Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinners
Already I have have participated in three Thanksgiving feasts. The first was on Wednesday evening when the sisters I am living with had our local community dinner. The following night was a neighborhood potluck held on the property here for people who live in the Bywater neighborhood. Yesterday, at work we had a Thanksgiving potluck as well. The carrots and parsnips I made (Nana Nealon style) were at least as unusual a dish to most New Orleaneans as Oyster Dressing was to me.

At the neighborhood feast, people were asked to call to mind where they were last Thanksgiving; virtually everyone was displaced at that time. We were reminded of how the first thanksgiving was celebrated after a very hard and trying year, and was a celebration of unity among peoples. People of the neighborhood gathered in circumstances and with a spirit not unlike those who gathered for the first Thanksgiving. Those who have lost much seem so appreciative of what they have. I am thankful to be able to learn gratitude from them.

Categories of homelessness in New Orleans
Several categories of homelessness were mentioned at a meeting and press conference I attended with others from my office this week. There are the chronically homeless, many of whom were living on the streets of New Orleans prior to Katrina and are still homeless. There are the migrant workers; many people have come into the city in search of work; many have found work doing construction, they are actively rebuilding the city, but due to the reality that rent has at least doubled (quadrupled in some neighborhoods) they are not able to find affordable housing so sleep on the streets, in shelters, or make their home in the very many severely damaged abandoned houses. The migrant workers included both immigrants from Mexico and other countries as well as many citizens from other states. There are New Orleans natives who were not homeless before the storm but have been unable to afford the rising rent, or fix up the house that they own and therefore find themselves homeless. Some people are staying with relatives and friends; they are sometimes more than "doubled up"; that is now there may be three or four families in a house, or people are "doubled up" in FEMA trailers (which by most people's standards would be too small for one family); of course I must mention that these people are not truly homeless if you use HUD's definition of homeless, regardless of how tight the space! There are also those who are displaced, still living in other cities, perhaps with family and friends, who really want to come home to New Orleans but have no home to come to. There is a fear that they problem will worsen especially in February when FEMA rental assistance is supposed to cease for most.

This coming week I am also going to start doing some counseling/case management at a shelter located in the community center of the parish church. This shelter, which houses 17 single women was opened following Katrina because there was great need for it. The largest pre-Katrina shelters in the city have yet to reopen. I am looking forward to this.

Opelousas
Today the Marianite Sisters celebrated 150 years of service in education and health care in the town of Opelousas, Louisiana. 150 years ago the sisters took a long boat ride up the bayou from New Orleans to start ministering in that town. High school students dressed in the habit that the sisters use to wear and reenacted the arrival. It was followed by a prayer service and lunch. A couple of the older sisters said to me, "now you know what we used to look like!" It was a very pleasant day indeed. I was grateful to hear their stories. It is amazing what courageous work women religious did long ago in such difficult circumstances without the conveniences we now take for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Since I have arrived in New Orleans, I have been filled with a sense of gratitude for the people I have met, the experiences I am having. In that way I feel the spirit of the holiday, aware that I really have so much to be thankful for. In other real though less important ways, it does not really feel like Thanksgiving, because the green leaves still cling to the trees and the mosquitoes are still biting. Whether the weather feels like thanksgiving, giving thanks is always in season.

I thank God for all of my family, community and friends. Happy Thanksgiving.

Love, Kathleen

Thank you!