University of Virginia New Orleans Journals\r\n\r\nThursday, January 12, 2006\r\n\r\nKathryn Serra , College of Arts & Sciences\r\n\r\nToday we gave our lungs, though not our arms, a deserved day of rest. Xavier Prep, the school we are staying at, is taking in students from both St. Mary\'s and St. Augustine while those heavily damaged schools try to repair their facilities. Instead of doing demolition, we spend today as St. Augustine\'s cleaning crew. At 9 a.m., St. Augustine\'s facilities manager, Mr. Francis, armed us with Comet, gloves, sponges and an antibacterial solution he warned would burn through our skin if we weren\'t careful -- and showed us his hands to prove it. We spent the next five hours scrubbing, rinsing and drying every steel cafeteria table we could get our hands on.\r\n\r\nAt first, it seems silly. Half of the city looks like a third world country, over 150,000 homes need to be demolished and rebuilt and here we are in a high school cafeteria scrubbing tables! When I learned about the devastation Katrina caused and when I imagined what it will take to get New Orleans back on its feet, I certainly didn\'t picture a bunch of college kids using Comet to conquer cafeteria tables. But this is what it is. It\'s the accumulation of a lot of very small contributions, like the cleaning that will ultimately help a school serve its students again in the future.\r\n\r\nOther than gaining a realistic concept of what rebuilding is, today provided another chance to talk to people. A Jesuit priest shared his evacuation story -- his school, St. Augustine, was home to 350 people at the beginning of the storm. After Katrina, he had to walk eight miles to the Superdome to find that they were no longer allowing people in and so he slept on a bridge for three days. At one point in time, he watched a man seeking shelter walk in circles for hours because all the helicopters, water and noise made it impossible for him to find his way.\r\n\r\nWhat I will never forget about today is Mr. Francis\'s gratefulness. We were just a bunch of kids cleaning tables as we listened to music and joked around. By the way Mr. Francis treated us, you would have thought we were sent straight from heaven -- he even waited in line for 30 minutes to bring us back fried chicken -- \"The best in the county!\" he bragged.\r\n\r\nThis man, like many of the people we have met on our trip, has been through a complete nightmare, so far beyond my comprehension. Yet he treated us with more generosity and kindness than others who are far more fortunate than himself. Coming to New Orleans, taking education a step further than just the textbook, has been a powerful experience in learning, but has also exposed me to a human spirit that can battle, survive and still see hope.\r\nOriginal URL: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2006/NewOrleansJournal13.html