From Martie McMane, Senior Pastor:The week started with a trip to the Jazz Fest – a true New Orleans experience. Thousands of people come to listen to all kinds of New Orleans’ favorite musical genres: jazz, blues, gospel, rock – here the crowds await Gallactic Indian Chiefs accompanied by steel drums march through the crowds.
A smash hit at the Festival was jazz singer Diane Reeves. Martie officiated at the wedding of her pianist, Peter Martin and his wife Kelly ten years ago, so it was a treat to see them again and get to sit back stage.
And then to work – Wanda is the woman whose home we are helping to rebuild. She has lived with her husband and teen age daughter in this FEMA trailer (yes, the ones with the infamous formaldehyde) for two years.Her in-laws lived in the other one, but the father-in-law had a stroke and so they had to move to a care facility.
This house is across the street. The one on the left is fixed up nicely, becausethe woman who owns it had some flood insurance. She lived in a FEMA trailer for nearly a year, fighting off the rats, mice, and snakes that had nested in her house that had been sitting under water for three months until she could come back home. The two houses next to hers still remain empty, as do many on the street. During the flood, her neighbor right next door drowned in the eaves of her house; her son survived but could not save his mom. They had been neighbors for 34 years. No one came for the body for three months.
Directly across the street, four houses have been completely demolished. The county has an aggressive demolition program now to avoid pestilence and the blight on the neighborhood that empty houses signal. You must show that you are beginning some work on your house now or the county will come and bulldoze it down.
It will be three years this August, and though there is definite improvement, the ravages of the flooding are still evident everywhere in the neighborhood.
And so we do what we can. Our crew was taping, mudding, and sanding the drywall in this house all week.
Our crew captain was a fine young Americorps volunteer named Bret. He had been growing his hair and beard since November. Time out for a haircut and a shave – brave young man that Bret!
The traveling barber and a happy Bret sporting his new look!
This is Musicians Village, a Habitat for Humanity Project.They’re beautiful, with their bright colors and friendly front porches, don’t you think? Yet some longtime residents of the neighborhood are skeptical and said to us, “Who are these people who will be moving in here? We don’t know them.” The destruction of the storm and flooding disrupted whole communities where people had felt comfortable and had known their neighbors for generations.
Even so, everyone seems thankful that real progress is being made, and the connections between people who come to share their concern are creating healing throughout the area. The human spirit is resilient. The people we met were overwhelming grateful and were able to find surprising blessings in all they had been through. One thing we heard over and over again, was “Thank you for not forgetting us.”
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