Reflection on Community Service

Community service, I have discovered, is a broad and all encompassing definition.  Community service also frequently involves getting messy.  Of the four different community service projects we have worked on none of them met my expectations entirely.  When I first thought about the community service we would be completing in New Orleans, I thought that we would be getting a chance to work with native New Orleanders to help better the city, and while three of our projects benefited New Orleans in a visible way in only one of them did I meet someone who had lived here for a considerable period of time.  It was only when working at the Nursing home that I met a large number of people who had lived in New Orleans for most, if not all, of their lives, however I was unable to see the fruits of my labor, I may have learned a lot about New Orleans, but the work lacked that tangible sense of accomplishment that you get when you are able to see just how much you have accomplished.  I personally felt that the service project we worked on that most completed our course goals and my personal expectations of service learning was working with Macon Fry "the garden guy" and Jorge, who was from South America, on the community gardens project.  In this project I felt that we were able to see the benefit of our project, the person it benefited most, and we were able to learn about the Community Gardens project as a whole and see the benefits already in place.  In addition Macon invited us to his home to have dinner with him last Monday.  There I was able to spend a considerable amount of time learning about New Orleans and the effects of storms such as Katrina and ongoing recover efforts, not only from Macon Fry, but from his wife and one of his friends who works with, not for, the Army Corps of Engineers.  The work we did for Macon and Jorge may have been some of the most backbreaking manual labor I have ever done, but it was also the most beneficial; I was able to see the benefits of my labor and gain knowledge about New Orleans, not only during the time I was working, but also through the ensuing invitation to dinner.