At the end

April 10

            I have completed my assignment. I have organized the volunteers by organization as well as just listed them with their documentation or lack thereof. I made more work for myself and the last part of it was a bit more tedious. I realized I had to stop letting myself get side tracked by listening to the audio as well as reading the transcripts. I did feel that I wanted to know more about these volunteers and did not want them to remain faceless names on my screen. These volunteers went through their own ordeals while volunteering to help just some of the hundreds of people that were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina.

            Their hard work will always be appreciated by those they touched and I also believe that by documenting what they experienced is just as important as documenting what the local survivors of Katrina went through. This should be done without sensationalism and should be as factual as possible. The volunteers who went to New Orleans are survivors too, albeit a different kind of survivor but that does not make them any less affected by the devastation and loss that they witnessed. I see that the NOLA oral project could go down several paths and investigations could perhaps take us away from what we want this project to be. It is about the volunteers and the hope that they have brought to the people of New Orleans.