KRUP: Katrina Relief Urban Plunge
InterVarsity New England has been taking students to New Orleans and the surrounding area to help with relief efforts since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. This year, around 300 students worked in New Orleans, and 38 went to Mississippi. Ginger was with this group, which included URI, RIC, Norwich and Fairfield students.
The trip began with a 25 hour bus ride from Rhode Island to Mississippi...
(I've borrowed photos from our photographers, students
Shauna and
David. Thanks!)
On the way, we watched "When the Levees Broke," an excellent documentary about Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, with many interviews of survivors and politicians. We were introduced to some locations we would get to see, like the Superdome, where thousands of people hide during the storm. They waited there five days until they were rescued by the National Guard.
Our first day, we drove to New Orleans for a tour of the hard hit areas, including the Ninth Ward and Gentilly.
We passed several schools. At one, the 2005 billboard has not been changed, and the students never returned. Another school is the famous location of de-segregation, where Ruby Bridges attended. New Orleans students score poorly on national tests, and now all the schools are charter schools, trying new and creative ways to help students.
New Orleans is historically diverse, with free black people who owned businesses and intermarried before the Emancipation Proclamation. It is the birthplace of Jazz music, a combination of African and European styles.
Our first group photo at the MRGO - the Mississippi River - Gulf Outlet canal. In a natural setting, many coastlines in the area have swampy wetlands. These act as a protective barrier against storms and flooding. But cities expand out into the wetlands. (This is why much of New Orleans is eight feet below sea level.) MRGO was a waterway constructed on old wetlands, to provide a shorter route for industrial transport. It was rarely used. When Katrina hit, the storm surge channeled through MRGO, bringing high waves crashing against the levees, and greatly contributing to their failure.
In the Ninth Ward, many houses still stand, boarded up and empty after the storm. A spray-painted symbol marks each home with a record of have many people were rescued, how many found dead, and which group had investigated.
We spent Sunday afternoon walking through downtown New Orleans, including the French Quarter. This is the richer part of the city, which experienced much less storm damage. Most partiers come to Bourbon Street, an endless repetition of restaraunts, bars, strip clubs and voodoo shops. Jeremy and Michael were surprised to recognize a man they had spoken with during KRUP 2011. That year, he had been hustling young men into a strip club. They told him the gospel instead. This year, they were glad to see he was working for a restaurant.
New Orleans and the area has many unique foods, including gumbo, po-boys, jambalaya, muffalettas, and beignets. Jeremy, Charity and Luis posing with famous jazz musicans at Beignet Cafe.
The French Quarter has beautiful ironwork balconies and galleries. New Orleans puts special emphasis on supporting the arts. Some students spoke with the artist who display their work outdoors as a full time job.
We ended our day in New Orleans with a concert at Gentilly Baptist Church, where many InterVarsity students were living for the week. Around 300 students listened to a local musican, Paul Sanchez. He plays himself in the TV series Treme, about New Orleans. Every song had a story, from happy New Orleans tales to eerie ones, like "Where are the Bodies?" This story was of the coroner swam to his office to help process the deceased. But it was flooded, and he was set up in a nice center. But he waited a week while beaucrats argued over who and how to collect the bodies. "Who speaks for those who no longer speak? Has red tape made it impossible to die?"
Many exciting songs lead to singing along and dancing in the aisles.
During the week, we lived in Pass Christian, Mississippi. (Stephen helped with Katrina relief there in 2006.) We stayed at Antioch Campus, run by Bishop Adell and his wife Eno Abasi, with help from Mike and his mother Miss Virginia. The comfortable home fits 40 people. The students helped prepare meals during the day, and clean up. Below, Shauna and Eno Abasi.
Monday through Friday, the students worked with a variety of organizations helping with re-building in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, MS. Ginger took twelve students to work with Habitat for Humanity for the week. We painted several homes, interior and exterior, and built frames for laticework that fit around the houses three feet off the ground. The houses are designed to be protected from hurricanes, and also to be greener in energy efficiency. Our director explained that better energy systems can lower the bills by hundreds of dollars each month, creating more disposable spending for the new residents.
Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organization that aids stable families that are low-income, or don't qualify for regular home loans. They build the house with volunteer help, and give a no-interest loan, usually $500 a month for 30 years. The home-owners provide "sweat equity" by helping with construction on their home and others. This chapter of Habitat started after Katrina.
Above, we rode in the truck to carry supplies from one site to the next.
Below, fun on the scaffolding. Top: Wes, Ginger, Charity, Mary, Ramie. Lower: Lindsey, Ally, Shauna, Kristina, Monique, Rachel and Dierdre.
Our director Mark has worked for Habitat for a number of years, inspired by his commitment to Christ and sacrifical serving and justice from the writings of John M. Perkins. He moved to New Orleans after Katrina, and was later joined by his son Stephen, who works with him. They gave us a lot of good practical advice to help our work, and shared their stories and beliefs.
One day, some homeowners made lunch for all the volunteer groups. We loved getting to meet people and hear their stories. Shauna and Lindsey spent a long time listening to a woman named Sue who told of her family's experience during Katrina.
Sue's step-daughter was having her wedding the day before Katrina hit. They weren't watching TV, and didn't know until the photographer called and said he wasn't coming because of the storm. They decided not to cancel the wedding because they couldn't get their location deposits back. After the ceremony, they tried to return home, but the National Guard had blocked the road. They went to stay with family, and survied the storm while holding mattresses up against the windows. When they were finally able to return, their home had been entirely washed away. They could only find the spot by looking for the neighbor's oak tree. They lost everything, most painfully, all their family photos. Sue said she lost her home, her job, and all her friends (who moved away and didn't return.)
Sue also received NO insurance money for her destroyed house; many were scammed by owning "wind" insurance, but not "flood" insurance. She went to court, saying of course a hurricane had wind too, but it was ruled that flood had destroyed her home. She, her husband and young daughter lived in a FEMA trailer for three years, sleeping in one bed.
Sue continues to be frustrated by homeowner's insurance in the area. In the last few years, her yearly payments have increased from $3,000 a year to $8,000 a year. Sue's life advice to young women was, "When you get married and someone gives you fancy china, use it all the time! Let your kids eat off it. Don't worry if it breaks. Don't save it for later- enjoy everything you have now, because you never know if you'll have it later."
Students from other groups told good stories of strangers walking up to them and thanking them for coming to help. Many had stories of contracter scams, people who came after the storm to make money and did shoddy construction, or just took the money and ran.
In the evenings, we gathered for "Community Time," a scripture study and talks on faith, service and justice. Tom, InterVarsity Area Director for Southern Connecticut, and Adam, Staff Worker for URI gave excellent talks each evening. The theme of the week was, "Jesus heals broken things." We connected the brokeness of the hurricane devastion (with its many factors of environment, politics, social classes, race, greed and corruption) with personal brokeness in everyone's lives.
On the first night, students filled anonymous notecards with "questions about God" and "areas of personal brokenness." Ginger re-wrote these on posters that were hung for all to read. The answers were honest and had many similarities, wonderings about where was God when people were suffering, and for many, a desire to be free of their pasts.
On Tuesday night, Tom spoke about suffering. We read the
story of Lazurus and looked at all the emotional language, of how Jesus wept and mourned. Tom talked about the pain in the middle of the story. Even though the ending of the story is happy, we aren't at the end of our stories yet. It can be hard or impossible to see any purpose in our suffering. Being told, "You're stronger for having suffered" can feel trite and unhelpful.
We see that something is broken in our world, that people made in God's image shouldn't experience pain, murder, death, war, and disease. Yet, an active, present Creator is bringing light into darkness. God is present in our pain. The only sustainable source of justice in the world is from the justice-maker.
The students ended with writing a letter to God, and sharing personal stories in small groups. The small group Ginger led shared vulnerable stories of mental illness, family drug addictions, the death of parents, and the murder of family members. There were some glimpses of redemption in the stories, yet it felt good to cry out "unfair" and "unjust" to God.
Thursday night, Adam spoke on the story of the
rich young ruler. For the man in this story, the one thing he couldn't give up for God was his wealth. Most of us base our security in thinking that money and possessions will save and protect us. For some, maybe our education or career. Jesus says, "All that stuff you do- get rid of all that. You are missing Me."
Adam also shared the story of his goddaughter, Clare, whose parents adopted her from Ethiopia. She had been left in a hole by the side of the road, and the orphanage named her "She is Found." When her new parents met her, it felt like a reunion, like they already had a connection with her. They found her in a deeper way, and were delighted to save her. God has a reunion with us in our salvation; He delights to rescue and heal. Parents lose large amounts of time and money, and take great risks to adopt a child they've never met, but do it with joy.
Adam invited students to "give up the exhausting game of trying to heal yourself." Five URI students and three RIC students stood up to accept Jesus as their healer.
The night was powerful for Shauna, a RIC student who became a believer last fall. She asked, "Why am I so emotional seeing others become Christians? I didn't cry like this when I accepted Jesus." We talked about the
parable of the lost sheep, and how when the lost are found, there is great rejoicing in heaven! This time, Shauna got to welcome new members into the family.
Above, the Snug Harbor jazz club. (Mike imagines heaven is like this.)
On Friday night, we cleaned the house and celebrated. Around 11 PM, we held an
excellent talent show, with singing, dancing, slam-poetry, and surprises. Some students stayed up all night at a bonfire, before the bus left at 5:30 AM, to arrive in Rhode Island at 9 AM on Sunday.
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