This past weekend, I was in New Orleans for a college tour of Tulane University. The culture is very different down there in that the population as a whole is a lot more friendly. Strangers come up to you if you're lost and offer help, and people are a lot more talkative to people they don't know. The first person we encountered in New Orleans was our taxi driver who took us from the airport to our motel. He was pretty chatty from the start and my mom and I ended up having a really interesting conversation with him. When we told him where we were from, he told us how much he loved "chi town" or "the chi" as he also called it, and that he and his roommate used to visit there when he was stationed in Indiana in the army. He told us all about his experiences in the army, and that his 34 year old son is also in the army now and is currently stationed in Afghanistan, so they barely are able to see each other. He shared memories of when his son was a child, taking him to the Garden District (uptown New Orleans), going to the zoo and feeding the ducks.
The conversation then moved to Hurricane Katrina. I learned that when it hit, his house was so damaged that he had to gut the entire thing. Over the next couple years, he alternated between staying in hotels and houses of friends and relatives. It was very hard for him to get back on his feet after losing so much. Fortunately, his community helped each other a lot with the process of rebuilding, however outside of that they weren't getting much help and it was really tough. Observing other people's predicaments and how hard everyone had to work to recover, he told us he took this realization away from the whole experience: "that's what I learned about American citizens, they are resilient."
I was so intrigued by his story, and all the bits and pieces, memories from his life that he shared with us. It's so interesting to talk to a complete stranger, someone who has a completely different life than you and has experienced so many different things from what you have. To hear a personal experience straight from a victim of a disaster like Hurricane Katrina has so much more impact than just hearing it on the news or in school. I was able to hear the thoughts, feelings and memories of someone who was actually affected, who lost so much in the process and is still feeling the effects almost 8 years later. What really struck me was what he observed about Americans being resilient. It was really interesting that he was able to take that positive stand point on the whole experience and see the good that came from it, which was a whole community working together to recover. Talking to this man was really interesting and definitely a breath of fresh air to hear this mans story, who is so different from the people I usually talk to. This experience has made me more aware of other people's experiences and life stories. I encourage you to start up a conversation like this with someone as unknown to you as your taxi driver, because you never know what you might get out of it.
This was such an interesting blog post Olivia! The man you were talking to certainly has had an interesting life, and his stories are intriguing. This reminds me of how much of a bubble we seem to live in on the North Shore. It' s rare to hear such a remarkable story such as this one.
ReplyDeleteOlivia, I agree with Ellen. This story was very intriguing and touching. You were very lucky that this "stranger" was willing to open up to you. Maybe after living through a natural disaster and relying on community members and also random strangers, he has learned to be accepting of everyone. You mentioned how he said that Americans are "resilient" and can just bounce back after tragedies, but isn't it interesting how he only talked about what his community was doing when he had to gut his house, he didn't talk about any national support. I am curious what his opinion is of the national response. Sure the hurricane was in the news and many people flew down to help rebuild, but that was only a small percentage of people and what are we doing now to protect people like this taxi driver who are still recovering emotionally?
ReplyDeletePowerful and unique, Olivia. Not what I expected from a typical post, but welcome (especially since I was in NOLA for spring break :) and deeply personal.
ReplyDeleteTo make this a bit stronger, you might juxtapose your own life path with this gentleman's. Acknowledge the privilege you have (and I have) in being able to just "dip" into someone's life in another corner of the country. Consider condensing a bit of his story OR make it into another blog post. Anchoring it with a text about the continuing devastation of the Lower 9th Ward would help, too.
So enjoyable to read.