The New Orleans
Souvenir
To my faithful readers:
It has been since Paris
since my last “Souvenir” letter, but I think this was a trip worthy of a
Souvenir. I just had an amazing week in
hurricane devastated New Orleans
and I wanted to share it with you because most people have no idea what it is
really like down there.
So, I just got back last night from my spring break mission
trip to New Orleans , LA. New Orleans . We stayed in a room with 100 bunk beds in the
church in a neighborhood that was once one of the worst neighborhoods in New Orleans before the
storm. It’s getting better now because
not as many people are there. In fact, only 40% of the NO population has
returned since Katrina. The church had a
nice facility for us. A big kitchen to
cook in, outdoor showers (they were fine; the water was even hot), a cafeteria,
air mattress for the bunk, a grill, campfire, and chairs outside to hang out
in. Home Depot had also donated a whole
tool shed full of tools for us to use daily.
Unfortunately, about 2 days into the trip, there was a shooting on our
block. I think it was drug related and
involved a stand off with some cops. We
could actually see drug dealers standing on the block adjacent to the
church. It was so creepy. Anyway, after the shooting, they put us on
“lockdown” meaning we couldn’t go hang out at the campfire at night like we
were able to previously. Oh well, I know
it was a safety precaution. The leaders
of our group also met with the Chief of Police of New Orleans to tighten
security of our building (we had a police officer with us every night). It is really important to the city to keep
the volunteer organizations safe and running because the volunteers are leading
the rebuilding effort.
We got into the city last Sat night (March 11). We were kind of ignorant getting there, not
knowing what had flooded. We were
driving into the city on I55 and seeing some FEMA trailers in front of houses
already. We thought that it had all been
under water. It took us a while to learn
what had flooded because of rain and what had flooded because of levee
breakages. But it was surreal driving
into the city, especially seeing the SuperDome because I could almost imagine
the people running though the streets filled with water with cartfuls of stuff
they had looted. And seeing the sidewalk right by the SuperDome where all those
people laid dying for lack of food and water. And seeing the damage on the roof
of the SuperDome I had seen so many times from the TV. We stayed almost within sight of the
SuperDome; just a few blocks west of downtown.
Driving through the obviously black neighborhood, we noticed two
things. One was the massive amounts of
trash in front of the houses. Two was
the uncanny amount of nice cars lining the street. I later found out people had used their FEMA
debit cards to put down payments on new cars…sigh…no comment. We got settled in that night, saw the outdoor
showers, met the AmeriCorps volunteers we’d be working under all week, sat
outside and talked a bit, and went to bed.
Sunday, we took a walk before church. We walked about four blocks to St. Charles St. ,
also known as the “Garden District”. It
was a wide beautiful street lined with beautiful houses. Very white.
The neighbor hood where we were staying was originally the shacks of the
slaves of the people on this street.
Hence the closeness of the white and black communities. Anyway, the homes on this street were full of
life and had very little visible damage.
They were cleaning up from a St. Patrick’s Day parade when we were
walking (although we thought it was still a mess from Mardi gras). We walked up and down this street for a bit,
even talking to some locals about what flooded and what didn’t.
We went to church after that and were met by a very
energetic choir and speaker. It was a United Methodist
Church
After church, a team
of BCMers went out gutting. Gutting is
the process of clearing a house out to get it ready for mold treatment. It
involves taking down the drywall and ceilings and clearing out all wet
flooring, taking out nails, and even taking out all moldy appliances,
furniture, and belongings. Hands On only
guts houses that are stable in their foundation and can be repaired. They check
the home to make sure it is “safe” for untrained volunteers. They work with the
homeowners who have made plans to come back and oversee the work on their
home.
Only a few people gutted that first day. Instead, a group of us went to a political
meeting held in the church. It was
basically a bunch of neighborhood churches binding together to tell the city
that this neighborhood was back and wanted to get back to normal by having more
schools open up, more police protection, more business open up and more
government involvement. A few representatives from city council were there and
a news crew was there. I think we were
basically just fillers, but it was interesting.
Then, I had volunteered to be on the dinner team for that night. So three of us when shopping with an AmeriCorps
volunteer to Winn Dixie, who had previously donated $20,000 in gift cards to
Hands On. We first had to get gas in the
van, which proved to be an adventure in itself.
We had to go to a Shell Station, because they had donated gas to Hands
On. We got to the one Nate (the staffer) knew about, but it was closed. Odd. We went to another one he knew about it,
but it was closed as well. So we just
decided to go to a BP. But it was closed
as well. Mind you, it was 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon—not a
prime time to close businesses. And he
said they were always open on Sundays.
So, this was my first inclination that things were not normal in New Orleans yet. We finally found a no name gas station open. My second reminder was the massive lines at
Winn Dixie. There just aren’t enough
workers. Stores and fast food places all
close at 7pm because they
don’t have enough people to work them; everyone has left. So, I helped cook tacos for 100 that night. Teams had arrived that day from Washington State, University of Wisconsin St. Louis University
Monday brought my first “gut”. I went out with a team and we ended up
working on two houses. My first
impression was just a state of shock at the ghost towns these neighborhoods
were. No one was there. It was that way throughout the week. On of the houses I gutted was in a bit nicer
neighborhood where many people had FEMA trailers out in front of their homes
where they were living or getting ready to live once the power/sewage got hooked
up. Hands On only works with homeowners
who are coming back to the city and want their houses fixed up. Before Hands On accepts a project, they make
sure the house is worth being fixed up.
Some houses have been knocked off their foundation, and they cannot be
salvaged. These neighborhoods were just
so desolate. The business (Rally’s,
Blockbuster, Pizza Hut, as well as Mom and Pop stores) stood empty. The houses hadn’t been touched since the storm. I went in a few where furniture had floated
around and just landed on top of whatever when the flood waters receded. Mold was growing on the walls and on the
floors. Then the teams would just start taking stuff outside and creating
massive trash piles. I never had to do
this, but some teams had to go through personal belongings like pictures and
knick knacks. Some girls in my group
cried to see a ruined child’s painting, or a destroyed china cabinet. These people are left with nothing but the
clothes on their back. But they are so
appreciative. I got to meet most of the
homeowners of the homes that I gutted.
They were very grateful to us and some were very hospitable, to the
point of bringing us juice and lunch. We
even got to pray for one lady and she just cried and couldn’t stop. We even exchanged email address with
her. They are grateful for all the help
they get and it was so fulfilling to be able to meet them and serve them and
show them the love of Jesus Christ and the glory of God through service. A weird part about gutting was the glimpse of
home even in a gutted house. Like one
bedroom might not need to be touched, but the hallway had to be torn up. Or a glimpse of Christmas decorations in the
attic of an otherwise gutted home. It
was just surreal.
I’m so sore right now.
I’ve never worked so hard. I’ve
never held a crowbar before this trip, but I now consider it the answer to all
problems. It can knock down walls, pull
down ceilings, clean out insulation, pull out nails, solve calculus functions,
pull up floors, cook dinner, tell me what I’m going to do with the rest of my
life… Ok, so maybe not all that, but a lot of it…I love crowbars! And I now know what it’s like to have
fiberglass buried under your skin to the point that a shower doesn’t help. Ewww.
And I’ve smelt some smells that I wouldn’t recommend. Like moldy tile still sitting in water. And my friends have discovered why you DON’T
OPEN A FRIDGE. Moldy food sitting in
floodwater for six months is not a pretty smell. They would duck tape the fridge shut before
moving it out, but sometimes it would still come open anyway. I’ve helped make trash piles that take up an
entire front yard practically and are taller than me. They bring in loaders to help haul the trash
away. But FEMA is only paying for trash
pickup for another month or something, so people are hurrying to clean out
their homes.
It was kind of neat seeing all the other teams of volunteers
in the city. There was almost a culture
of volunteers. The Red Cross had a tent
set up to give out free lunches to volunteers.
Another place (we called it the Hippie Dome) was set up to cook organic,
healthy food for volunteers. We went to
that once. It was a neat atmosphere, if
very liberal. Amidst “Make levees not
war signs” and a man playing a washboard for music, we ate a delicious
meal. We met a man who was living in a
tent behind the dome. He was from New
York and came down here to volunteer for a week and
just ended up staying. It was a festive
atmosphere in the middle of a basic wasteland.
We also saw what was deemed a “tent town”; a gravel lot where volunteers
had set up tents to stay while they worked.
There was an appreciation for us when we were down there. If we wore the T-shirts, it was almost like
we were treated like celebrities.
Everyone was saying “thank you, thank you”. It was a neat feeling.
A couple of days I was blessed to get to tutor at the YMCA
charter school that was right across the street from the church where we were
staying. It is one of the few schools in
the city that is open. It isn’t a public
school, but a charter school. I’m not
quite sure how it all worked, but it only had like 700 students (it had 400
before the storm). I don’t know how
students got to go to it, but there was an application process and they were
selected. The classes were small, but
still 40% of the kids were considered “behind” even before the storm. The school was closed from the storm until
Jan 30. And now they want these kids to
pass the standardized tests that allow them to move to the next grade. They go to school on Saturdays and stay after
for tutoring (with us) every day. Most
of these kids didn’t got to school at all last semester and now they want to
pass them through. I almost think that
is doing a disservice to them, but whatever.
It was interesting talking to the kids.
Most of them are living with grandmas or aunts or something so they can
go to school here. One of the kids I
talked to was originally from the 9th ward. He came up to stay with his grandma for the
storm and lost his whole house. One of
the teachers lost everything but the clothes on her back. Their life is categorized into two parts:
before and after Katrina. We were
discussing the meaning of the word “nostalgia” and one of the kids said his mom
gets nostalgic thinking about the days before the storm. It’s heartbreaking. I did love tutoring though.
On Friday, we took half a day off to do tourist stuff. We went to see the 9th ward where
the levee broke. The houses were
flattened and off their foundations. You
would see the foundation of a house and the front concrete porch and a pile of
wood and mattresses and furniture 10 feet away.
Cars wrapped around trees or overturned.
Massive trees downed. This was
the poorest area in New Orleans
before the storm, so most of the houses were basically shacks. But it was just amazing the amount of
destruction the water had caused. I
don’t think they’re going to rebuild this place; they will probably put casinos
here or something. Nothing there is
salvageable. But, as with anything,
there is an immense political debate, as some of those people have owned their
own homes for 5 generations and that is all they had. So, there will be a fight no matter what.
We walked around the French Quarter and St.
Louis Cathedral area for a while. That
is pretty much “up and running”. I think
that is the area they fixed first. You
know, gotta have the bars… It was St. Patrick’s Day, so there was an air of
festivity. It was neat to hear live jazz
on the streets. We went out for a nice
Cajun meal and had a good time. It was
just such a stark contrast to the destruction we had been working in all week.
Some other random things:
There was duck tape holding a stoplight together. We laughed a lot. There was a protest going on outside a closed
school in St. Bernard Parish wanting the school to open. But which comes first? School opening or people coming back? There were massive amounts of abandoned cars
under on ramps to the interstates. Some
had wheels on, others had been stolen. I
heard that they were going to ship all the cars to Mexico eventually.
So this week was amazing and I’m so glad I got to spend my
spring break doing it. I got to share
Jesus with the people I was working for and working with. And show mercy to people I didn’t own
anything too just as God showed mercy on us.
I know some of us are thinking about going back this summer. If you all get a chance to go, jump on
it. It will be an experience you will
never forget!
I thank all of you that were praying for our team! Hope you are all well!
In Christ always,
~Michelle~
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