This week has been, like all the others, absolutely amazing, especially the weekend. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to the Lower 9th Ward to do some volunteer work. I was excited about this because I got to work with kids, which is something I enjoy doing in my work with Bounceback Kids. One little boy, Larenzo, or Rennie, was nearly 2. He was counting the basketballs, hitting people with a rake and an air pump, and eating chalk (it’s ok…I used to eat chalk, and look how I turned out…). We played with the kids at a park, and then gave them Gatorade and Subway sandwiches. While it was fun to play with the kids, the conditions of the lower 9th were saddening. However, I am very glad I got to see them because it really showed me what damage Katrina, as well as poor government handling, has wrought. There were defunct cars lying around in the street, and often it was difficult to tell which houses were being lived in and which were abandoned. Jocelyn, the contact through whom I found out about this, then took me around to different sites to give me a tour of "the real New Orleans." The French Quarter, while the most popular tourist attraction, is unlike the vast majority of New Orleans. The gutted houses, the spots where the levees broke, the cypress swamp ravaged by both humans and nature --- these are the forgotten New Orleans. I am surprised, years after Katrina, that these areas still have not been rebuilt. I have found, through my adventures in NOLA, that there is a great disparity between living conditions. One street will be affluent, and lavish, while the next street over is impoverished. Jocelyn took me to one house of a friend who she knew who worked at Loyola. The house had been gutted: on the inside, just the beams between the walls remained. As Jocelyn said, ‘Each house tells a story”. The garage in this house was destroyed. The extra car that was in the driveway was carried through the garage door and out the back of the garage during Katrina. The refrigerator then floated through the back wall of the house. When they cleaned out the house, some weeks later, mud was caked all over, like an impenetrable wall of cement. This house was right by the spot where one of the levees broke. It was really something to see firsthand such destruction and the area where where the levees broke. On the way back, Jocelyn pointed at an overpass. Here, she explained, one of her friends waited for three days with no food or water during Katrina, to avoid the flooding.
On a significantly more trivial note, I went to the zoo on Sunday. Audubon Zoo is massive. I especially enjoyed seeing the elephants, giraffes, and primates. I was lucky enough to go on the day when a new baby giraffe, Juno, was introduced to the zoo. I also saw a peacock that was allowed to roam freely, and I was able to get within two feet of it. I felt as if I was channeling Flannery O’Connor’s spirit! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the zoo. From there, I went to Audubon Park and read A Prayer For Owen Meany and ate a Snowball. (For those of you who do not know what a Snowball is, it is flavored ice in a cone.) So, that about sums up my fabulous weekend. Off to a wonderful week, and many perilous voyages through the streets of New Orleans. Until the next post, stay dry and be sure to brush your teeth before bed…
Peace,
Moe Long
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