Postscript

- by Jim Scott

Pat and I stayed in New Orleans after the mission to visit family and friends. On Tuesday, we went back to Verna Mae’s house to take Mission T-shirts to her and Gwen. We were very happy to discover that there was another team of 14 people from Culver City in Socal working that week. They were finishing out the drywall and installing tape and mud. I apologized for some of the “challenges” we had left them because of large gaps. They said they had gotten over their initial anger when they discovered that most of the sheets they were installing were “trapezoidal”. The windows had also been installed. We took a tour of the house. It was really taking shape. I felt very encouraged that Verna Mae and her grandson’s family are going to have a very nice house to live in.

We also visited the Habitat for Humanity “Musicians Village” in the 9th Ward. That too was very encouraging to see. The homes are very neat, colorful, nicely landscaped. A sharp contrast to the still devastated homes in the surrounding neighborhood, very similar to what we saw around Verna Mae’s house.

We met a gentleman, who lives just down the street from the village. He was quite a character. The nearest I can describe him is a “roadie” for the jazz musicians in the area. He knows them all. He showed us a scrap book that included the plans for the Ellis Marsalis Cultural Center, a new venue for jazz concerts in the Village and many pictures of local musicians including early Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Irma Thomas etal. There were also pictures of Harry Connick, who with the Marsalis family is funding the village, and the Habitat Project Manager. I’ve enclosed a picture of the “decorations” in the front yard and house of the “roadie”. This too was very encouraging.

However there was discouragement to counter the encouraging things we saw. We also visited the lower 9th Ward. The devastation there didn’t appear to be any worse than other parts of the City. The difference was there we much less recovery activity. Most residences were still just standing. It’s very easy to take the position that so many “big picture” people have, eg it’s not efficient to extent city services to such a sparsely populated area. People should be moved to other parts of the City where there is a larger concentration of recovering houses. That would solve two problems; reduce the length of infrastructure and fill some of the unoccupied property in areas closer in to the City Center. But that doesn’t take into consideration the heritage and strong loyalty of the residents to the Lower 9th Ward where people have lived for generations. That makes me glad I’m not a politician having to deal with this issue. But I feel the need to continue to hold all the people of New Orleans up in my prayers.

Another discouragement was visiting Desiree Johnson whose house we gutted last year. Her house is also just the way we left it last year. She still hasn’t received her “Road Home” funding. She had just got off the phone with them. Only she and the next door neighbor have returned to live in their 6-plex. This makes her very uneasy because she feels isolated and vulnerable to crime, etc if she and the neighbor are the only ones in the 6-plex. She said she wants to move somewhere else in East New Orleans where there are more people living. In fact, she has bought another home meeting that criterion. But she continues to be upbeat. She is now caring for her grandson, Kawan, while her daughter works. She is also building her own cosmetic business. She says she has a booth in a Flea Market in Algiers every weekend. She and her family are another subject for our prayers.