Unnatural Disaster
After getting out of class tonight, I stopped by the evacuee shelter at LSUS. The first thing I came across, besides all the kids happily playing ball in the dark, was a tent full of noisy caged pets, seemingly well taken care of. A little unsettling though. I was hoping this wouldn't a foreshadowing of the mayhem inside. Once inside, while nice to see, the place is LOADED with supplies & clothes & food, and there's no shortage of volunteers. I got busy with a few other people cleaning up & organizing huge chaotic piles of toys & books, and after a while I discovered a little shadow. He was a little runt of a kid, looking for something to play with. His name is Hassan, a soft-spoken nine-year-old boy with an unbelievable heart, and he's my friend now. We played and talked.
He introduced me to his family, a group of about 15 people - about 6 women, the rest kids - ages 6 months to 18 years, all camped out in their little mattress communities. I spent a lot of time talking with who seemed to be the leader of the group, Leah, the aunt. She's remarkably optimistic, actually seems relieved to finally have a reason to leave New Orleans for good. For. Good. She's tired of the crime, and the noise, and the constant fear of The Big One. She's wanting to find a job & start over here in Shreveport. Luckily, all of their family evacuated & is all accounted for, although spread out across three states. Leah feels blessed. She really feels as though the Red Cross at LSUS and all of the donations from our area have given her everything she could need.
I'll go back & visit Hassan's family in the next few days. I know how relatively lucky they are (can you imagine? lucky? because they only lost their city & their home & their possessions?), but their outlook is so inspiring, and the best thing for this "survivor's remorse" we're all going through. It makes me feel pretty silly, when all I've wanted to do the last few days is crawl under blankets and fill my senses with the horrors of the aftermath of Katrina. How selfish of me. The victims aren't doing that, although for many of them, it would be so easy to. I'm so in love with all of my friends who are in some way reaching out to the victims, and I'm happy to know that they will be sleeping better tonight.
In other realities (you know I can't leave this tied up with a pretty Hollywood bow), New Orleans is seeing a crisis that I don't think I ever imagined in all my apocalyptic daydreams. Filled with mind-numbing fury, dispair and confusion. Escape from NOLA.
He introduced me to his family, a group of about 15 people - about 6 women, the rest kids - ages 6 months to 18 years, all camped out in their little mattress communities. I spent a lot of time talking with who seemed to be the leader of the group, Leah, the aunt. She's remarkably optimistic, actually seems relieved to finally have a reason to leave New Orleans for good. For. Good. She's tired of the crime, and the noise, and the constant fear of The Big One. She's wanting to find a job & start over here in Shreveport. Luckily, all of their family evacuated & is all accounted for, although spread out across three states. Leah feels blessed. She really feels as though the Red Cross at LSUS and all of the donations from our area have given her everything she could need.
I'll go back & visit Hassan's family in the next few days. I know how relatively lucky they are (can you imagine? lucky? because they only lost their city & their home & their possessions?), but their outlook is so inspiring, and the best thing for this "survivor's remorse" we're all going through. It makes me feel pretty silly, when all I've wanted to do the last few days is crawl under blankets and fill my senses with the horrors of the aftermath of Katrina. How selfish of me. The victims aren't doing that, although for many of them, it would be so easy to. I'm so in love with all of my friends who are in some way reaching out to the victims, and I'm happy to know that they will be sleeping better tonight.
In other realities (you know I can't leave this tied up with a pretty Hollywood bow), New Orleans is seeing a crisis that I don't think I ever imagined in all my apocalyptic daydreams. Filled with mind-numbing fury, dispair and confusion. Escape from NOLA.