By David A. Sargent,Special to the Sun Journal

LEWISTON – Five days of reconstruction work in New Orleans last month gave two Bates College some vivid insights into distance and community.

Among their impressions were inequality of response between low-income neighborhoods and more affluent regions where cleanup and reconstruction was moving ahead faster. They also commented on the resiliency of many residents whose lives were devastated in last year’s Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Michael Wilson of Groton, Mass., and Brooke Miller of Arlington, Va., were among eight volunteers and two Maine Campus Compact leaders who went to Louisiana during February break. They spoke Thursday night at a college gathering open to the public.

Wilson and Miller discussed their personal reactions and noted their surprise at finding so many incongruous situations.

Wilson described a Habitat for Humanity construction site where he and other volunteers were working in Covington, La.

Just across the street, he said, were numerous badly damaged low-income structures where no work seemed to be taking place. He explained that private ownership of that property meant that government agencies and volunteer groups couldn’t just move in and take over the rebuilding.

“I wondered what those homeowners thought of the 15 homes Habitat for Humanity was building and the gardens we were preparing,” Wilson said. “I wondered when was it all right for us to look at those homes as needing our help? Why can’t we just go across the street and help them?”

Miller said, “It is important to keep in mind people’s perspectives down there and to try to understand in such a short time what they are going through.”

They talked about a single mother who would receive one of the Habitat for Humanity homes under construction. As she worked along with them, as part of Habitat’s required “sweat equity” contribution, they said they came to recognize her strength.

Miller also talked about the difficulties she recognized when people must decide whether they will return at all.

“There’s a hesitancy to come back if you don’t know what you’re coming back to,” she said.

For that reason, she said she could see the value in going ahead with a scaled-back Mardi Gras celebration this year. It emphasizes the reality of rebirth, she said.

The Habitat for Humanity site where they worked has served as a location for quite a bit of national television coverage, Wilson said. President Bush and Oprah Winfrey had been filmed during visits there, and a segment for NBC’s “Today” show was being shot during their stay.

Six of the volunteers who went to Louisiana for this project were from the University of Maine System’s Orono campus and the University of Maine at Farmington.

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