A New Post!

Writing a blog is hard. Much, much more difficult than I imagined. Now that it's been over a week since I last wrote, I have too many things to write about and not an extensive enough vocabulary to adequately describe my experiences. I have used the words incredible, amazing, and awesome and their synonyms so many times in this blog; I have exhausted my ability to translate all the things I'm seeing and doing into a semi-meaningful paragraph. But I obviously can't just give up on this blog; I'm way too stubborn to do that, so anyone that chooses to continue to read this will just have to bear with me. I promise I'm trying.
The past week I've been plugging away on Mrs. Jones' house. We've painted, sanded, put peel & stick tile in the bathroom, installed baseboards and framed the windows. The house looks amazing (except, obviously, the parts that I've been directly involved with, but I do put in 100% heart and love.) Each day I'm here I notice or realize effects of the storm that I had never thought about. I had been so focused on the physical effects of Katrina, and the rebuilding that needed to be done that I seldom thought about the mental rebuilding that also needs attention. I realized that Mrs. Jones' son, Paul, has lived in a constant state of change since he was 4 years old. He has not had a permanent place to call home since 2005. The fact that I've worked with kids makes it totally embarrassing that I never put much thought into this until the last few weeks. Mrs. Jones told me that Paul has had some rough years in school, especially this year, but that she’s doing her best (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but this woman is super human.) While I am positive that she is an amazing mother and Paul is incredibly blessed to have her, the amount of uncertainty in his life is mind-boggling. Mrs. Jones promised me I would get to meet Paul before I left and I’m hoping to raise some money to buy him/the whole family a new computer as a welcome home gift. (If any of you reading this are interested in donating a buck or two to this side project, be in touch!)
I also have had an incredibly hard time wrapping my head around the amount of water that entered the city. I’ve seen and heard multiple times about the quantitative number that entered various houses, but for a Cambridge girl who’s only seen an inch or two flood the basement it is difficult to grasp exactly what this amount of flooding amounts to. I mentioned this to Ms. Denise, how hard it was for me to visualize how it was around here during and immediately after Katrina and she asked if I’d watched any Katrina YouTube videos. I have never been into YouTube videos and generally delete any and all emails/ignore Facebook posts that include links to videos (unless they have to do with sloths, honey badgers or making fun of yuppies), so I had never seen a Katrina Youtube video. Ms. Denise shared with me a video that was so powerful I feel compelled to share it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZi1Mk2Njtg This is a home v video taken by one of her neighbors who lived through the hurricane. When I watched it all I could think was where in the middle of the ocean during a storm had this videographer found themselves? Except it wasn’t in the ocean at all, it was in St. Bernard Parish (the Parish). Ms. Denise showed me this video and proceeded to tell me stories about the people who stayed behind. For respect for those who lost their lives I would rather not recite verbatim what Ms. Denise told me, nevertheless what this area went through after the storm and after the levees broke was horrifying and beyond comprehension. The vitality that continues to exist in this city is overwhelming and inspiring.
There are so many other heavy issues I’ve begun to deal with concerning this area, but instead of delving into those now, I’d rather just acknowledge the weirdness/individuality that is Louisiana and New Orleans in particular.  Drive through daiquiri joints are commonplace and you’re good as long as you don’t put a straw in the drink while driving..Obviously open containers are cool, but also many workplaces allow drinking on the job. Streets that should be one way are two way, with parking on both sides, and tough shit if your side mirror gets knocked off. It’s always five o’clock somewhere. 25 cent martinis on a weekday are not just for tourists, they’re also for businessmen and women, respectable community members and the older generations.
At some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, I will be able to transcribe my full experience in this city. For now my goal has been to live and love and try to keep up with writing, which has been considerably unsuccessful. I have been utterly consumed by all this community has to offer and I continue to be emotionally overwhelmed by the hearts and souls of others I’ve met along the way.
Happy trails and continue to love any and all.
xoxo