Today is my second day in New Orleans. Yesterday while I was able to see some of the damage that still exists here, this morning Pam and Ray took me on a tour of St. Bernard’s Parish. Light poles still stand at 45 degree angles. Cars are still sticking out of the earth like trees while trees lie flat on the ground. All of the houses still have the FEMA markings on them. Some of the buildings have other things written on them asking to not destroy the building. One home had written on the front “We are OK”. Traffic was sparse as if you were out in the country yet we were still in a once booming city. This morning we passed at least 3 empty schools.
There are numerous schools in the area that aren’t open or are open but still need work. A woman who works at the Cafe named Renee told me yesterday about her daughters school. Her daughter, Terralyn, is in first grade at the Internation School of Louisiana. They have all the materials needed to finish fixing up the school. They have already had 2 days in which the parents have all gotten together to work on the building. The bathrooms need work, there is basically no library, the walls need another coat of paint and many other small repairs. Their next clean-up day is on March 3rd and we are trying to work with them to get volunteers to help with the work and they are also trying to help us with our housing problem. However, I think that Terralyn is in a fairly good situation relative to other children in New Orleans.
Renee told me that there are many other public school that are very crowded. The news reports that hundreds of students have been turned away, though other sources have put that number higher. Last night at dinner we talked about the ramifications of turning away so many kids from school. These are children whose country was not there for them in what might be one of the greatest times of need in their lives. They are then told that they can’t go to school. These children are left powerless to their situation and this certainly could lead to a very dangerous situation for the children and citizens of New Orleans.
Marte