Before I ever stepped foot on Howard University’s campus, I had already decided that I would participating in Alternative Spring Break in New Orleans. The idea of volunteering with ASB was one of the factors that brought me to this great university.
My wish came true in my freshman year, and I spent spring break 2012 volunteering and working as a reporter covering the amazing works of dedicated Howard students in New Orleans. It has been the most beneficial and rewarding spring break that I have ever had. And if I took nothing else from ASB, I learned Ubuntu.
My journey started in Cramton Auditorium with hundreds of other ASB volunteers. While the buses waiting outside to take us to our respective destinations, Howard First Lady Paula Wetzel-Ribeau, Ph.D., and director of ASB, gave us a last-minute pep talk.
“You are the people that are going to make a difference, not only in America, not only at Howard, but in the world,” she said to the more than 300 students gathered inside.
This was the moment that I fully understood that this experience was going to reward me with more than I could ever give back to the residents of New Orleans.
We arrived in New Orleans after an exhausting 22-hour bus ride, and not long afterwards took a walking tour of the Lower 9th Ward. Seeing the devastation that remained seven years after Hurricane Katrina was heart breaking. Even after fund after fund, many of the residents are still left stranded and abandoned. Yet, they persevere.
Everybody that we passed greeted us warmly with a huge smile and the characteristic phrase, “Welcome to New Orleans, baby.”
I was assigned to the “Ubuntu” team, which included our enthusiastic team leader, Natalie Hampton, the hilarious duo of Allek Stuart and Kristopher Sorhaindo, the beautiful ladies Victoria Mann, Martiea Anderson, Imani Myton, and me.
Our team had more than our share of hilarious moment. I bonded with a great group of people that I wouldn’t have met elsewise and together we did great work.
The best moment of my entire trip, however, was watching elementary school members of the Fannie C. Williams Marching Warriors practice. They were truly inspiring. The young musicians came in, took out their instruments and got right to the business of rehearsal. They didn’t complain, they didn’t fuss and they didn’t even have a band director. As my old band director would say, these kids had integrity.
I asked Earnest Jackson, a talented sixth grade tuba player, what was his favorite part of band.
“Everything,” he said simply.
Earnest gleamed when he talked about his tuba. Many of the families in his neighborhood are still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Earnest taught me that no matter the situation, there is always hope. If there is courage, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it’s in the base line of a middle school marching band.
ASB was one of the hardest weeks that I ever experienced. I slept on a cot in a room with at least 20 other students. I was up before the sun to catch a lukewarm shower. I worked late into the evening only to tiredly talk about my feelings and experiences with my team.
I was pushed mentally and physically.
However, if the applications for next year’s break were released tomorrow I wouldn’t think twice about reapplying.
And the reason is largely because I learned the true meaning of a word from the African Bantu language.
“I am not as good as I am without my other brothers, and we make other people better.”
That is what Ubuntu means, and it was Howard’s ASB that truly showed me the truth in that phrase.
