City Tour
Sunday afternoon John Etter met us
at the church with some walkie-talkies and gave us a tour of the city.
We started with an overview - some history and perspective - at
the church and then set out in the vehicles. Many of the pictures
in this set were taken from a moving van through the window so
you will see some reflections and some blurring. But
I thought it was worth including them because they do vividly show
how
much work remains to be done even almost 3 years after Katrina.
Industrial size dumpsters and trailers in the front yard are
still common sights. In some places, whole neighborhoods are
wiped out - some houses are just boarded up, others have been
demolished down to the foundation. But there also is ongoing
progress - some new homes are going up and others are being
reconstructed.
Our Work Site
Monday morning
we drove to Little Farm UCC for general orientation from the UCC
Disaster Response team, then we split into our two work groups.
I was in the group of 5 (Gary, Rich, Celeste, Mike, me) who
worked on Miss Sophie's house. Elaine was our site
coordinator.
(She and her husband, Garrett, are from Massachusetts and are volunteering in New
Orleans for a year through the "Partners in Service" program.)
The water was "only" 4-5 feet high there so her upper floor
was not flooded, though it did incur a lot of wind damage.
Right now Miss Sophie is living upstairs with her
daughter; we were working on the lower level that was totally gutted,
where she will have her own apartment. We were lucky that
there was electricity (via extension cords) and running water (outside
faucet) on site!
The other group (Tim, Dave, Cliff, Sue, Erika, Connie Jo, Liz) worked
on a
double "shotgun" house - one side is for Andre and the other side for
his
mother, Otha. Garrett was their site coordinator and I
don't have pictures of that work since I wasn't there..
Miss Sophie worked in her garden most of the day. When it
rained, she came in to help us - she is not used to being idle!
The white marks on her shutter are left over from right
after the hurricane when agencies were marking each home after checking
it for survivors or casualties.
Jeff was another volunteer we met who was staying in the men's dorm
with our group. He's an electrician from Ohio and came down
for a week to help. He was wiring at Beecher Memorial UCC so one
day we took a short field trip over lunch to visit that site.
Beecher is in an area that was
severely damaged and had only been back to hosting worship services for
a few weeks - over 2 years after the hurricane.
Groups that worked there have left uplifting messages or bible verses
on the unfinished infrastructure. We also had similar notes
on our bunk beds in the dorms - names, churches, dates, words of hope.
That helped us feel some continuity as a part of the huge
team involved in this lengthy process of restoration.
Hope Shall Bloom is one of the themes of the reconstruction
efforts in the city and when I saw that plant (the last picture here)
pushing up through the asphalt in the parking lot by the library I
thought it captured the thought well.
Nights Out!
We went out to
dinner on Sunday and Thursday. Sunday evening we went to Mulate's
- a
wonderful Cajun restaurant with Zydeco music and dancing.
After supper we walked down Bourbon Street to get the feel of
the area. Though I don't have pictures of it, on
Wednesday night the ladies of the church served us a traditional red
beans and rice dinner. It was very yummy and we enjoyed
having some time to visit with them and learn more about the church,
the area and some ways that the storm affected their personal
lives. (For example, some who had livable homes left were without
power for 3 months.) Thursday we went to the French Quarter and
the Gumbo Shop which
also featured local specialties. We ate well! It
was raining but we still walked around Jackson Square a little bit, with
a stop at Cafe du
Monde where some purchased coffee to take home.
Friday May 23 we worked until noon and sadly said
our farewells to Miss Sophie. We got packed up and hit the
road around 2 PM. The pictures I took on the way out of town,
around Lake Ponchartrain were again taken from a moving vehicle, through the
windows, so you'll see both reflections and blurring. I think they
give a good feel for what the area is like though. We stopped
at a Cracker Barrel for dinner and arrived at the Memphis First
Congregational UCC around 9 PM. This is an urban church with
an impressive range of ministries - from the Hostel where we stayed, to
a bike repair shop, to a child care center and numerous support groups.
Their sanctuary is quite unique (see pictures).
Our evening devotional time was spent working on an outline for the
worship service Sunday morning where we would share highlights of our trip with the
congregation.
Saturday was a long driving day. We started with breakfast at
Otherlands Coffee Bar which has a funky feel, a gift shop and great
food. We stopped in the St. Louis area for a late lunch and
then got back to the church at about 7 PM. The last group picture was taken by John.