School on a Bus (a.k.a. Radical Sabbatical)

Sarah: At home I would hear of teams being sent by our church to New Orleans or would help with a massive Project Linus blanket project for New Orleans, but never dreamed that I would go down to New Orleans myself. We actually drove straight through New Orleans and headed to Buras.

In Buras the grocery stores are in the middle of nowhere, in ripped buildings and surrounded by ‘junk’ Katrina left in her wake. There is such a contrast between the two cities, which are but an hour apart.

At EC we had fun; while doing work that is. They managed to keep us busy all day, and then we’d stagger off to the bus to recuperate before another busy day. Let me explain a little about the EC Buras base. It is in an old YMCA building, and has a roof and the front wall. The side walls are half-torn off, and the back is completely open. This is almost an advantage because of all the volunteers that smoke and Kevin’s asthma. But when the thick fog rolls in there, it comes into the building as well. There is no indoors, just outdoors. All of the volunteers sleep in ‘Tent City’, a ‘building’ behind the Y, how the YMCA is known. At the Y everyone has their own nicknames for people and buildings, so it took a while for us to learn the lingo J.

When I first saw them serving the food, it looked like they were dishing it out of garbage cans. I didn’t really know what to think J. After a few meals I found the food actually very good. I began helping out in the kitchen by chopping, peeling, stirring, and various other small tasks. It became my routine to help out in Distro (the distribution center where they gave food, clothing, etc. out to residents) until lunch, help serve lunch, take an hour or so off to read or use the Internet tent, then help serve dinner.

I loved serving the food. Sometimes there are new faces, sometimes the same faces you see every day. Cheerfulness came naturally as I greeted the residents and bantered with the volunteers—people I came to know, respect, and love.

Besides helping peel onions or chop potatoes, I also made 2 main dishes with Chelsea, from California. We fried wheelbread and baked chocolate chocolate chip cookies together—on the same day. The wheelbread was for lunch (It was supposed to go with soup, but they changed plans on me and made a pasta instead), and the cookies for dessert for dinner. I was in the kitchen almost all day. Those were the only meals I actually had a big part in making.

Once the food is ready to be served you dish it into a large pan, called a hotel pan. They have some deep, some shallow, but all fit into rectangle, green, plastic bins called camos—with lids that can strap on. We would line 3-5 of them up on a table—depending on how many ‘courses’ the meal had. Breakfast was usually grits, eggs, bacon, and fruit salad. Lunch and dinner varied, but were usually a soup or pasta. It was amazing the variety of the meals. One day burritos, one day steak, one day shrimp. And it all tasted good! They had a large refrigerator to store the leftovers in, and a refrigerated truck to store butter, vegetables, bread, milk, etc. A computer was set up in a corner, and had thousands of songs on it that would be playing constantly.

Some volunteers devote all of their day to cooking. You have to begin making the meal 2 hours before you serve it, and stay in the kitchen for the 2 hours you serve it to re-fill the camos. Sometimes they don’t sleep, but stay up all night to make apricot bars for tomorrow morning, or do the dishes, an endless task.

I would often tell people if they want to get me in a good mood, talk to me while I’m serving food. Something about it would energize me and make me joyful—even if my feet ached from a long day or my eyes couldn’t seem to stay open.

I enjoyed the people there. What fun would it be without them?? Some would come, some would leave, some were always there. Some I knew well, some I didn’t. But they all made up Emergency Communities—EC. Before we arrived in Buras I had been praying that God would teach me to really love people. I believe He answered that prayer with EC.

Kathy: When we first came to EC I had no preconceived ideas of what I would be doing there; only that I wanted to serve wherever needed. I quickly found that I loved being in the distribution center (distro), and could work there all day if needed. One reason was that it was a great place to meet the residents of the area. We served 50 to 70 families each day. The tent that we worked in held food, clothing and whatever other donations came in. I helped by stocking the shelves and organizing but it was also great to just talk to the residents. I learned a lot from them; their love of their community and their strength to return in the face of great obstacles.

Here are a few things that people said that particularly struck me. “What the government and insurance companies are doing to me is way worse than Hurricane Katrina. Katrina wiped me out in one day, but the others will wipe me out for 5 to 10 years.” (Note: it’s too easy to just blame Bush, but the local and state governments and the insurance companies who won’t pay their claims have been a great roadblock to these people’s recovery.) “The storm actually did me a favor. I never found my house, and my foundation was swept clean. I didn’t have to do any clean up!”

I was also blown away by the generosity of some, who after losing everything, still were so unselfish. They would bring in clothing or other items, saying they didn’t have room in their little FEMA trailers, so they might as well share with others. I would challenge us all to be so willing to give to others, even when we think we don’t have much to give!

One of the other reasons I loved working in distro was the EC volunteers that served there: Jenni from England, Sarah from Maine, and Olivia from Georgia. There were other great people too; but these were the main “distro chicks” for the two weeks I was there. We sure had a lot of fun, and without their support I don’t think I could have endured the cold, wind, dirt, and mice.

Instead of leaving with a sense of having contributed to the work EC was doing, I left awed by the people I met. What I did was a drop in the bucket compared to their on-going work. Many volunteers are giving up months of their lives to serve in a tough disaster area. The people of the Lower Plaquemine Parish are my heroes, for their determination to come back and to rebuild their lives and community.

Kevin: Hurricane Katrina hit Buras, LA right at the eye and it looks like it hit only a week ago. We did a number of things while we were at Emergency Communities (EC). Some of these including dishwashing, cooking, and over all of these gutting. Gutting was a task you could sign up for. Gutting is tearing, ripping, shredding, and so forth, with a long crowbar or short nail puller. We were able to crawl up into the ceiling and knock down things up there. The houses had some very bad black mold, wallboard dust and other hazards. Some of these were little beastie lizards, wasps, mice, rats, geckos, cockroaches and fire ants. There was one house where there was a refrigerator that leaked black ooze.

When I first went gutting I was very incredulous to what I was going to do. There were numerous tasks assigned to all of the gutters, these including the so forth. Taking up the floor which was normally either tiles, carpet, or wood floor. Taking off the wall, which was normally plywood, or drywall perhaps with a fancy covering. Taking down the ceiling, which sometimes had ceiling fans, decorations, or other things. Then wheeling a wheelbarrow (full of things such as drywall, insulation, plywood, carpeting, valuables, garbage, and many more.) to a huge pile by the street.

Locally owned garbage trucks and bulldozer type things would come and take the garbage to the local dumpster. They would do this to earn some spare side money. They would do this all day long, just driving out to houses to collect spare garbage. People take this garbage from these weather blown houses.

I was the cameraman and the salvage man. The salvage man’s job was to take valuables that cannot be used and reuse them. Some of the things I found included penny banks which contained very dirty coins, even half dollars, and things such as footballs, Billy Bass and some more stuff inside the houses. Before we would ever start working on these houses we had to clean out and put on some respirators. Also other things you could put on are tyvek suits, and safety goggles.

A normal lunch consisted of a heater meal plus. This is a self heating meal. This contained a meal of Chicken pasta Italiano, a chocolate pudding stick, raisins, applesauce, and bread sticks, a big meal!

Emergency Communities (EC) has created a community center in what remains of the YMCA building in Buras, Louisiana. The building is but a shell with a roof. The front wall is still intact but the other walls are largely missing. The inside has been gutted to leave a cement slab. Tents and furniture divide the open floor into functional areas including a kitchen, dining room and dish pit. There are also tents for Internet access, children’s play space, and dry goods storage. A row of washing machines and dryers were recently added to provide a Laundromat. All services are free to residents. The makeshift community building provides a gathering place for residents and home for the volunteers.

Two other similarly gutted buildings on the complex provide shelter. One is used for the distribution store (or “distro”). The other is populated with camping tents that the volunteers bring for their stay.

The operating principles for EC are clear when one sees the facilities. Run the organization with minimal overhead so more money, food, effort goes to the community. EC sees their services as temporary and are not trying to create a permanent facility. Rather, they are there to help the residents get back on their feet and ultimately rebuild their homes and lives.

The services provided by EC include meals, household goods, Internet access, a free laundromat, house gutting, and after-school programs.

Buras, Louisiana is a small town about 60 miles south of New Orleans. It’s on the southern tip of the Mississippi delta where fresh water mixes with the Gulf. The primary industries are oil and fishing. Although not a wealthy area, many of the residents are third and fourth generation fishermen. There is a strong sense of community.

Being on the delta, with levees on both the Mississippi and Gulf, the region was vulnerable when Katrina hit. Buras was directly in the eye of the storm. If homes weren’t damaged by the winds, they were made uninhabitable by the floods that followed as the levees were overwhelmed. Water rose as much as 24 feet.

Since the hurricane, there has been some general cleanup. Rebuilding is slow; very few residents are living in their houses. Many will probably not return. Most in the area are living in tiny trailers provided by FEMA. The rebuilding effort is absolutely overwhelming. This was the environment we entered into when we pulled into the parking lot of what used to be the YMCA in Buras in the evening on December 4^th.

We’re committed to helping with Emergency Communities for a week. Depending on how it goes, we’ll decide whether to stay longer or not.