Well I walked into my house around midnight last night. After a very long day of travel, Northwest decided to cancel our Rochester connection from Minneapolis at 9:35pm and sent us down on a bus. The bus didn't leave until 10:30, so we didn't get to Rochester until 11:30pm, after leaving New Orleans at 5:00pm.
The last day of the clinic was yesterday and we all realized that they were going to struggle without our presence. Not that we were all so amazing they couldn't manage without us, but just the sheer number of volunteers that they were going to lose all at once. We left the clinic at 1100am for the airport. Operation Blessing sent us off with gift bags full of New Orleans classics, like coffee and
beignets, pralines and t-shirts and a sweatshirt from Operation Blessing with their logo on it. They also made a video called Katrina Dreams, which we watched on our way to dinner on Thursday evening. The video brought us all to tears. It gave a such a compelling perspective of what went on and continues to go on down
there.
Ok, to catch up a little, we did get to go to dinner and see a little bit of the French Quarter on Thursday. Mayo was able to arrange for some of our meal to be paid, but when Operation Blessing learned of this, they kicked in the extra to make it a free meal for all of the volunteers that went. We went to K-Paul's in the French Quarter, a restaurant opened by Chef Paul
Prudhomme (
http://www.kpauls.com/) - most locals described it as the best food in New Orleans, so we were all very excited to go. I had the gumbo as an appetizer, shrimp
etouffee and sweet potato pecan pie for dessert. They reserved the entire upstairs for us, and the chef
onsite (Paul Miller) came upstairs and explained the history of the restaurant and welcomed us here, explaining how badly New O
rleans was in need of help. We had a wonderful dinner their, complete with a little live
Cajun music, then went on for a quick walking tour of the French Quarter. The French Quarter had little
damage due to the fact that it is a part of the city that is above sea level. They were able to get back up and running faster than anywhere else in New Orleans. Some of the
people we talked to in New Orleans East (where the clinic was held) resented the fact that went the show New Orleans as being back up and running, they are showing clips of the French Quarter and the
Superdome, when their is still less than half the population back because they have nowhere to live and come back to.
After some discussion all week with people who chose to stay and rebuild, I learned that for those who were able to get insurance money, the checks were written directly to the mortgage company. So if their house was paid off, they were most likely living with family or in a
FEMA trailer in their front lawn or in a
FEMA trailer park. They would work little by little to rebuild their houses, but it will be a long process. For those who did not receive any insurance money and their property is not livable, they continue to pay mortgage payments and are either living in a
FEMA trailer or in another city. Some completely abandoned their property, and still don't know what happens with their mortgages/property. The city had required everyone to have their houses gutted down to the studs by now, to reduce the
possibility of an infestation of rats and vermin in the city - which is what most neighborhoods look like now, a bunch of gutted houses with the
occasional FEMA trailer.
FEMA will conduct progress reports on their rebuild or
persuit of new property, and if they're satisfied with progress they issue an extension on the trailer.
FEMA will be
repossessing the trailers at some point, but that isn't really
discussed. What will happen then to these people then?
Operation Blessing has a few videos up on their website which give you a description on what the residents who came to the clinic had to do in order to get in a visual of what the site actually looks like, so check it out at
http://www.ob.org/. You MAY even seen me! (hint, hint)
There were several points this week where I just felt like I was going to start bawling for all types of reasons. I had to take a break from doing Diabetic teaching the other day with a couple because I realized the odds of this man being able to manage his chronic illness was slim to none. Despite the effort he and his wife put in to managing his four blood pressure pills and check his glucose, the reality is this man had a incapacitating stroke a year ago, and we just given him his third
glucometer. Why the third? Because the meters aren't the expense, the test strips are. So he's been given two other meters from free or sliding scale clinics, but can't afford to buy the test strips at $90 for a months worth. His Diabetes requires him to check his glucose twice a day and inject insulin twice a day, so that's 60 strips per month. I gave him extra, because I couldn't stand sending him away with one box, but who knows if he'll be able to continue his
regimen. Every who was given a
glucometer this week, will most likely have the same problem, unless there are more free/sliding-scale clinics that have test strips that will work with his new meter, and be affordable enough to continue to purchase.
I'm still processing the whole week right now. You spent 24 hours a day for 9 days with people you've never met before and amazingly band together in a way I've never experienced, like we were hand-picked to come together for this. To have that kind of connection, and to meet all of the people we met and shared stories with, it was sad to leave it all. Even though we were all coming from the same place and returning to the same place, we won't be able to duplicate the context of our connection, though I know we'll be forever bonded by it. I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity, it's been life changing. I also feel fortunate to live somewhere were I have access to
healthcare, schools, jobs and some security, although I now know that all of that can be taken away from me in a
heartbeat. Truly, the biggest lesson for me was that it takes people to make a difference. Those neighborhoods being rebuilt are making progress because of everyday people who have pride in their city and their neighbors, not because there is a government sponsored program holding their hands, or direction from
FEMA. They are all volunteers, they are all a community and they are trying to make a better life for themselves one brick at a time.
Weather in Rochester, MN: high of -4 degrees, with a -35 below windchill.
