Sister Deanna and Jessica Bauers in Service in New Orleans
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Monday,
March 10, 2008 On Friday the leg of the journey from Aberdeen and Fargo was completed. The six of us gathered and left for our volunteer experience very (very) early Saturday morning. We arrived to Webster Groves, Missouri, just in time for 5 o'clock Mass at Holy Redeemer Church. We shared a meal, conversation and settled into the guest housing on a college campus that was our home for the night so we could rest for another early morning and day of travel. We left early and were soon en route to our destination, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Our whole volunteer group gathered for the first time Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. There are 13 of us in all—Presentation Sisters from North Dakota, Iowa, New York, California and women discerning religious life from Iowa, New York, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota and myself, a lay person who works with the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen. After our orientation, we shared a meal and about ourselves--our hopes, dreams and fears for the upcoming week. There was conversation about discerning what is the next step in our lives, in giving to others and helping New Orleans who still has a long road of recovery from Hurricane Katrina and parallels to Nano Nagle as we are here to go out in the “winding lanes” and help those in need even though we do not yet know what those needs are and what we will be doing. We will be working with Operation Helping Hands and Christopher Homes. We find out today at 8:30 a.m. what our exact work assignments will be for the week. submitted by Jessica Bauers, Outreach Coordinator
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| Monday, March 10, 2008
We next traveled to the home of Miss Joyce and Mr. Wilbur. Their home of 33 years had to be gutted and they are in the rebuilding process. They purchased a smaller nearby home and refinished it first and live there while they repair their original home so their daughter can move into it. Today’s needs were taping and mudding the walls as they put in sheet rock and taking debris from the back yard to the front so it can be picked up and hauled away. We were all very touched by the hospitality and immense faith of the couple. Miss Joyce talked to us openly about her experience. Her family was evacuated to Mississippi. They thought they would return to their house three days later, only to return three months later. The water “tumbled” everything in their house and everything was lost—everything but their faith. Miss Joyce gently told us, “it’s not what happens to
you, it’s what you do after it happens.” She has a St.
Joseph altar in her home and believes that it is why she has been
so blessed with volunteers and those who have arrived to help her
family rebuild their home. The altar is Italian in tradition and
very prevalent in the New Orleans area. They will celebrate the
feast of St. Joseph this coming weekend.
Church Info Research by the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans indicates that 40 to 50 percent of the residents in the Elysian Fields neighborhood have returned to their homes following the hurricane. submitted by Jessica Bauers, Outreach Coordinator |
| Tuesday, March 11, 2008
We next went to the home of Miss Glenda, a friend of Miss Joyce’s who we worked with on our first day. Miss Glenda’s contractor started work on her home and then disappeared. It appears that he “ran off” with her money and she is working to find him. In the mean time, we assisted her with cleaning out two rooms of her home and limbs from the trees that had to be cut down in her back yard. It was wonderful to be able to help her totally clean out those two rooms, down to removing the carpet and wall paper. What a relief it has to be to see those piles by the trash cans grow and to bid the debris and damaged goods a final goodbye the next day when her trash service arrives. Miss Glenda was very grateful for our work. She is a nurse and despite working an overnight shift the day before and not yet sleeping, she insisted in working right alongside us. We ended our service together hand in hand, saying a prayer together with Miss Glenda. In the evening our whole group gathered again for prayer and then we went to Lantern Light for their evening of jazz and dinner and welcoming in the neighbors to their center. There was much laughter, camaraderie, wonderful music…and even some dancing. submitted by Jessica Bauers, Outreach Coordinator
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Today Lizzie, Deanna, Natalie and myself went to the St. Joseph Rebuild Center while the rest of our group went to Miss Joyce’s house to help with their dry walling project. The Rebuild Center, home of the Presentation Sisters’ Lantern Light ministry is located in the parking lot of the immense St. Joseph Church, nestled in the shadows of downtown skyscrapers and the LSU Medical Center. The Center is unlike anything we have ever experienced. As one of the gentlemen there told us, “This place is a blessing. A blessing. We are so lucky to have it.” It’s almost indescribable – there are trailers and buildings that come together to form a rectangle-shape and it’s an open-air area in the center. There is a row of sinks with mirrors, sitting areas, landscaped niches and a beautiful mural. The buildings function as office space, meeting rooms, kitchen, showers, bathrooms, storage for food and donated goods, legal center and more. We were there on Wednesday and it was going to be a “very busy day.” I imagine they have a lot of very busy days. On this particular day, a medical van was providing free medical care, two lawyers were offering their services pro bono, a professional photographer was coming in to take photographs and the guests could mail them to a friend or family member for free, a hot meal was being delivered for lunch, the bi-weekly grocery run to pick up donated baked goods, bags of food and hygiene items were prepped for the next day and a group who had collected socks distributed them. This, of course, is in addition to the regular routine of snack, showers, laundry and the other services offered. It seems that whatever the need, there’s something at the Center or they will find a way to help the person. Our group prepped food bags, dished up 135 containers of pasta with meatballs, bread, cake and cookies, served lunch and drinks and mingled among the guests. Many of the guests are homeless and still working to get back on their feet after Katrina. You can see their eyes light up when they see the five Presentation Sisters who work daily at the Lantern Light ministry within the Center. It’s amazing not only what the sisters do within the center, but in the neighborhood as well. They are helping people rebuild, building new homes in place of the ones that were demolished and helping people move into those homes. Sister Vera took us on a drive through the neighborhood and showed us the homes that they have completed and are still in the process of building. We stopped and talked to a man who was working on his home, a double “shotgun” with rooms lined up from front to back. The right-side was nearly finished and the left-side was still gutted. It was a striking difference as you looked from one side of the house to the other from the doorway connecting the two. Mr. Salvant was proud to be a homeowner and he wasn’t going to let Katrina take that away from him. The pride and determination is obvious. It was another wonderful day of service and it was humbling to
slightly tread in the footsteps of the Presentation Sisters at Lantern
Light. submitted by Jessica Bauers, Outreach Coordinator |
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Thursday, March 13, 2008
Our first stop was St. Martin Manor. The building stands (mostly) empty. Christopher Homes maintains the property and it was our duty today to pick up litter from the grounds and use the mini-fleet of weed whackers to cut down the grass and weeds in the areas where Larry the maintenance supervisor could not reach with his mower. Our bags of litter quickly became heavy and we found a shopping cart on the grounds which became our makeshift hauling apparatus. Our weed whacker crew was grateful for long pants and long sleeves—that is a very messy task and a bit perilous when things start flying. After we finished at the Manor, we traveled to Villa St. Maurice. The villa was originally a convent and later was opened as housing for low-income seniors. We were able to walk the grounds and see the devastation from Katrina—brick fences tumbled and wrought iron bent, broken windows, looted vending and coin-operated washing machines and rooms still littered with personal belonging. In one area of the property there were two benches and a cross with Mary at Jesus’ feet. They had withstood the storm and as we stepped closer, we saw that someone had left a prayer book and medal nestled in Mary’s arms. It was profound. After a day of hard work, it was wonderful to again visit the Lantern Light Sister’s home for dinner. After our meal, we sat in our prayer circle and shared, reflected and had evening prayer together. It was the perfect ending to our day. submitted by Jessica Bauers, Outreach Coordinator |
We
arrived at 5:45 p.m. and easily found our temporary home for the
upcoming week. We are staying at an apartment building that is operated
by the Catholic Diocese of New Orleans. It is home to seniors and
people with disabilities with fixed incomes and also provides housing
for volunteers like us who come to New Orleans. 
Today
was a great beginning to our week. Our day began with raking, sweeping
and picking up litter around the church near where we are staying.
In the end, we had over 25 giant black trash bags of leaves and
litter and two trash cans of sticks and small branches. The impact
was immediate.
We
had expected to eat our packed lunch of peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches and were amazed and humbled by the generosity of Miss
Joyce. She lovingly set her tables and had lunch for all of us—fried
chicken, red beans and rice and rolls. She sang spiritual songs
as she prepared our lunch and it was an amazing and moving moment.
We came to help the Miss Joyce and she truly has given us so much
more.
Today
our group divided, five to Lantern Light and eight to volunteer
with Catholic Charities. I was among the eight with CC. We began
our service at the church nearby. It rained in the early morning
which added to the labor of raking up pine needles, giant leaves
and fighting through vines that wrapped in, around and through everything.
It was a great sense of accomplishment to see the final project
and the 10 more bags of debris that we added to our previous day’s
work.
Today
four members of our group went to Lantern Light and the rest of
us went to do help with yard work for