Grateful- Nathan Alexander

Today I went to a site where murals were being painted on the walls of various houses. Upon arrival, I and others in the group were warned that the neighborhood was not the best. Our project leader Chris told us not to touch any stray firearms, needles, and stray condoms, in fear that we may injure ourselves. It was especially important that we always walked with a partner and refrained from wandering from the group. This worried me greatly and I started to worry about our safety. We even had a man stand near our work site holding a machete to make sure that nothing would jeopardize our well-being. For the next hour I realized that I could actually be in danger. This concept was relatively foreign to me. I've lived in small towns with low crime rates my whole life and I never usually have to worry about shootings or crime.

However, I then began to look around me and focus on what I could see, rather than what I internally feared. All around me were volunteers from NOLA Service Learning, Habitats for Humanity, and United Saints working on various projects. Everyone was working hard to better this community. Everyone cared. A member of United Saints informed us that studies had been done to prove that work such as painting public murals and clearing vacant lots to make room for sculptures acted as a morale boost and significantly altered the attitude of the townspeople; even more so than increasing law enforcement. Henceforth I approached my work differently. I was no longer apprehensive of the setting, but excited to be making such a difference in the lives of these men, women, and children.

As we were driving from our work site at the end of the day, we were warned not to even make eye contact with people on the streets, because we were driving into a very bad part of town. We were told to not even look. But I found that that was impossible. It wasn't possible for me not to look back on the town that we had helped, not to see the newly painted mural and recently cleared lot and feel a little bit proud.