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Sisters Miriam (left) and Lucivane (right) My travels to New
Orleans
Written by Lucivane O. Rocha, SMIC
During my Christmas Vacation I choose to go to New Orleans because I'll never forget what I saw on the TV when Katrina happened there. I was in Quixada-CE-Brazil. My first reaction was "I want to go there to help the people". I was so far away but I carried my dream with me. For many days, I felt sad watching the TV stories of the suffering people without homes, food and little water. That was a tragic situation. Now, I want to share with you my experience there. First of all, before my trip, I received a Skills Assessment from Operation Nehemiah that I needed to answer concerning the level of my experiences and skills in Construction, Office Help, Ministry, Food Planning & Cooking and General Cleaning. I went with many plans in my mind considering what I answered. I imagined myself in the house painting, cleaning, installing faucets and showers, doing service of carpentry and visiting the people. But I never did any of that kind of work, except visiting the people. When I arrived there on January 6, at 1:15 P.M. Sr. Miriam Devlin was waiting for me at the airport. She was excited and as so was I. During the drive to the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Family, she told me a little about what happened with "Katrina". I could see many rebuilt buildings, some houses with parts of the roof missing and abandoned. For two days, we went to the Church of Christ to help the people clean lamps, balls, candles holders and different furniture because those were wet in a cardboard box. After this the people picked up what they needed. Also, in another building, we went twice to help sort and organize the same sizes of ceramics, knobs, and other materials needed for construction. Also, we cleaned inside and outside the building. Other activities were helping to serve breakfast to the homeless in St. Jude Community Center; for two days we went to the house of Mrs. M. to build the kitchen to the back of her house. That lady bought a house after Katrina and now it is still destroyed because she doesn't have enough money to rebuild. She still needs a lot of help. We also visited with Mrs. C, she needs a lot of help to clean the area next to her house. She lives in a trailer and she shared her feelings about the storm with us.
The last volunteer job was going to the Christmas Tree Recycling & Marsh Creation Project from the city. There, we helped to sort the Christmas Trees and then they’ll put into the Mississippi River to reduce erosion and rebuild shoreline and marshland. During these days, I met volunteers from Indiana, Columbus, San Francisco, Boston, Maine and New Orleans. Each volunteer who goes there builds a little and there are still so many things to be done. I wanted to do more and more to make the people happy.
During our break, we had interesting places to go; for example, Sr. Miriam and I went to the Theatre to watch a movie on Katrina. I enjoyed watching the beautiful nature and city before the storm. But then I felt scared and my heart was so tight watching the powerful storm destroying everything; the people, houses, cars, boats gone in the water and drifting away. I felt that I was in the storm too. Later, we walked a little around of the Mississippi River next to the Theatre. Also, we visited The Historic New Orleans Collection Museum; we had supper together with Sisters Consuela and Johanna in the French Quarter. I appreciated eating seafood including Jambalaya and Gumbo. I would like to express my heart-felt appreciation for Sr. Miriam, who was able to go to New Orleans with me during these couple of days. I will never forget our experiences together. Also, I would like to thank so much Sisters. Kate, Eleanor, Jean, Andrea and Saundra for their encouraging support and for giving me this opportunity to see another reality in this country. My gratitude also goes to the Sisters of the Holy Family for their warm hospitality, sharing and laughter. For me, as one who is learning English, I spoke, heard and learned many new words. It was the best thing! God bless our SMIC mission always!
“I am with you on the journey, and I will never leave you.
I am with you on the journey, always with you”.
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