Wow....we really ARE neighbors...lol
SusanTeach...wow...you REALLY ARE my neighbor...literally. I live in Picayune.
It's a Small World afterall...lol
I teach about 10 miles outside of Slidell, LA, and in the community I work in, many of the students, and their families used to live on the water, or very close to the water...even many of the teachers I'm working with lost their houses as well. Some of the teachers have moved on elsewhere, after they lost their homes....and I've gotten to see many pictures of before and after of people's houses. It's all very heartbreaking, but many people have been wanting to help, and have helped the six schools that were so flooded that they still are not able to have school in their "old School", and probably won't be for the rest of the school year. (I used to teach at two of those schools last year, so it hits pretty close to home, because those were people I knew, and had worked right along side of last school year, and many of the students are still there as well.)
I thought it was really neat to see Harry Connick, Jr down in Slidell recently, and he was there, on the Today show, as it was filming from Slidell,(lots of flooding...up to 8 feet of water in some places, during the Huricane and after....90% of the homes there were flooded), and they were building on the first Habitat for Humanity House, to be presented since Hurricane Katrina hit, and it was awarded to a family...when I heard about it at school, I thought...oh, wow....that's neat. Little did I know, later that night when I found a link to the website, and watched the footage from that clip in the show...it was a family I KNEW!!! The mom was a custodian at one of the schools where I worked last school year, and she used to help me get my wheelchair in and out of the car, (long story there...earlier this year...two months of a wheelchair for me)...anyway, she was the sweetest person, and used to tell me all of the time how blessed I had been...I wasn't lucky to have survived, and kept my foot from the accident...I was blessed...this is what she would remind me of, when she and I would chat. She was so sweet, and I taught BOTH of her kids last year in music! This family was very deserving, and I am so happy for them!!!!
Now, the schools I am teaching at, are still intact, thankfully, but I try not to mention anything about the hurricane, or the fact that we are re-starting the school year, as so many of them have suffered some type of loss, through this hurricane.
But, it sure is nice to see some people being able to start returning to their own homes, so they can start to try to put pieces back together again.
Take care, and once again, it's nice to meet you!!!
REB
