My take on Louisiana…
Well, I’ve been kind of putting off actually putting down on “paper” what God let me see/experience/learn during our time in Shreveport, but I’m convinced that He might want someone else to hear about what I saw/experienced/learned so I’ll do it :)
Thursday We arrived in Shreveport about 11am on Thursday, September 8. We got the abbreviated Red Cross training and then they put us to work. The shelter in Shreveport was in a coliseum of similar size to Hilton but not as high and maybe 30 years older and in poorer condition. It is on the Louisiana State Fairgrounds so there were other buildings that they were able to use for the shelter close by.
As Megan mentioned in her blog entry (sorry a lot of this is going to sound similar to yours, Megan, but I guess we spent a lot of time doing similar things!), we started organizing the chaos that was the section of bleachers covered in donated books and toys and school supplies. That of course attracted a lot of little folks who had just gotten back from school. I met a sixth grade boy who “hated” his new school and was determined he was going to have to beat up a lot of people at school. Sounded like he was pretty scared….I sure would be. We played a couple of board games and got to talk. I got to meet some of his brothers and cousins.
Later that afternoon we had a few free minutes and Kathy, our Red Cross leader who had claimed us as “her” volunteers, encouraged us to talk to some of the residents and see if there was anything that we could get for them…and offer a listening ear most importantly. Amber and I met a girl who is my age and was attending music school in New Orleans. Wow…to be at a shelter like this alone. I must say that there wasn’t a moment that I didn’t feel safe there…lots of security guards around…but still…to be there alone. She had plans to move to Minnesota to finish school there and live with her cousin. She had a plane ticket for the next week.
Friday Friday morning I spent some time helping the “floor” crew…picking up the linens of people that had left…bagging them for the laundry truck, sanitizing air mattresses, and generally picking up the area. I went on a hunt for more rubber gloves and found Kathy giving haircuts. I stopped to say hi and found that the folks there were Spanish speakers. The three, all about our age, were from Kenner. I found out that one of the gals was only 18…wow….on her own here. One of the guys’ wife and kids were in Houston. I was excited to be able to connect with these guys.
While we were cleaning up the “floor,” we noticed some camera crews and were told that it was Al Sharpton. One of our friends, Mark, who was working at the gate, joked that he wanted to let Sharpton that indeed there was plenty of cleaning to do. Matt noted later that it seems we all developed kind of protective attitudes toward the media. We were told that the week before we were there volunteers were coming but would sit in the bleachers with camera phones and take pictures of people as if they were zoo exhibits. The coliseum was their home…the 6’x8’ space containing an air mattress and some plastic grocery bags with their wardrobes inside and maybe a makeshift bedside table was their space. I certainly wouldn’t appreciate camera crews barging into my home. Due to the problems with cameras earlier, we weren’t allowed to take pictures on the grounds which was a good thing, but I would love to “introduce” ya’ll to my new friends with pictures…
Before lunch on Friday, I met Ernestina, a Latina woman from New Orleans. She was 79 and didn’t speak English but told me about her escape from the storm. She and her son, Jose, were caught in the water…walking in water up to their necks for 6 hours until they reached safety where they slept the rest of the night outside in wet clothes…it was obvious that she was still traumatized by the memory. She was cold in the coliseum…they kept it cool to keep air moving. I found her some coffee and when I returned a nun was a nurse who had been looking after her was talking to her with the aid of a translator. The nun, Laureen, was concerned because she hadn’t been eating a whole lot and wasn’t getting much exercise and her legs were still beat up from the storm. She didn’t want to leave to go eat lunch even after we asked and asked because her son had gone to go file for FEMA and she wanted to make sure he knew where to find her when he got back. I went to find her some soup to smuggle in (food wasn’t allowed inside the coliseum) and when I returned there was a camera crew surrounding her. I mentioned how this was the last thing this woman needed to the gentleman next to me and he told me that the man talking to her was Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, who had founded Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian disaster relief organization who did a lot of rebuilding in Honduras after Mitch. I told the gentleman next to me that I took back everything I had said! After the crew left, I took the soup to Ernestina and Laureen told me that she had asked Franklin to find Ernestina and Jose a place to live and that Franklin had agreed to personally find them a place. I was a bit skeptical…but about 20 minutes later she returned and said that Billy Graham had offered for Ernestina and Jose to come and live at his house in North Carolina! And the Michael W. Smith (Christian singer/songwriter) had offered the use of his private plane or commercial plane tickets! Laureen said they could leave tomorrow. I explained what Laureen had said to Ernestina and even she knew who Billy Graham and recognized the amazing-ness of his offer. She wanted to wait to hear what her son would say before she made a decision. I was a little worried that they might not want to leave the state and refuse the offer, but after some of their questions were answered, they agreed. WOW! I could see a parallel to the parable of the persistent widow in the New Testament…God wants us to ASK him for our needs…and he has resources beyond our belief and wants to wow us with how he chooses to provide for us. I was challenged in how I saw the situation of people needing homes by Laureen’s example…she had a very “let’s get this done, we’re gonna do it” kind of attitude and her determination had made an impression on Franklin Graham and I think on God, too. I think it was also obvious to the evacuees that here was a lady that was going to get something moving. At this point, the people have heard promises of apartments, jobs, houses, bus tickets but not many had seen it yet and were starting to lose a little hope and become a little skeptical and uncertain. Laureen made an impression on me…she contacted her family in Ohio and persuaded a family member to offer up a house for another Latino couple. I realized that what was going to speak of God’s love and care to these people was them really seeing that we were going to do everything we could to meet their needs. Another Latino gentleman that I met was hoping to find a place to live. I wish I could say that we actually found him a place, but not yet. I tried to help him find his sister in North Carolina and helped him find some places he could apply for jobs in his area. This whole situation made me realize how natural it is for me to really feel for these people…but then to walk away and go back to my normal life rather than personally getting involved for the long haul….
Later that evening, I was on my way to find a new task when a little girl came to me with her little brother and asked if I would take them to the circus (the Shriner circus was in an adjacent parking lot and had given free tickets for the evacuees). I asked her if it was ok with her momma and so we found my friend Megan and another little boy and we took off. We missed most of it, but got to have a ride in the clown car and see them shoot the woman out of the cannon. On the way back, the kids were tired, so we gave the piggyback rides, but then we came across some “buggies” (shopping carts used for toting stuff about the shelter) in the parking lot so we raced those home. That’s a beautiful memory…Megan pushing the little girl racing one of the boys pushing her brother…having fun and being kids in spite of everything that was going on around them… (By the way…on the way home someone picked up a Sunday paper and I was looking through it…and found a picture of the little brother, Brandon, on one of the fronts of the sections…our one photo from the people we met!
We got back to the coliseum (they called it “The Hirsch”) and found some of the boys with a lot of energy throwing footballs around the floor, much to the mothers’ annoyance. I am not an athletic person, but it seemed like these kids needed to blow off some steam. So I suggested a football game outside…so here I am with half a dozen black boys going out to play football! Yay for Luke and Dan…they found us heading outside and were soon tackling these little guys and carrying them and the football down the “field.” That was another beautiful sight…these little boys who really needed guys to have to fun with them…
Saturday On Saturday, I think I felt like I experienced about 10 different things all in the same day. I started that morning by unpackaging hand sanitizer by the Red Cross tent/trailer. They were having a staff meeting there and I heard them say that they were going to start consolidating evacuees from the other shelters in Shreveport to the Hirsch (where we were) on Monday. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to finally feel a little settled in your “home” with several hundred others and then have to move again…and imagining what the response that the current Hirsch residents will have to several hundred more people coming in and crowding “their” space. Yikes. I can’t imagine how emotionally and physically exhausting that would be.
As I continued to load sanitizer into a buggy (such great word for a shopping cart!) the director of the shelter came over and asked me to tidy up the trailer…they were going to be using that space to tell people about the death of loved ones. Wow…having the burden of being in a shelter and then receiving the news that a loved one has died and not even having privacy to grieve….
I knew that Ernestina and Jose would be leaving that day so I wanted to make sure that I got to spend some time with them. I saw them heading to breakfast and we chatted for a bit. Amanda, one of the Spanish-speaking Red Cross gals, had bought Ernestina some cute clothes at Target but she was still cold and I could tell she wanted to go on the plane in something that looked nice, so I went to the women’s clothing room and found a decent looking corduroy blazer for her to wear. Jose looked real spiffy in a Nike t-shirt and bright white tennies that Amanda had found for him. They didn’t know what time they were going to be leaving and I could tell they were anxious/excited.
I got to spend a little time in the toiletries room with a really nice woman from Shreveport. I loved her drawl…I think I could have just sat back and listened to her talk and fall asleep! It seems the supply of deodorant and hair grease (a high-demand item for a group of mostly African Americans) was getting low. A woman came in looking for birdseed for her bird…I took her to the pet food room and we looked. We found some, but she didn’t want to take the whole bag in case someone else had a bird they needed to feed so I went and found a baggie. I was shocked by her unselfishness and thoughfulness for the needs of others when she herself had so many needs right then…
I went to lunch and found my Spanish-speaking friends and found out that Ernestina and Jose had left. Sister Laureen was eating with them, too, and informed me that their plane was leaving at 2 p.m….there they go…off to a new life that God had provided for them…
