P.S. ... and a little bit more

From Karen on April 17th:

Remember the movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy"? It's one of those days, which means it is time for an all-around update.

Somehow, now that we have been back from New Orleans for two months, Hillary's principal found out about our trip and decided to contact the publicity department for the school system, which in turn contacted the weekly paper, which has made contact with us. Funny, the reporter has a deadline. So, when the paper comes out, I'll try to get it in electronic form and see if his article can be posted. I spoke to him today, and when he read back the "content" of our interview, the heart of it all seemed to be missing. So that, in part, is why I'm writing.

The reporter asked if I think New Orleans should be rebuilt. That's not my decision, and I honestly believe I don't have the right to answer the question. We were there for a week. People who have been spent their entire lives in New Orleans are the people to ask; they are the people whose opinions should count. (Just to set the record straight, when I've been asked by friends, my answer has always been, if you rebuild one area, you have to rebuild the rest). He asked about the overall experience, and when I said it took place on so many different levels, he listened for just one, and then thanked me and asked when he could talk to Hillary.

The one level I told him about is the one we experienced most: the EC experience. We were welcomed into a community of people from all over the country, people with different life experiences, of all ages, who came to EC for one reason: to help other people. To help people and do it with no political or religious agenda. That we became part of this community in such a short time is a tribute in large part to Hillary's ability to make friends wherever she goes and to fit in wherever she goes. Once again, we thank everyone at EC for making our time there so meaningful.

Yes, there were other levels. We helped people. We hope we made a difference. We hope we spread the word about the needs in New Orleans, which have apparently not changed anywhere near as much as the temperature in the two months since we were there. We had a camping experience and managed to live out of the car quite nicely. We learned we make good traveling companions. And yes, we were able to inspire others to help out.

This week, in fact, our friends Melanie and Faye are doing the mother-daughter volunteering thing at EC on their spring break. They too are keeping a blog, and if you want to know what's going on and what's changed since we were there, you might want to check out their site, which is through the Providence Journal, where Faye works. You'll have to cut and paste this one into your browser.

http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/nola/

Anyway, if you read theirs, and you've read ours, you may be wondering why we spoiled northern girls don't/didn't want to use the solar-powered showers. It's not just because of the cold water when we were there. We are trying to post a picture of it.

Adding the shower photo

the end! - hillary

we are at the end of our trip. I am sitting on a plane and typing this. I got so much out of this experience. I met many amazing people, and I learned a life lesson. It was hard seeing all the houses and other things that got destroyed, but it really helped me understand what people have to go through and how much less they have than me. Helping out was really fun, and I felt really good about myself when someone was extra thankful for what I was doing. Many people said how good it was to see some young faces around, and they were right. More people should do this because all the disgustingness (showers, bathrooms, tents) is worth it. I really had a great time.

p.s. don't forget to check out www.emergencycommunities.org!

A last day of pictures - Hillary and Karen

Our waterfront property just before striking camp.
Chris and Hillary doing "YMCA".
Barb from Grand Haven and Ava from Great Neck serving lunch.
Karen and Hillary at breakfast (our only picture together!)
Hillary with the "latkes" (a.k.a. home fries).
Hillary and Chris.
Mark serving breakfast (We know your kids are checking in and hope they are really proud of you).

Saturday afternoon (Feb. 25)

We got a hotel room in downtown New Orleans so we don't have to shower at the JCC and sleep in the car (that was Plan B).Hillary found the Country Inn and Suites this morning and they actually had a room. So we came in with Mark, who navigated us through everything and have just showered. I'm going to let Hillary post later, but first have to share just one picture. This one's for Emma:

Friday's Photos (and one from Wednesday)

So, these pictures are: the playground, Karen mopping during deep cleaning, Karen making latkes, the barge, and Hillary and Emma on Wednesday night (after they got sunburned not making the playground).

Friday Night

Hi....
Hillary tried to post this afternoon, but it was raining really hard and because everything here is in tents, we think they shut down the internet. So we lost that one. I'm going to try to remember what she had written about.

Today we started out sweeping the big dining tent before 7 (Hillary joined about 7:30), served breakfast for an hour, but ran out of everything, except scrambled eggs, much to the disappointment of the latecomers. They did get lots of eggs, and I should mention they are not only real eggs, they are organic. We have heard many comments about how the EC food is so much better than what anyone else is serving around here. Tonight's dinner, for instance, was jambalaya, salad, cream of potato soup and some other stuff and there was chocolate cream pie for dessert. I got asked mid-morning if I could make latkes for breakfast tomorrow, and have just finished mixing up three huge buckets of potatoes (shredded them in the food processor, which has to be turned on by sticking a fork in the connector), onions, eggs (18 per bucket), flour, and a little salt. We decided to fry them in hotel trays with a half inch of oil in them in lieu of frying pans... that'll start around 6 am, but I don't usually get in the kitchen tent until nearly 7. The couple who will be actually cooking the latkes came from Washington State -- they drove a camper down in January, stayed a few weeks, flew home and came back again to rejoin their camper. Anyway, they got a lesson in latke making and I got potatoes all over my jeans (which I wanted to wear tomorrow again), my sweatshirt, which I desperately needed today, and John's rain boots. We both wore rain boots today, which was a good thing because it was so wet.

After breakfast, we went with Mark to look at the barge that either floated over the levee into the middle of a street in the 9th Ward, or had some help. I talked with a security guard at the site; he works for the insurance company of the barge's owner and recognized Hillary and me from EC because he too eats here. I asked what he thought had happened and he had no comment. The barge has been in the middle of the street, parked, since Katrina and is finally being cut up and removed. It's on big air bags now. They have to preserve the bottom to find out how and why it crossed the levee. The barge is a huge tourist attraction (hence the guard) and we too were out with our cameras. I'm going to try to post more pictures.

After the barge, we headed the other way to check out this playground they're building for Extreme Makeover Home Edition (airing tentatively April 6). It's a reality now, but it's in Chalmette, which also has no inhabitable homes, even though they are mainly brick, much more expensive than the 9th Ward, and still standing. So there's this playground out in the middle of a place where no one lives and no one will live for quite some time. We understand they bussed in kids to play there for the shoot. The Reality Show.

Then lunch and serving and then deep cleaning the kitchen. Hillary really worked her butt off in there; I'm very proud of her and proud to be her mother. She has made friends all over the place, and once again, I'm becoming known as Hillary's mom. I skipped out on a little of the deep cleaning to post yesterday's report because the internet came back up about then. It started to rain during the cleaning, so we went to the car to use the computer and do homework and other stuff. Then it started pouring, so it was really nice to be in a dry, nearly-warm car.

We are trying to find a hotel for tomorrow night because we have to break down our camp during the day, or we will never make an 8am flight home on Sunday. So far, no luck. Hard to believe that as few people were at yesterday's parades, everything is booked solid (it's raining again- So far, the tent has stayed dry). We are going to have to look on the other side of the airport tomorrow unless someone comes up with something before then. I really didn't expect this to be so difficult and have told Hillary we'll sleep in the car if we have to-it'll be dry and we won't feel or hear the wind, and can shower at the JCC during the afternoon (yes, it's open).

David, who comes from Georgia and has been hanging with us a bit (says he misses his kids and grandkids) and has been quizzing the girls about presidents and coins and school and stuff, brought a cross-section from two trees over to show Hillary how trees age and how fast they grow. We tried to visit the puppies, but Lali has them protected from the public in her tent, although she said we could take a picture to post tomorrow. There are seven of them; Hillary was right when she guessed. Six boys and a girl and for most of the morning that was the buzz around here.

Then before and after dinner it was potatoes all the way. Hillary worked on the latkes before dinner; we ate late and she went right to bed. I put in a couple of more latke hours and now here I am and here we are, all up to date.

Pictures from Thursday

These are pictures from our afternoon/evening in the French Quarter. Sorry they are all out of order. First the ferry crossing from downtown, a parade float, then Mark at the parade we saw, followed by a very happy-to-be posing Ava and Hillary.
First stop was Cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets. Please don't forget to check out www.emergencycommunities.org and feel free to make any donation you can. This is an all-volunteer, non-political, non-religious group dedicated only to making the lives of people here bearable. There's also a free store for residents to get any household needs that are available from shampoo to baby formula. Anything is welcome. Cases of bottled water are always a huge help!

Thursday's postings - sorry they're late!

Day 4- Hillary
Today was a very busy day. I woke up around 7, and went to the kitchen to help out. I made fruit salad with my mom. Emma and her dad left today. I help them break their tent and pack up. We also made lunch, for emma’s last time. During lunch, we learned that Abby, one of the dogs at the camp, was in labor. We went to a tent to see her, and we got to experience the birth of her 1st baby boy!!! pictures will come later. Anyway, the birth was really cool, and the one puppy that we saw is adorable. After a while, abby got stressed and we left. Then we went our seperate ways. Emma and her dad went home, and my mom, a bunch of other volunteers, and i went to town. We were going to go to the zoo, but it was closed. We went to the french quarters, which was extremely cool. We went to "Café la monde", which is a very touristy yet cool coffee shop. We went on a faerie on the mississippi river, too, just for fun. Then, we went into all of these little mardi gras shops, where we bought funky little masks. I got a dress from a cute boutique called Wish, which i loved. Finally, we saw a mardi gras parade. It was really fun. There were high school marching bands, people on horses, people carrying fire sticks, and floats. Some floats had people throwing stuff. I got cups, mardi gras beads, and trading cards. These are some of the things we saw on our trip to the "real new orleans":
more to come!!! :-)


Day 4 - Thursday - Karen
Sorry we didn’t actually post on Thursday. By the time we got back to Emergency Communities from the Mardi Gras festivities, there was for some reason no connectivity. Hillary wrote in the car on the way "home" and immediately went to sleep once we got our clothes back to the tent. It’s pretty chilly tonight. I came back to the car to post her stuff, but ended up writing what I’m doing now because I can’t post and it doesn’t look as if I’ll be able to do anything else tonight. One of the people next to me at the parade (we were on Canal Street where the parades turn around and end) told me how amazing it was that we were right up against the barricade, that no matter how many years he’d come here, he’d never been able to get this close to any parade. So, that’s the real state of New Orleans now...nobody here to see the parades. I took a lot of pictures and will try to post them, along with the puppy pictures I promised Emma I’d take. We were guessing while in New Orleans how many puppies Abby had, and still don’t know. It’s a very exciting event around here; when the first one was born, someone went around with a megaphone to announce Abby had had her first puppy, then later to say it’s a boy.
It was a good day for connecting with people, despite Emma’s and Billie’s leaving. We took several people into New Orleans, spent most of the day with Mark, who is a doctor and came from London, where he lives now, because he loves New Orleans and spent a lot of time here over the years. He started out in a free clinic actually living at the Zoo, and has been here for a few weeks. He will likely take over our tent spot when we leave on Saturday. Ava from Great Neck was also with us; she’s a first grade teacher in NYC. One of her sons came down here to help earlier at another site; she came by herself. Mark and Ava are living in the dormitory tent, which is serious communal living and makes me very happy we decided to take our own tent... thank you Hillary!!! We never made it to the JCC today, but luckily it didn’t get hot, so we could survive without our shower. Probably won’t get one until we leave Saturday and go to a hotel, since JCCs tend to close early on Fridays.

A quick one Friday morning

Hey, sorry we didn't post yesterday. For some reason, the laptop won't connect to the internet right now, and we'll check that out today and post yesterday's report later (it's in storage). We're still here though!!
Karen

Wednesday's final posting - Karen

It's really late and Hillary's asleep, and I'm ready to go to sleep, but really wanted to let you all know what a day here is really like. So here's what we did today. I swept the diningroom (big tent) and the serving tent at 7am, ate breakfast and then served from 9-10am. Hillary went on the completely-staged shoot of Extreme Makeover Home Edition after breakfast with Emma and Billie (Emma's dad). They traveled inside the back of a U-Haul type truck and did I mention it was a really hot day? They all came back sunburned. They could tell you more about what they did, but apparently whatever they did before lunch (and they stayed for the catered lunch there) was all fake, and just for the cameras. The afternoon people said they did actual playground-building. The show is supposed to air in April, so keep an eye out for it and look for the girls.
While they were there, I talked with Maddie's mom (about where they're staying, downtown, the French Quarter, the 9th Ward, her daughter who had to leave Tulane and go to Columbia after the storms), who noticed we were out of bottles of water in the coolers for the big tent, so the search was on for water. It's kept in one of the refrigeration trucks (they're known as "reefers"), so with an assembly line, we offloaded the water onto a pallet, then brought to the big tent and loaded into coolers. Then we had to find ice. There's a freezer truck, which we learned tonight is a privilege to go into ... it's actually grandfathered. But this was early in the season and it really felt great! Oh, and I learned to fill a sink unit with water... tomorrow I hope to find where the soap and paper towels are kept.
Breakfast, by the way, was vegetable frittatas, chocolate chip -banana pancakes, sausages, fresh fruit salad and grits. Lunch was grilled chicken breasts or veggie burgers, potatoes, salad, cucumber salad, mushroom-onion garnish and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Dinner was pork, rice and beans, salad, root vegetables, and chicken pasta. Better than your average everyday home-cooked meal.
I also served lunch.
I'm losing track of what we did after that, more random work (uploading pictures) and the girls did homework and talked with people here. At 4, Hillary and I left for the 9th ward and then the JCC for the shower. We've mentioned that the JCC is a FEMA center, also SBA, so I'm going to try to post one more photo here...

Lower 9th Ward

Today, we drove through the Lower 9th Ward: ground zero for Hurricane Katrina. there was absolutely nobody there. it was a complete ghost town, besides a few tourists and very few workers.


This is a picture of one of the ward's many churches, which is also nonfunctioning. Don't know if you can read the sign, about rebuilding the 9th.

Here's some of what's left of what people called home (6 months after the hurricane):

There were blocks and blocks of houses like these. on the house in the picture on the top right (the one with the plastic slide), the wind turbine was still spinning. it was the only thing moving anywhere. the brick houses are still standing, but still uninhabitable.

Still More pictures - Wednesday

This is Hillary sorting utensils. we participated in a deep clean of the kitchen. The kitchen is deep cleaned twice a week, half of it in each cleaning. We'll work on the other side on Friday.

Top left are Hillary and Emma serving food (Breakfast Tuesday). Emma and her dad drove down from Michigan. They're leaving tomorrow. Next to them is a picture of two other girls who are down here on break with their moms, from Rockland County and Long Island. They are not staying here, but come to work during the day.


Middle left is the free store that this site has to offer. there are many things to give out here. the free store includes clothes, shoes, toys, and more. next to that picture is the dish pit. this is where the dishes are washed. there is always ssomething to do in the dish pit. the volunteers never run out of dishes to be washed.

well today is extremely hot. we are very sweaty and burnt. we are trying to enjoy it while it lasts, because tomorrow might not be this hot!

more to come!

A little bit more - Karen

Just so you are aware of what this place is, it's a sort of utopian community (except for the lack of hot/running water) where everyone is a volunteer. 75 percent of what's served is still donated, so we've been asked to ask anyone with connections in the food or food supply or any related business to think about contributing. How to do that is on the emergencycommunities.org website.

People come down here and just stay, and I guess this is a particularly busy time of year because of break and Mardi Gras.

The weather isn't great. It's still a little chilly, although warmer tonight than last night, and I think we're adding layers to what we sleep in tonight. Thanks, Shelly for the advice on under-armor. It's also very foggy now; we watched it roll in when we were downtown, but now, after 11pm, and it's hard to see any great distance. I don't know if I've ever seen fog like this at night.

The people we serve food to are very grateful; many of the workers and residents just come and pick up meals and take them to wherever they are staying, FEMA trailers or campsites or wherever they are without power or water or gas or whatever. FEMA is now present all over the area: in the parking lot of the (closed) Walmart across the street, in the front office of the JCC, and many other places. There are also pickup medical/dental/Red Cross stations all over and other feeding points as well. Anyway, as shellshocked as many people are, and who wouldn't be, they always smile and thank us when we spoon out the food and when they leave the food tent for the night. We're told many of the people who live ehre are just here to clean out their homes, gather their possessions -- not sure if moving back is even a possibility in this area, where all the homes were very badly damaged, if not levelled. There are signs posted everywhere for cleanout, demolition, construction, mold removal companies, that sort of thing.

There are also very few working traffic lights nearly six months after the hurricane. THere are stop signs at most intersections, and so far, everyone I've seen has been really polite about stopping. And going.

That's it for now; I'm sitting in the car because Hillary is sleeping and I think the car is a little warmer than the tent. Not to mention it's right next to the "bathrooms" so I'll call it a night and make sure Hillary is the next poster.
K

More pictures we hope!

This is Hillary serving breakfast this morning. It is really hard to upload pictures for some reason, so we'll do as much as we can. We're in the computer/phone room (tent) here. The computers are available for everyone, but volunteers are asked to get off them if residents need to use them. Same goes for the VoIP phone lines. We obviously have our own computer and cell phones so are just in here now for the light and signal strength.

Anyway, after serving and eating lunch, we helped do a deep clean in the kitchen -- with any luck, I'll be able to publish that picture too. Then went to the JCC for a hot shower (cheating :)). The woman was really nice there, told us to come back and shower any time,which is really all we can do because they only have an outside pool and the exercise rooms are for over 16 only. But there's a sauna and whirlpool.....

We got back in time for dinner and after dinner (BBQ chicken, salad, fried veggies, corn bread and potato chowder) I took over for the man who counts the people coming in. Between residents, workers and volunteers, we served 399 meals here tonight. Or I should say, 399 meals were served, since we weren't doing the actual dishing out this time.

Hillary hung out with Emma, the other 12 year old who is camping here with her dad. She lives in Oakland, Michigan and he is originally from Williamsville (Bflo) NY. They're going to try to get up at 5:30 am (Brrr!) and cook breakfast. After breakfast, the girls are going to join the volunteers doing Extreme Makeover - Home Edition, which is shooting here tomorrow. So we'll have to let you know when to watch. I think we're restoring or making a park or playground.

I'm going to try for one more picture before logging out.... wish me luck!

Day 2- night- Hillary

Hey, i have pictures from yesterday and today to give you a little more sense of what we're experiencing.

This is me pitching the tent. it took a while, but it was a fun experience. it was my first time pitching a tent, and i think i did pretty well. as you can see, around me is many other tents. we are sleeping in a huge feild full of different tents. our tent is now nice and cozy.

More to come!!! :-)

Day 2 - morning - Karen

It was really cold last night. I'm not sure what they say about the temperatures the sleeping bags are good for, but they sure don't keep your feet warm. After I got up this morning, I went to the dining room tent looking for work and got to sweep the floor, which is really (formerly) the parking lot of the former game place where Emergency Communities has set up shop here. We are in Arabi, in St. Bernards Parish. There are people here volunteering from all over the country, but we seem to meet mostly people from Long Island, NJ and northeast. In addition to the food (breakfast was a biggie: home fries, grits with cheese, scrambled eggs, ham, fruit salad plus whatever dry cereal was inside the tent), there is a whole pile of bicycles that people are fixing up and using or giving away. There's a "free store" where people donate clothes (volunteers sort them) and people can come and pick out whatever they want or need. We have orientation at 10am, which is a half hour from now and will find our "assignments" then I guess. But Hillary, Emma and I have already volunteered to help deep clean the kitchen at 1:30, right after lunch is cooked.
Maybe after that, we can go into town. My goal is to look for the JCC and use our membership card from NJ (reciprocity) so we can go in and take hot showers and maybe use the gym or something. There are only 2 working showers here and very little hot running water at sinks. Most are cold water that you pump with your foot. I have to say it felt good to put on clean clothes this morning! A shower will be even nicer if the JCC is up and running and lets us in.

Day 1 - Hillary

so we are here in our tent, enjoying "neighborhood quiettime". today was a busy day. on our way here, we saw many things. we saw the destuction of houses go from bad to worse. there were signs all over the street advertising anything you can thinkn of. on many of the houses, there were messages to pet rescue teams to look for their pets. anyway, we got down here just in time for lunch. lunch became a huge fiesta because there was a brass band playing to entertain the eaters. soon, everybody was either dancing or clapping along to the music. the food here is good, but it took me a while to get used to "wildlife". during lubch, i met another 12 year-old girl who is here for a bat-mmitzvah project. after lunch, my mom and i walked over to the walmart across the street. it obviously isnt open, but the parking lot is home to a FEMA place. after walking back, we helped out in the kitchen. we spent about an hour chopping vegetables for a salad. we made about 5 huge containers. after resting in our tent for a little bit, my mom and i went down to dinner. there was a huge line outside the serving tent, and it was freezing. inside was not as bad becuase there was a heater. after eating a dinner of carrot soufle, salad, rice and beans, and sausage, we went to go help serve the food. we ended up staying until 8:30, about an hour after we arrived to help. the food disappeared so quickly. about 5oo-600 people came for dinner, including volunteers, residents, and workers.

and thats it!

until next time<3

Day 1 - Karen

We made it We are camped out in a sort of tent city and in our completely dark tent right now we have wifi and cell service and used GPS to get here. Hillary was the navigator. We made salad for dinner and are hungry and going to eat so the next post will be from Hillary.