It’s the fall of 2008 and classes just started. Entering my Theology class my teacher Dr. Homan wants to know what I think. At first I was very skeptical, especially after reading the syllabus and seeing that I would have to write a blog every week for fifteen weeks. But after talking it over with a friend and reading the blog questions for every week, I actually became interested in the class. I took this course because it was a requirement and because I wanted to learn more about the bible and the beliefs around it. After reading the course requirements I fully commit myself to this class. I expect to learn about the bible and how it relates to things that go on daily. My background in the bible isn’t to strong, but I have gone to religion classes when I was younger, but nothing much nowadays. After finishing college I plan on doing management work for a company but I wanted this class to benefit me on a more personal level verses on a career level. Everything that is required is understandable and it is not too much to ask for. On my first day of class I learned that the year 586 BCE. It is important because the Babylonians covered the kingdom of Judah and captured the people. I also learned that Lamentations is a book in the bible meaning sad song, which was written by Jeremiah. This book relates to hurricane Katrina because New Orleans and Jerusalem were both ruined. Lamentations talked about how the city was deserted and till this day some parts of New Orleans still looks that way. Even though school has just started there is a tropical storm that is supposed to turn into a hurricane threatening us. School is cancelled and evacuation is mandatory. Tropical storm Gustav is bringing back unwanted memories and feelings. It happens to be coming around the third anniversary of Katrina and after all I have been through with Katrina I do not want to have to go through it again. I remember sitting in my mom’s hot car on August 28, 2005 in jam packed traffic. It took us eight hours to get to Lafayette when it should have only taken us three. I left with one bag thinking nothing would happen, it would be a vacation from school. But on August 29 I realized I had been fooled. After watching the news it became clear to me that something was wrong but I continued to have faith. I left a lot of family behind and soon became scared when seeing and hearing about all the water. I actually saw my uncle on the news coming out the top of my grandmother’s house calling for help. Still with a lot of hope I continued to think that things were not as bad as the news was making it seem. My family was slowly reunited after a couple of days. Different family members were trapped in the Superdome, homes, and even Xavier University. It was twelve of us with no home and we had already worn out our welcome at family member’s houses. My mother found us a home to rent. All of us had to sleep on the hardwood floor with no blankets. Even though the situation we were in was horrible, I had some of the best times in my life while living in that house. That house brought my family closer and gave us the laughs that were needed to move on. A few days later it was time to move again. My mother’s job was taking her to Houston and my uncle wanted my brother, grandparents, and I to move to Virginia, so are life could be come more stabled. After living in a hotel in Houston for two days we got on a plane to Virginia. This was something I did not want to do because I had to leave my mother behind, but the only reason why I did leave was because it would be hard for her to take care of us after everything that had happened. Living in Virginia was okay but there was no place like home. My mom went and took pictures of our home and even after seeing the picture I still did not believe that it was real. Life in Virginia was boring because I had no friends except for my brother. Girls at the school didn’t like my cause the boys thought I was pretty and some people felt that I was a dirty refuge. People actually thought that everyone from New Orleans was poor and had nothing which was far from the truth. My cousin entertained me when we were at home. After staying in Virginia for a month we moved to Houston. We stayed there for two months and I basically went through the same thing. But instead people did not think I was a refuge from the Convention Center; New Orleans just had a bad reputation and there was drama between Houston and New Orleans. One weekend we took a trip to New Orleans to see the house for ourselves. Pulling up to our house in looked nothing like the way I left it. It looked deserted with no grass, dust and debris everywhere. As I walked up to the door I could see the rust line from how high the water was. Entering the front door I remember seeing the television still in place, the sofa upside down on the other side of the room, and pictures and the cross still on the wall. In the kitchen the refrigerator was lying on the floor and the whole house was covered in wet, slippery mud. Everything in my room was ruined. The bed was still made like I left it but everything else had moved to different parts of the room. All my pictures where still in the house but the color ran off of it like water when I picked it up. In my mom’s room the ceiling fan still contained Katrina’s water in the light fixture. This is when I actually began believing it all because I could not take anything with me. Even though people donated clothes and bought things for us I still thought I could go home and get my own things. One thing I did leave with was an old school Polaroid picture that lasted of my cousin. Mysteriously as I walked outside he was waiting on the porch for me. The thing that Katrina taught me the most was that family is all that I need to survive. I lost everything I owned but none of that mattered because my family was still there making it easier for me to move on. Hopefully Gustav will give us another chance to connect because we are all going to be stuck in a hotel room together.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Week 01: Background. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.