The Big Easy

We visited New Orleans earlier this year (this was our third visit since Katrina). Much of the city has been restored, but a large portion remains in shambles. Entire housing projects, which provided homes for thousands of people, are being leveled. New, low-income housing is being built, but not as many units and they are not available for the same price and progress is slow.

Piles of debris can be found along any number of houses on any given street. All debris is considered hazardous and can only be removed by HAZMAT workers.

Statistics show that the city lost as much as 75% of its tree cover as a result of Katrina.

The entire school system is being revamped, due in part to the hurricane, but not entirely. The school system was failing prior to the storm. A public education overview can be found here: http://www.teachnola.org/ar/publiceducation.html

There is still so much work to be done.

Tow truck

580 miles and two tanks of very expensive gas later - James arrived in NOLA with the jeep in tow. The journey was long and slow, but largely uneventful.

After a long fruitful life in North Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas, the Old Jeep is ready for her retirement in the Big Easy.

Monday, Monday

On next Monday, James is heading to New Orleans with a truck packed full of clothes, food, schoolbooks, two computers and my Jeep Cherokee in tow behind. These are the things he determined necessary for his move. Clothes because he needs to look like a teacher; food (& lots of it) because his greatest fear in life is arriving in a place with no grocery stores; school books and computers because we are pretty sure that the conditions that we will be met with are less than adequate; my jeep, because she has 205,000 + miles, no air conditioning, and I really, really, really want her to keep on driving once we get there.

When I make my trip the following week, I'll be driving a rented mini-van and hauling my items of primary importance; also clothes, plants & seeds, more books, a lamp or two and whatever James calls to tell me he forgot.

We are each entering an alternative teacher training program. James will be in Teach Greater New Orleans and I will be a teachNOLA fellow. We'll go through a pretty intense training program this summer, do some summer school teaching, and hopefully, teach full-time in the fall. After one year, we'll be certified to be teachers.

If your question is - Why? I guess my answer would have to be - Why not?

We are childless, petless, and we have a nice man named Deng, pronounced "Dang!" renting the Florida house. So, no need to stay in one place for too long.

New Orleans schools were declining well before Katrina wiped out much of the city. The storm and the devastation actually forced the state and the public school system to recreate itself. From what we are learning, the process has been slow and painful, but it is happening.

We want to be a part of re-building a place that we love and value. We also want to be teachers.Plus, it's New Orleans. It is unlike any other city in this country - and we want the opportunity to be a part of what it has to offer - all of it.