United Peace Relief Journal from Slidell, LA, Katrina relief volunteers

[uppityperson]

I put this in GD, but wanted to make sure you Louisianians saw it also. These are the people I worked with and continue to support as I can. This is great work and I am so proud of everyone. These are all volunteers and are supported by private funds (their own and what they have been able to raise). Peace and all that. Uppity



Lynn Meadows
United Peace Relief Journal
Slidell Louisiana
Day 1 November 21

We traveled from San Francisco to New Orleans and arrived in the afternoon with so much luggage it was crazy. We brought the max, solar showers, medicine, blankets, and more. Myself, Deborah, my husband Bob, and our 16 year old son Shannon were stuffed into the smallest rental car, literally packed to the gills. We found our way through New Orleans and were amazed at the feeling of a ghost town, even though there is traffic on the freeways, the residential streets are empty and the businesses are closed. There are big cars dealerships with parking lots full of new cars that had been under water and now dirty, destroyed and abandoned. There is debris and trash everywhere.

We headed north over lake Ponchartrain to Slidell, Louisiana. This is the place where United Peace Relief is setting up a camp for volunteers. Slidell is in the middle of the disaster area. We passed by the bayou and the destruction was immense. These are homes that were on the water on stilts and they are over 90% destroyed. Piles of lumber, sheet rock and furniture by the side of the road signal that the clean up has begun, but it goes on for mile after mile.

It got dark before we made it to the land and we were driving around in circles, lost because so many of the street signs are gone. Many people we asked for help said "I don't know, I am not from here". Just like us. Finally we were getting close and found a lane with a big sign that said, "Stop, Looters will be killed", it was a bit scary to get out at night and ask for directions. We found the United Peace Relief land and we were greeted by Niki and Carol with a welcoming camp fire and dinner ready. This land is on the bayou and had been flooded. Our people have been gutting the house and getting the hot showers going. It was a wonderful reunion. It was freezing cold and we snuggled down tight in our beds that night, hoping the alligators did not choose to come up and eat us.

Lynn Meadows
United Peace Relief
Slidell, Louisiana
Day 2 Nov. 22 Tuesday

Early in the morning we took off to Biloxi and Waveland Mississippi. The devastation in these areas is overwhelming. It goes on for a hundred miles. Imagine that a town the size of Santa Rosa was pretty much destroyed, houses off foundations, piles of debris everywhere. Business closed down. Mile after mile.

We visited the Buddhist Temple in Biloxi, where Richard from Burning Man has been rebuilding the temple with 20 other volunteers. They have a big dome and some shelters donated by Pacific Domes, everyone is camping out in the parking lot. The temple is looking good and they are getting ready to move on to another project. They have heavy equipment to move large piles of debris and they are in big demand. He states the land is worth so much for golf courses and resorts that people are loosing their property against their will. He volunteered to help us and loan us a shelter for our United Peace Relief encampment in Slidell.

We met with Eric from Can-Do, a non profit that he started last year when he went to help with the Tsunami disaster is Asia. Thanksgiving is 2 days away so today he is organizing the loading of two trucks of supplies and food to be delivered over the holiday to Plackman Parish, they have had little immense damage and little attention since the storm. He has been helping with the reconstruction and is interested in bringing his volunteers to stay at our land in Slidell, they need to raise funds somehow and get the word out, because they are running out of money.

We visited the Waveland Cafe in Waveland, Mississippi. This is an incredible place supported by the Rainbow Family. They set up in a parking lot and have been serving between 1000 and 1500 meals per day since soon after Katrina hit in September. They also have a big dome full of tables for people to sit and eat. They set up an internet cafe, free clinic, and huge kitchen. Everything is done on donations from organic food suppliers, churches and private citizens. There is a distribution center, free store in the same lot run by a church. People are driving their shopping carts by and filling up with what they need. We ate lunch there, so delicious and nutritious and served by happy volunteers giving out nutrition advice and lots of love.

I have been worrying about how we are going to afford to feed our volunteers two meals per day at our camp in Slidell for the next year. We talked with Aaron from the Rainbow Family and he told me that they have spent about $6000 in the past 3 months feeding people 3 meals per day. I found that to be so amazing, it gave me a flood of faith that United Peace Relief can do it too. It reminded me of the story of the fishes and the loaves and I found peace that I do not need to have fear, it will happen.

Back to the camp, we got our beautiful United Peace Relief Banner up to show people the way in to camp. Bob and Shannon helped Carol to fix the plumbing, get the bathroom sink going, set up the indoor kitchen and the final feat by flashlight was repair of the hot water heater. We sat around the fire once again it was cold, but we are happy and feel great about our accomplishments for this day.

Lynn Meadows
United Peace Relief
Slidell, Louisiana
November 23, Day 3

Wednesday is the day for our big meeting. United Peace Relief (UPR) wants to work in collaboration with other alternative relief organizations. We invited many people to come to a meeting at Common Ground Collective in Algiers, on the outskirts of New Orleans. Common Ground (CG) has been up and running since right after Katrina hit. They have a distribution center and a free clinic. We have been recruiting medical volunteers for their clinic, where they are seeing about 100 patients per day.

Deborah, Niki and I spent time making an agenda and networking. Niki procured a generator for us from Save Our Selves (SOS). We are going to use it to charge our batteries, to give us some lights and to power the satellite internet connection that Gordon from New Orleans Veterans for Peace is going to hook up for us.

We made our way over Lake Ponchatrain to the meeting a little bit apprehensive about how it would go. I'll tell you now that the meeting was incredible. Many groups were represented including the United Houma Nation, Common Ground, Global Exchange, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, United Peace Relief, Save Our Selves and more. Each group presented their projects which include, mold abatement training and reconstruction, supply distribution, medical care, legal advocacy, evaluation of the soil toxins and remediating, housing and feeding of volunteers, a training program for locals in reconstruction. It became clear that this is going to be a three to five year project to get the people of this area back on their feet. All of these projects are supported by private funding, with no help from the government.

We all want to work together to support each other. To find out what each group needs and see if we can help them on their way. Even though there are few dollars we do not want to be in competition, we want to cooperate and therefore be stronger. UnitedPeace Relief volunteered to continue to recruit volunteers and provide housing in Slidell if needed.

We had a tour of the Common Ground Collective which is actually Sharon and Malik's house. They have a distribution center in the side yard, solar showers and a meeting space in the back yard. The house is full of bedrooms for the volunteers. They have given up their home to the cause of supporting their community. This week is "road trip for relief". Common Ground recruited 300 volunteers to come and help clean up the ninth ward. They are housing and feeding them, as of today they have already gutted 9 houses, taking out the moldy furniture and sheet rock. They purchase 150 turkeys and distributed them today. Some volunteers are working at the convergence center to prepare a big Thanksgiving feast, to take place in the 9th ward, a street party in a place that was under 20 feet of water.

We made our way to the Common Ground Clinic so I could report for duty. It was a buzzing beehive of people and conversations. The clinic is housed in a neighborhood Mosque. Patients usually have lost their access to health care. Charity hospital was flooded and is permanently closed. The clinic is staffed with volunteers from all over the nation.

We made it home to Slidell after dark and were treated to their success stories for the day. The second bathroom is closed in and functioning. The floor covering was scraped off by Shannon. Bob found an electric lamp in the rubble of one house and hooked it up to an inverter, powered by a car and we had light! It was warmer that night and we slept better. No alligators sighted yet, our tent is right on the shore of the bayou and those nature sounds in the night that I don't recognize, cause me to lie awake and wonder if an alligator is going to take a bite out of my ten.t