Katrina Mission Trip - Slidell Day 4
Greetings from Slidell, Day 4
The work goes on, and the stories as well. Just click on any of the pictures here to see the full size image, in a new window.
One new friend is Rose. Rose is a retired school teacher and poet who has won two awards for her poetry, although she wasn’t able to attend the award’s ceremony. She is one of seven children, six of whom live in New Orleans. Rose was fortunate, in that she received her FEMA trailer in one month. Rose left the day before Katrina to go to Leesville Fellowship Hall in Leesville Louisiana with four generations of her family and her friends. They returned two weeks later to find that the water had filled her home and then receded to about four feet high, and then finally drained. She had green, black and white mold throughout her house, and had to clean it five times before it was removed. Rose lost her Poetry awards in the flood, along with everything else, but she says “I lost everything but my joy!” She is a gentle woman, and always has words of praise and thanks for everything we do.
Today we met Marle, an artist, who was and is fortunate enough to have a lot of resources! She has two sons who play for the LA Dodgers, and owns four homes, all of which suffered damage from Katrina. Three, in the same neighborhood, and one in another town. Marle is a superb artist, but the work with which she was most consumed, was entitled Katrina.
Here is a picture of Marle and one of her paintings, and a picture of our friend Rose, holding yet another of Marle’s paintings. All Marle’s artwork was lost in the flood.
Here is a photo of “Katrina” and the story she had to share. Click the picture, and see if you can see what she intended in this painting!
“When I was painting actually I was having a hard moment. Because we were HERE and we knew what was going on – and to smell the rotten flesh, people that were dead, especially along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, because they hadn’t found the bodies. You know it was just a hard, hard moment, and that’s when I began to paint this, you know, because of that.
“It’s when dead men floated above the murky waters, and America stared to watch the faces of New Orleans saddened by the stench of rejection. It’s where the ships sailed recklessly above the darkened waters and it’s where the American flag’s stars shined dim on her own soil.
“It’s where the stars were blue and the flag bled red.
“It’s where the jazz band played until they were blue in the face.
“It’s where the stop sign no longer existed, hidden beneath the rubble.
“It’s where houses failed and tears swallowed them up, and you can’t find the homes in the picture. It’s where the Star Spangled Banner was forgotten and Lady Liberty turned her back. It’s where our forefathers were long forgotten and slavery ships coast the sky, sailing into an unfamiliar land.
“It’s where babies cry, old folks die, and governments fail. It’s where police ran when the streets became a prison. It’s where monuments crumbled, transits died, highways shifted, bridges crumbled. It’s where…..”
Remember these friends, and continue to pray for them, and for us, as we do God’s work here.
