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Published: February 19th 2007
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House Meet Katrina
18 months later it is still devastating down there. 2-7-07
I awoke around 8:00 and tried to work on the Journal. but wasn’t having any luck with the website. I ate a big continental breakfast thinking I would skip lunch. I left the motel around 11:00 and headed towards New Orleans. As I drove down 90 the houses and area looked a lot worse. In a lot of areas all that could be seen were foundations. It was pretty horrible. I drove as far as I could until I ran into a bridge that was out. I knew the bridge was out, but hoped to see what it looked like. I couldn’t see much so I turned around to go back to a road which went to Interstate 10. As I drove to 10 I saw a church sign that stated there were volunteers there from Normal, IL. I turned around and decided to see if they needed any help. They said sure I can help. They fed me, which I felt a little bad about, but had a couple bowls of chilli nonetheless. I worked on a house with them that afternoon. I mainly did cleanup. We worked for about 3 hours and then had to go back to
Where's the House?
You see lots of columns with nothing above them. I suggest they look a few miles further inland for the house. See the new construction in the background? Construction is spotty down there. the church as they needed to eat earlier that night since they had an event called Kwanna going on. It is something they have every Wednesday for community kids. Bob the guy that spearheads the event offered me a place to stay there that night. I was reluctant and didn’t know what to do. I have become a moocher. I did do quite of bit of work for them. I had supper with them and watched some of the Kwana (sp) stuff. The kids appeared to have a blast. The kids have some bible study and then physical play. They also did some star gazing. The stars were very bright as we were in the Country and not much light pollution out there. Some of the workers were also from Decatur, Illinois and one had went to Millikin. We talked for awhile. I dried some dishes for the ladies who cooked. Trying to decrease my moocher status a little. They told me there is a soup kitchen just down the road that is always looking for volunteers. At first I thought man do I look that bad that they are telling me where soup kitchens are and then they mentioned
it for volunteering opportunities and a place to stay. I may check it out. They said they have cabins for people to stay in as well. They serve 3 meals a day there.
After the meal we sat around the campfire and talked for awhile until the Kwana kids came out to take our place. We were ran off. I did get to talk to a man who was in the South Pacific during WWII. I said he looked awfully young to be in that war and he said yeah he was one of the youngest. He said he only seen about 3 months of action and then we dropped the atomic bombs and they turned their ship around and headed back to the USA. He said they were all very happy. He said he just turned 80.
2-8-07
The next day I helped a group hang siding. This was a lot more labor intensive work than the dust sweeping I had done the day prior. I enjoyed doing this. The people I worked with were very knowledgeable about this type of work which made things go much better. A younger kid was in charge of getting anchoring
Wrath of Mother Nature
Don't mess with this lady! bolts installed so the house does not blow away. Everyone worked hard. There were a younger group of kids working inside to move a wall. I would have never dreamed of doing such work so young. They just tore into it and it was good to see. We put in a good days work and headed back to the church for supper. I had been snacking all day so I really wasn’t all that hungry, but a local was making some rice and shrimp which sounded cool. I stayed outside and played basketball with some kids as the rest of the group had went in to eat. I was playing 3 other kids in pig. It got down to me and a kid who was about 12. He ended up beating me and we went in to have some supper as everyone else had finished. I was behind the kid and he got the last bowl of the Cajun food. He saw I was behind him and offered me the bowl. This was one of the nicest thing I had seen in a long long time. I of course declined the soup, but was truly nourished by this gesture of
kindness. How cool is that a kid that age having the presence of mind to share like that. I was a big fan of him after that. We hung around the campfire for awhile and then they were going to have some time for reflection in the church. At the campfire, a local told me that at the house I worked on that day there was 30 ft. of water when Katrina went through there, which is only a mile off the coast. At the church there was 18 in. of water because rivers backed up due to the ocean level. He said it took about 2 months before birds began to come back and about 10 months before they started seeing road kill indicative of animals returning. Pretty spooky if you think about all that. They invited me to attend the service as well and I did. During the time period they ask for people to say what they were thankful for and what they have learned during their week helping build homes for these folks that are truly suffering as a result of hurricane Katrina. I told them all how thankful I was for them allowing me to
Signs
The signs tell the story of the current conditions. volunteer with them and that I really wasn’t a free loader looking for some free meals and lodging. The ladies that cooked the meals did an excellent job. This was my first mission trip experience and I truly enjoyed it.
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Nancy R
non-member comment
Good work, Captain Dave!