Posted on 06/30/2008 11:30:22 AM PDT by nola61
Heading Home The Yats are driving home. We couldn’t keep up with the big forearmed Midwestern women on the sandbag line. But we held our own.
Our levee, the Sny, the world’s largest, is in tact at this point. The biggest threats to it in the days ahead will be rain and muskrats. It was muskrats that took out the levee in Missouri on Wednesday night.
Let me conclude our first relief trip to America’s heartland with a final round of dissimilar and similar. Dissimilar first.
The level of organisation and communication between state and local goverment, along with charitable agencies, is astounding. Local organisers spent considerable time with us on Friday morning reviewing their disaster reponse manual - knowing full well that being from New Orleans we’ve never seen such a document before. They promised to send to us on CD ROM. We’d pass along a copy to “Our Mayor” if we knew his Plano, TX mailing address.
Local (volunteer) organisers have traveled the country learning best practises - while not disparaging their hosts. They’ve drilled the plan for two years making adjustments here and there based on what was learned in trial runs. And they’re already thinking up additional tweaks and improvements for future events. In short, they’re well prepared and it shows. The entire experience reeked of Midwestern orderliness, calm and efficiency. Just like “Our Mayor” when trying to figure out where to drop $1,000 at lunch.
Now to the similar. The spirit of the American people is this nation’s engine and glue. We worked along side of people from a myriad of backgrounds. Stoic farmers, convicts, retirees, children, Mennonites and Yats all pulling together to save the homes, businesses and farms of people they don’t even know.
As was and in the case post Katrina, church groups were among the first in (and the last to leave). In these parts the Mennonites are hugely respected. But I, too, know them well from personal experiences in Africa (where we lived prior to becoming Yats) and NOLA. Don’t let their pacifism fool you. They’re tough as nails. There’s an expression here: “How is copper wire made? Two Mennonite boys fighting over a penny.” They - like the best of religious groups - don’t seek the media limelight or have any need for self-promotion. They simply come as needed, often times at great personal sacrifice - to put their heads down and serve. As someone quipped after Katrina, “we should put the Southern Baptists in charge of FEMA.”
What was accomplished during our albeit too brief time here? Personally we were able to take our minds off our problems back home in NOLA and help others in their time of need. Others who’ve been so good to us. Often times reaching out to help someone else who’s suffering and struggling is the best form of therapy.
On a corporate level the folks here were blown away by New Orleanians coming to their aid. We dispelled some of the sentiment that New Orleanians are all just “takers” and “gimmes.”
The local media was all over us so by Friday we’d achieved minor celebrity status. We went along with it knowing that “good will ambassador” was part of our job description. People here embraced and thanked us warmly and profusely.
As one old man told me on the way out, with his southern illinois’ farmer Vulcan death grip handshake, “We’re damn glad you people from New Orleans came here to help us.”
We’re glad too. Damn glad. And we’ll be back..
God bless em all.
Okay, what’s a “Yat”?
“Where you at”
A person born in New Orleans. As is “Where ya at, cap?”
In league with George W. Bush, no doubt....
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