deacon Earl said a prayer in remembrance for all the people affected by the storm.

It’s strange going to the French Quarter yesterday and then the 9th ward today, and the differences there because the rich can rebuild and the poor are struggling to rebuild.

Some of the houses that we drove by today were on the same level as the rest of us I guess because they have better resources & they can get back together while others haven’t come back yet or aren’t going to come back – I wouldn’t want to come back. It would just be hard to see your house like that, to see your house your neighbors your school, everything is gone, it’s just hard to see it like that.

It just feels like it’ll never be the same.

It’s just hard to see the churches that way, you’d think that they’d be back here to help the people but they haven’t even come back at all.

They don’t even seem excited to be here, the people in the 9th Ward, maybe it’s just boredom or maybe it’s just life, there’s a lot of emptiness, like a ghost town, some people are full of hope I can see that, like Shirley we met today, but a lot of people just don’t want to talk about it.

There are no schools that have really reopened, so you don’t even see that many children.

<<Enter Danny Kim, stage right>>

Danny: It’s like you don’t want to forget but you don’t want to dwell in the past, you know?

Shea: I know but I’ve got a huge list of things to complain about if I’m out here.

I wish I wasn’t going back to school tomorrow, my time would be better spent here than in my math class.

(to The Difference) I wish you all the best of luck and I hope that you guys keep an open heart and an open mind while you’re here, and remember you’re here to serve.

(Shea might come back on Thursday if here math professor sees this. – *heart*, the Editorship)