Yesterday I had the opportunity to volunteer at Camp Williams and help Katrina refugees in the process of recovering. I had a great time talking with people, helping them find shoes, and hearing about what is next for them. For about the first hour I felt like I was going to burst into tears any second.
Here are my top favorite comments:
1. Oh, we stayin' here. We Utahnians now.
2. I got to get me some good boots. You can cancel Christmas, but don't let me have cold feet!
3. Four-year-old girl who took about five pairs of identical flip flops, calling her big sister "baby girl." Baby girl, these fit you? 'Bout these, baby girl?
4. Are all the women here as beautiful as you? Oh, you beautiful!
5. I don't know if anyone here is thanking you for what you're doing for us, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart. (I said that they would do the same for us, if we were in their situation.) Oh, no, everyone in New Orleans is too drunk. They wouldn't even notice you were having a problem.
Most of the people I talked to were incredibly upbeat and excited about their new life here. One woman told me she had a brand new apartment in Bluffdale, furnished, with a washer and dryer. Three bedrooms for her kids, and everything was beautiful and brand new. I got the impression it was all a lot nicer than what she had before Katrina. She was so thrilled with everything, and how nice people were, and how great their life was going to be now.
Another woman said that she and her husband were staying, but her voice broke when she said that her nephew and his family were going to Indiana. She was "shopping" for shoes for the "chidrens." She told me that she just kept telling her nephew, "We will see each other again."
The men seemed terrified of the approaching cold weather, and were trying to stock up on boots, coats, and anything to keep warm. They appeared to believe that it was going to snow within the next couple of days. We tried to reassure them that it doesn't get that cold, and that it's a few months away, but they wanted nothing to do with that. "Oh, you say that because you used to it."
Everyone I talked to said they love it here, and they were so happy about the way they were being treated. Not everyone was happy about the broken-down old D.I. shoes we were trying to give them, though. "I need blue sneakers. I don't like no white sneakers. Blue, or some other color." So we did our best to accommodate them, and the relief people were very nice about taking down their names and what they wanted, and trying to get exactly what they needed. It was nice not to have to tell people to take the trash we were offering or leave it.
One young man was a student at ULNO, and had already been transferred to the UofU (you can bet I talked that up to him) and been given a brand new apartment at the Gateway. He seemed happy and excited to start school on Monday. Already wearing a red t-shirt.
There were people who weren't happy with their current situation. They all thought they were going to San Antonio, and apparently the accommodations there were all full. So when they landed, they were welcomed to Utah, much to their surprise. One woman said, "How far is that from Alabama?" She has relatives there. The relief workers assured her they would make sure she got back to Alabama. So there were many people trying to get luggage and get out as fast as they could. Since I wasn't working in luggage, I didn't hear their stories first hand, but apparently not all was well in Zion.
Still, people seemed to be doing well. They said they were being well fed, their medical needs were being attended to, and they had all the clothing they needed. The relief efforts had collected so much stuff that no one was allowed to bring donations anymore. People still kept driving up with truckloads of stuff to donate, and had to be turned away because there were two huge barracks full of clothing and stuff. We felt really sorry for them, but they should have listened to the news and everyone telling them money was the only thing people needed anymore.
I stood out in the sun for three hours and sorted shoes and helped people, and was so happy to be there. I have worked with homeless people before, and the relief workers are usually stretched so thin, and the resources are so limited, that they end up being a little cranky and stingy with supplies. Here it was well organized, well stocked, and people could take whatever they wanted--even five pairs of identical flip flops. There was a set of batteries for a man's portable radio, and he thanked me over and over for getting them for him.
There had just been a job fair earlier that day, and people were excited about finding work and getting going. Most people had a place to stay, and were just waiting for their time to leave within the next few days to get to their new homes and work. "We love it here. We stayin'," I heard over and over. "Great!" we told them. "We're so glad you like it. Welcome!"
There was a young, black woman with the Red Cross who was going around telling everyone, "Oh, you are going to love it here. I moved here four years ago from New Orleans, and I wish I would have known about it before. I would have come earlier. I will never leave." People clung to her words of encouragement with an intensity of hope so strong you could almost see it.
At the end of my shift there was a couple that was looking for nice church shoes. They were so happy and seemed carefree, just joking around with us and looking for something really nice. "Oh, we goin' to church," the man said. "We been blessed."
7 comments:
That story makes my day. I'm so glad that, for the most part, people are grateful for and even overwhelmed by the support that this country has poured out for them. I get a little cynical sometimes about how ungrateful people can be about what they have in this blessed country, but your post makes me grateful for all the people that we DON'T hear about. Thank you.
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This is the first I have heard of relief efforts in an area where I have lived, and there was something more beautiful about a kid with a U shirt and moving to the Gateway than, you know, in Houston or Wisconsin. More beautiful only because now I can see it.
Thank you.
Good to hear about some people being thankful and happy. All I hear on the news is the crying & moaning about how nobody is helping them.
You've rebuilt some of my faith in our people.
Shoot, now I'm all sniffling at work and people will think I'm going soft. But savvymom and I were talking last night about how hopeless everything seems, so your story makes me feel so much better.
This also makes me think of all the cool black people I've met the past couple of years at conferences who said things like, "You know, I visited Utah, and it was a real nice place, but I was the only brother there, you know?" At the time all I could say was, "Well, we're working on it!"
Your post made me chuckle and feel good. What a cool thing to see firsthand.
That's so cool that you got to do that. It's nice to hear that people are truly grateful, even when they've lost so much.
I wonder how I'd react if I were in their shoes (blue ones, not white ones). I do think I'd be very grateful, but I also think I'd be so overwhelmed with loss that it may overshadow the gratitude.
Gah! Well, I got a little teary-eyed at first, but then my brother caught me and so then I felt like I needed to explain why I was teary-eyed, so then I started reading some of this out loud to him and then I really started crying. Anyway, thanks so much for sharing this. It really makes my day.
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