Luziana Postcard
How y’all doin’? OK, so I am back from my trip. Let me just say it was an amazing experience, I’m very glad I went, and would go again in a heart beat. Now the tough part- how to relate that experience to this column about gardening.
I guess I just have to look at all the instances during the trip where I was amazed by nature. All the way down- driving through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana I got Spring on fast forward, and also saw some spring wildflowers not usually seen in Michigan- Spiked Lobelia, Golden Asters, Fire Pinks, wild Azalea and some I haven’t found names for yet. In Louisiana, about a hundred miles north of New Orleans, we started to see the effects of the hurricanes. The area we were headed to was about 57 miles south of New Orleans, Houma , ‘Luziana’ as they say down there, to be exact and Chauvin, where we worked, was even further south by 15 miles.
Down in Luziana, as we drove around to our work sites and around the bayou, I was amazed by the beautiful gardens some people had around their homes. Their homes may still have blue tarps on the roof, but everywhere flowers were in bloom. Lilies, mimosa, bouganvillia, and especially the beautiful southern Magnolia. Nature is an amazing thing- capable of weathering the fiercest storms and coming back stronger the next year. Sure, there were plenty of areas where trees were heavily damaged, uprooted and lots of destruction was still apparent, but there were also plenty of signs of regeneration too. The beauty of nature brought a smile to my heart.
I worked all week on one man’s home with a group of about 9 other people. It was a very poor area, heavily hit by Hurricane Rita- everyone’s home was heavily damaged when the water rose to about six feet deep. Almost everyone was living in a FEMA trailer and trying to repair their homes. Across the street was a small family, a young couple- Steve and his wife, their young daughter Dixie and Steve’s mother. Steve is working to both rebuild and raise up his house all by himself from the 2 feet off the ground it is now to about 5 feet off the ground that the new codes require. He doesn’t have a lot of tools- he is a small guy, in stature at least at about 5 feet tall, but stronger than any man I have ever met. He is rebuilding with his bare hands. He has to, he doesn’t have a choice, there was no insurance.
In the mean time, they are living in a small FEMA trailer together. It is parked right next to the house, and I had been working across from it for a couple of days before I noticed that on the other side of the trailer was a small flower garden in full bloom. I asked the woman sitting outside if it was her garden and she told me no, it belonged to the little girl- Dixie. I asked Dixie to show me her garden and tell me about it. She had planted it so that she could have flowers to give her teacher. Although it was small, it was lovely, and filled with marigolds, asters, petunias, dahlias and lots of other pretty things. She was really proud of it and was happy to show it off. And I was very happy to have taken the time to make friends with these people.
I was amazed at the spirit of this family, and of the Cajun people in general, that despite all they had been through, that their whole community had been through and is still being affected by, they were smiling, generous and strong. And they were very happy and grateful that we had come to help. It’s not easy work, we really only helped a few families out of the thousands in that small area that need help, and there are still signs of tremendous damage. It will take time and lots of it, but they will be back, just as strong as before, and just like the magnolia will bloom again.
There is still lots of work to be done, recovery will take years and anyone interested in doing anything to help, from just making a donation to volunteering or even just to ask questions, can come and see me for more information. You can also go to; http://rgpckatrina2.blogspot.com for more pictures and stories about our trip.
See you in the garden!
Ellen Leigh
