Return from the Land of Katrina, Cajun food, and the French Quarter

August 1, 2007

I am in NEW ORLEANS! I love it. The city reminds me of Alexandria in many ways: hot, sticky, and dirty but friendly, open, and diverse. The city is rebuilding itself slowly with the help of the citizens and volunteers from around the globe. The city is struggling with the fact that the local and state government had different plans than the residents.

The buildings that haven’t been touched since Katrina are beginning to diminish but they still exist. The apartment building down the street is just one example of how quickly people had to leave to, not escape Katrina, but escape the breaking of the levees. The water lifted the items on the floor up and then rapidly resettled. It was so quick things rose, but the water line didn’t show. Because this apartment building had been condemned, no one has returned and apparently the building owners have decided to cut their losses and leave at least 300 families without their old homes.

The tenants left behind wheelchairs, car seats, mattresses, tables, chairs, dishes, cereal boxes, and other normal, everyday items. Some may have returned for things, but not everybody has returned—there is plenty left behind. Pretty horrible and unreal for the United States of America. Mold is now taking over…


August 3, 2007

I am still in NEW ORLEANS! Back to Wednesdays activities—we then went to the 9th Ward. The levee broke and a barge came through the wall. It wiped out the neighborhood and was flooded. The 9th Ward was full of low-income housing, so the city government went in and bull dozed most of it. There were still houses destroyed by Katrina—one had even settled on top of a car.

Then we visited a cemetery connected to a Catholic Church. The bodies were buried above ground because the water table is above or even with the ground and burial would result in bodies finding their way into the canals and rivers. Some of the cemeteries were for people who lived over 100 years ago. Mothers would sometimes be buried along with several children or with none but at a young age.

We toured the French Quarter. It was quite interesting. It felt even more like a taste of Europe in American than Lewisburg. It looked like a city in France but with beautiful metalworking and mule-drawn carriages. Verandas allowed us to stay mostly dry but then we went through streets that had no upstairs covering and that made for a pretty wet walk.

Cajun food is awesome. It reminds me of Indian food that is flavorful because of a variety of spices (not just salt, pepper, and butter). We ate dinner at an awesome Cajun restaurant that had a live band and allowed us to join in by either dancing or playing (we only danced the chicken dance.) That concluded an awesome half day of New Orleans touring.

New Orleans really does remind me a lot of Alexandria. (I wonder if the French influence in both has anything to do with it!?) The climate is similar but there is something even deeper—the people here care a lot about family and seem secure when their family is safe and nearby but they are also open to outsiders. They have a lot of pride but when forced to they will admit the need for help. They understand the value of work and play and apparently the city itself is open until rather late but then again, some shops close at random times.

The Vietnamese quarter we are staying in seems quite peaceful. Vietnamese people seem relaxed, productive, and settled—they have made a small village inside New Orleans that represents them. I think that it is pretty awesome how comfortably they seem to be able to coexist with other New Orleaners.