Carolyn's Journal from trip to Slidell, LA
January 8-15, 2006
Sunday (Jan. 8)
- Most of us arrived in LA via planes or cars
people
flew from NYC, CA, PA, GA, FL, KS etc. and drove from Missouri,
Texas, Florida etc! I think the farthest drive was Jawaid and
Julie who drove 16 hours from Missouri.
- Arrived at Pearl River Methodist Church in Pearl River,
LA to a nice homecooked meal that Kim Yerkes (Caitlin's mom, and
our "Den Mother" for the week) prepared for us. The
church is cozy with nice bathrooms and warm showers
this
is "my idea of camping"! Most of us were asleep by
midnight and ready to tackle our first day of work tomorrow.
Monday (Jan. 9)
- Got a slow start today as Habitat wasn't ready for us when
we arrived (bc/ others who they weren't expecting had also showed
up and gotten to work already). We learned that East St. Tammany
Habitat typically built 2-3 houses a year pre-Katrina had decided
to build 8 houses that year, but POST-Katrina, they decided on
100 houses in a year, which was going to be challenging with the
lack of employees and man power that they have. Finally, Scott
(with Habitat) took us to a neighborhood nearby ("Eagles
Point") that had lots of water damage. Our job was to gut
a lady's house (who we later found out was HELEN HICKS) which
included throwing most of her furniture and personal belongings
away
.a very sad and challenging task. There was black mold
everywhere and the water line reached about 6 feet up, so we tore
down dry wall from 6 feet down to the floor.
- The memory I'll remember most from today was Caitlin bringing
me a folder that was so wet and damaged that read "letters
from friends", with tears streaming down her face. It contained
many cards and love letters from her husband, friends etc., and
Caitlin couldn't bear to throw them out so we put them on a back
table on her porch to air dry. This was the point when we realized
how "personal" Katrina had already become to all of
us. And this is also when we made our first connection with Helen,
who had lived there. We hoped to meet her later in the week.
- Gabi and I had to eventually take a break from breathing
in all of that dust and mold, so we drove around and took pictures
and video of surrounding areas. Lake Pontchatrain was only a
mile or less from Helen's neighborhood, which explained why the
water damage was so great there.
- Mark Davis arrived today too, and jumped right in with
gutting Helen's house. The Scholars all told me later how impressed
they were with him. The local Times-Picayune paper also interviewed
Caitlin, Kristin, Kevin and Mark, and it will be published in
this Sunday's paper.
- Later, many of us showered at a local Health Club, who
were so generous to let us use their facilities. It was nice
to have a long, hot shower after a hard day of work.
- Dinner was a jambalaya mix, salad and King Cakes that one
of our local Scholars, Parker, had donated for us. Yummy!
Tuesday (Jan. 10)
- On the way to Helen's house, Kevin drove us all by "Rats
Nest" (Lakeview Dr.) area right on Lake Pontchatrain. It
was one of the hardest hit areas. Only one house out of hundreds
is left standing! Most are completely gone, with only a slab
of concrete left. It was heart wrenching to see. Caitlin cried
through the entire drive, and most of the cars were silent as
everyone stared at the mess while we drove by. Images of broken
dreams and family memories were flashing through my head. I can't
imagine how long it will take for this street to look normal again!
- Today we finished gutting Helen's house and then cleaned
all of her floors and her bathrooms. It looked pretty nice when
we left. We all signed a card for Helen and left her a Coke Scholars
shirt to let her know we were thinking of her.
- Dinner was a delicious GUMBO that Kevin Reckert's parents
fixed for us! They live in Slidell and had a little damage to
their home as well. They are such a nice family!
- After dinner, Kathy Bass, President of EST Habitat, came
and talked to us about various families that they've helped over
the years and thanked us for our work this week. She brought
along "Mary" who is from a Habitat family that they've
helped as well, and is the first in her family to get this far
in school (8th grade) and she read an essay that made us all cry.
Mark went up to her afterwards and all but offered her a CCSF
scholarship on the spot. (: Kathy also told us that Helen Hicks
wanted to take us all to dinner this week as a way to thank us
for saving her $4900 on her house. Instead, we told her to invite
Helen to the church and let US make HER dinner.
Wednesday (Jan. 11)
- Today we went to Rats Nest and moved debris from behind
where a house used to be, to the front of it so that bulldozers
can come take it all away. It was one of our hardest days yet,
as we all found tons of personal items in the piles of trash and
debris. Kate found her 2nd Coke bottle that was unharmed (the
first was during her Scholars weekend in 2004 when we did the
Chatahootchie clean up)
.I got another great picture of her
with it! Christopher Stowe found lots important papers (marriage
certificates, adoption papers, Baptism certificates etc.) dating
from as far back as 1897, 1920, 1932, 1945 etc! He saved all
of it in hopes to get in touch with the owner somehow. I went
through muddy photo albums and salvaged all of the pictures I
could save, and others found vases, crystal bowls, plates, coin
collections, religious statues etc. that we all put to the side
to save for the owners, if we can find them. Christopher wrote
down a number spraypainted in the driveway next door saying "Call
Carol and Bobby" so we hope that will give us a lead.
- For lunch, we went back and cooked up some of Christopher's
family's award winning sausages and took them to others at Rats
Nest. It was delicious!
- Tonight we all went into New Orleans to eat at Jacques-Imo's
Café. Parker had set us up with reservations there and
we had our own room off to the side for our whole group! The
food was great, and Jacques (the owner) even came around and thanked
us for our hard work this week, and then he gave us champagne
and bushnell shots on the house! We all sang "Happy Birthday"
to Mark (who's b'day is Monday), and took tons of pictures. I've
never seen him smile so big watching 30 of his "kids"
sing and toast to him. (: Later most of us went out in the French
Quarter for a little while
.my first time on Bourbon Street.
Thursday (Jan. 12)
- This morning I did airport runs with Caitlin while the
others went to the Habitat site to put up dry wall and insulation
on surrounding houses. Caitlin and I took Mark and Martel to
the airport this morning, and on the way, since we had extra time,
we stopped by "Café Du Monde" for some bignets
and Café Au Lait. While there, we all sat in massage chairs
for 3 minutes, which was so nice, and then Mark broke down when
he told us to give a message to the Scholars for him. He said
he "was very proud of them all, and that he's a richly blessed
man because of them", and that's all he could get out.
- When we dropped Mark and Martel off, we picked up Joel
Martin, another Scholar coming to help out. Then we went back
to the church to make lunch for the Habitat group, which was sandwiches
and also red beans and rice that Beverly's dad made! We were
able to feed the entire Habitat group AND our's, and they were
so grateful! Sabrina, one of the Habitat home owners, ate with
us, so it was nice to hear her stories, which mostly included
how blessed she feels to be alive after what Katrina did.
- Also this morning, Christopher called the number he found
in the driveway at Rats Nest yesterday, and he called it and got
a hold of Carol, who lived there before Katrina hit, and she sobbed
as Christopher told her of all of the papers, photos etc. that
he found. Most of it was her great grandmother's, mother's, and
her's! He's going to meet her and give it all back to them.
These are the kind of moments that make all of this hard work
SO worth it!
- After lunch we all went back to building and putting up
dry wall at Sabrina's house and other sites around there. Personally,
I had NO energy today
it was my hardest day yet, and I was
sore all over.
- Tonight we picked up 15 FREE Dominoes pizzas, that CCE
helped to get for us, so that was our dinner. Then we watched
the Katrina dvd that Mark left for us (had been all over CNN
.filmed
by a man who stayed and "rode out the storm"). It was
amazing, and his commentary was so funny! The Scholars all sat
around watching that, while I taped a few of them in between.
Before bed, I held a brief meeting with everyone and then Noelle
played us some of her songs. We even got to sing along to some
that we knew. It was another one of those moments that makes
you smile. (:
Friday (Jan. 13)
- Today is "Friday the 13th" but a good day for
us. We took a break from the hard work this morning, and drove
into New Orleans to take a tour of the Gulf Shores Bottling Plant.
Natalie Toppins, who used to be Kel Vilarubia's assistant at
CCE, gave us a great tour of the plant and then the "trailer
park" where many of their employees are living right now
(since most of their homes were destroyed by Katrina). It was
nice to see that CCE helped them out like that and made it as
"homey" as they could for them. Before we left, Natalie
answered lots of their questions and told us more facts on the
Hurricane, levees, etc.
- Afterwards we drove through Chalmette, one of the hardest
hit areas. Though there is some bad damage there too, most of
it is on the inside of the houses, which we couldn't see, because
a nearby chemical plant exploded there and chemicals (oil etc)
spilled into the surrounding neighborhoods, so the houses there
are all filled with mud and chemicals. We all wanted to go there
to gut houses today, but you have to wear special "HAZMAT"
suits and respirators, and Habitat didn't have enough for us,
so instead we drove through to survey the damage. There are many
people gutting their own houses there, and I can only imagine
how sick they are going to be from that. ):
- In the afternoon, we went back to Habitat and Scott sent
us over to gut another house that had over 6 feet of water damage.
This time we gutted from ceiling to floor! All 25+ of us did
it together, so in the three hours we were there, we got most
all of it done.
- Tonight Jim (who used to be President of EST Habitat),
Helen Hicks (whose house we gutted early in the week) and Amber
Wallin (our Scholar who lost her home to Katrina in Gulfport,
MS) came to have dinner with us! We had lasagna (that Crystal
and David brought) with salad and bread.
- Afterwards, Jim thanked us and gave a nice little talk,
and then Amber stood up and read a poem about helping others that
she found from "O" magazine. Then she broke down as
she told us about her 12 year old cousin being diagnosed with
a rare form of cancer just weeks after Katrina hit, and how blessed
she felt to have that time "off" to help her and how
the little things in life really don't matter anymore to her.
Many of us cried, including me as I was taping every word of
it. She later told me (when I video taped her) that she now owns
only 5 outfits and just rotates them each week, and she doesn't
want to own any more, because they're "just clothes"
after all.
- That night, I taped about 10 Scholars (all were so touching
in some way), while the Scholars played games, listened to Noelle
sing, and hung out with Helen, who stayed with us until 12:30
am!
Saturday (Jan. 14)
- Today, our last day, we were up around 7:30 am, got our
food together for lunch and headed to Rats Nest to move more debris.
On our way, our car recognized CARR DR. right before we got to
Rats Nest, which was the road the man lived on who filmed the
Katrina dvd that we watched the other night! So, we drove down
there just hoping we'd find his house, and we did! His house
had a sign on it that said "Katraina dvd's sold here",
and sure enough Kennard himself (that's his name) came out to
greet us! He's a cute, old sailor man that has sailed around
the world over his lifetime, and he and his wife immediately invited
us into their home. That started 3 trips that I made over there
this morning, taking Scholars who wanted to meet him and taking
pictures with him etc. All morning many cars of his "fans"
pulled up to meet him and buy dvd's, that he and his wife (Dookie)
are selling to help rebuild their home. They are now local celebs.
The best thing that happened out of those trips was that Ben
Towne, one of our 2005 Scholars, was able to stay there all day
and build them a website, which Dookie had been working on but
couldn't do herself. He said she tried to pay him, but he said
to donate that money to EST Habitat, so she did! She kept calling
him her "angel" all day. He did such a great thing
for them!
- One sad moment for me today was talking to Keisha this
morning (she and Bobby were supposed to move back to New Orleans
this weekend, but that got postponed until Monday). I could hear
the fear and sadness in her voice as she talked about having to
leave Atlanta, which has become a home to them, and move back
to a place that's desolate and depressing. She feels, which I
can understand now, that "there's nothing to move back TO."
We both cried and cried but I assured her that God is way bigger
than us and something good will come from this and New Orleans
WILL bounce back from this. No matter what, we'll always be "forever
connected" too. (:
- Today we all worked at Rats Nest (along with many people,
including Helen Hicks, who came out from the community), and got
red EST Habitat shirts to wear, that we all had each other sign
(got one signed for Mark too). PBS was there to film some of
it too, and from what I hear, Jack spoke on behalf of our group.
- I took Auggie, Joy and Christie to the airport around 2:30
pm and then we went to the Habitat site to say our goodbye's and
drop off extra food and drinks that had leftover. Sharon, who
had been working there and coordinating lunches all week, cried
as she told us some horrible Katrina stories from LA and Gulfport
(including when her friend stepped on a baby's leg, who had died
in the Hurricane). It made us all cry. We're going to miss the
Habitat workers, especially Sharon, Janie and Scott, who we worked
closest with.
- Tonight we had a "hodge podge" for dinner, of
mac and cheese, salad, leftover sausage and gumbo etc. Then,
half of the group left for New Orleans to go out and stay with
Parker or other friends there. I stayed back at the church with
Kim, Caitlin, Kristin, Ben, Crystal, David, Noelle, Gabi and Jawaid
and Julie (who had to stay another night since their car broke
down today). We cleaned up and then played Scattegories, which
was so fun!
- I can't believe this is it! This trip has been amazing.
Emotionally and physically draining, but great in so many ways
too. I think it has inspired all of us to come back soon and
continue to help out, because the damage will take years and years
to clean up and rebuild. We all worry that it may never "be
back to normal", but at least we can have a part in trying
to make that happen. (: I can't speak for the others, but I know
I'm going home with an even bigger sense of how precious life
is, and how the material things in life just don't really matter.
In my opinion, if I have God and my family and friends on my
side, I am the richest gal alive!
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