Oh Yeah... So About New Orleans... (Part 2)
Well dang! It's been a whole week and I haven't posted the next installment of my New Orleans experience yet! That just goes to show you how much effort I've been putting into this website - I wake up, code, eat at some point, code, shower at some point, code, should go to sleep but don't, code, and finally crash. This week's gonna be different, though, because people are finally starting to come back to campus. Also, I'm going to pledge with Seal & Serpent this semester, and it's rush week, so I've got fun to have. Well anyway, on to the story!
In this issue you will find:
- Shades of Praise
- Natural Disaster Stories
- Bus Tour
- Second Line
- Real Cajun Food
- Gender & Sexuality Caucus
Enjoy!
Day 2 - "See-Experience": Friday, 12/29/2006
On the second day we had a multiracial singing group called the Shades of Praise. They would sing a song for us, many of them praise songs (unsurprisingly), and then one of them would tell us the story of their experiences before, during, and/or after Katrina, and then they'd sing another song. They were really great, and they had the whole crowd moving and clapping along. Their stories were moving and, at times, heartwrenching. One of the guys told us about how his wife kicked him out of their temporary house because of "Katrina stress", but that they'd gotten back together again eventually.
Then there was denominational time where everyone split up and went into their respective areas. I went with the Methodists. There were local ministers from various parts of the area who told us some stories about their experiences. One of them from Tulane explained that none of his students were here because they live this every single day - they take any chance they get to get away from the area for a break from it all. Our activity for the day was to sit around in groups and discuss our experiences of Katrina, what we felt when we heard the news, what we did about it, etc etc. There was a group there from MGCCC who had a lot to say about the event. The guy in my group told us that the Mississippi Gulf Coast was hit really hard by Katrina also, but that it didn't get any (or, at any rate, very little) media coverage, so they didn't have nearly the influx of money and volunteers that New Orleans had. He complained that "all you hear is New Orleans this, New Orleans that. What about us!? We got hit too!" It was really moving to hear stories from kids my age about what they've been through because of Katrina and other natural disasters.
After lunch we went on a bus tour through the previously flooded areas. We saw places like the 9th Ward (upper and lower), the Industrial Canal Breach, and all kinds of stuff. The devastation was incredible. There were still houses sitting there cracked in half, cars upside down, cars rammed into the corners of houses and the houses leaning down on them, etc. There were other plots of land where the houses were removed and just the foundation was left. We got to see where the breaches occured, where they were rebuilding the levies and (hopefully) building them right this time. Our tour guide, one of the members of the Shades of Praise, didn't have a very high opinion of the Army Corps of Engineers, since the levies were 13ft high but broke when the water was at only 12ft. He also told us about a website where we could go to find out all kinds of information about New Orleans in general and Katrina in particular, including a map of the rebuilding progress and a map showing the time-elapsed flood progression. We also got to see a novel new residential area being built by Habitat for Humanity called the Musicians' Village for musicians who've lot their homes in the flood. The deal is something along the lines of musicians play for some 300 hours of community service-type things, then they get a claim on one of the Habitat homes, they go and help build it, and they get to live in it. Brilliant idea!
After dinner we participated in a New Orleans tradition called a Second Line. "Second lining" originated from the New Orleans "Jazz Funeral" where the funeral procession would include a jazz marching band followed by the "first line" of the deceased's family and friends, and then random onlookers attracted to the music would join the procession and dance around after them, forming the "second line" or "second lining". So, we followed a jazz marching band through the streets to Jackson Square, a block in the French Quarter. It was a neat experience to march through the streets and have people crowding around to see what was going on, and have some even join us!
Me and Caroline split off a bit early to go meet up with some of the friends she made and have dinner at a famous Cajun restaurant called Mulate's. I've always loved Cajun spices ever since I had them in a silver turtle on a Boy Scout campout a long long time ago. I've had blackened fish at various places, and loved it most of the time. Now was my opportunity to have the original Cajun experience. The real thing! And boy, was it worth it. The food was absolutely amazing, and the music was even better. Like most places I'd seen on Bourbon Street, this place had live music for its diners to enjoy. Wooooo! :D
Finally, there were a couple of topic-based smaller group meetings (they called them "caucuses") back at the hotel. I went to the one on Gender and Sexuality. Basically the message I got was that the gay communities on some college campuses discriminate against Christians just as much as the less tolerant Christians discriminate against gays. The way to fix that and bridge the gap so that people don't have to choose between being a Christian and being gay is to genuinely reach out to the gay communities and form relationships with them. Progressive "gay-friendly" Christian student groups should go to GSA meetings as straight allies, not just in word, but in deed. And if that can happen, and genuine friendships can form without ulterior motives like trying to convert people or make them renounce their sexual identity, tensions between gays and Christians will be relieved and it won't be such a rare occurance for a Christian to come out as a homosexual in their church group, or a homosexual to come out as a Christian in their GSA or other LGBT organizations. It would certainly dash some destructive stereotypes about Christians (like that they're all Bible-thumping self-righteous hypocrits who may say they accept you for who you are but all they want to do is change you) and homosexuals (like that they all practice what some people who don't know what they're talking about refer to as the "gay lifestyle", as if there were such a thing). It would definitely be a step in the right direction.
Jack