“It was remarkable to see how grateful [the hurricane victims] were even though they had lost everything they had worked their entire live to attain.”
Shaw, the eldest of 15 children and raised by his grandmother in the parish of Westmoreland, Jamaica, West Indies, identified with the poor residents suffering in New Orleans. The experience, he said, reminded him of his own childhood and the racial discrimination he was exposed to at an early age.
“When you are poor and a minority you are treated differently — even in the United States, where everyone is supposed to be equal,” he said. “In New Orleans, I saw just how unfairly the people living in the poor parts of the city are being treated by the insurance companies and even the government.”
A skilled cabinet maker and carpenter, Shaw worked eight to 10 hours a day putting up drywall and encouraging the residents to trust God to see them through. Shaw said he was pleased at how dedicated the other volunteers, especially the younger ones, were to helping the less fortunate people of the city.
“Many people say that young people today don’t like to work, but I was pleasantly surprised by the commitment of these people,” Shaw recalled.
But most important was what the people of New Orleans gave to Shaw and his fellow volunteers.
“Although we were there to help them, we all got something in return,” he said, “We saw that the important thing in life isn’t the amount of material possessions we have, it’s the appreciation that we are here to experience life.”
Shaw included his New Orleans experience in the autobiography he just completed and hopes to release next year. “I have had such an interesting life,” Shaw said, “it needs to be put in a book to inspire others.”
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