God Bless New Orleans

Well, I was intending to use this beautiful Sunday afternoon in Mali to talk more about life in general here in Mali, the people I have met, the crazy, other worldly sights I have seen, and other such thoughts. However, my mind and my thoughts are with my friends in New Orleans, who are bracing for the sting of Hurricane Katrina. Since I have been living in New Orleans, there have been at least 5 tropical storms/hurricane scares, 2 of which I have evacuated for. My first ever experience was my first week of school at Tulane while I was earning my MPH. The first two days of school were cancelled, and yet nothing hit New Orleans. A few months later we were hit with another scare, one which forced us to evacuate to Memphis. Nothing really came of it though. During my first year of medical school in 2002, our first round of exams were cancelled due to a hurricane scare. Last Fall, while on my OB/GYN rotation, Hurricane Ivan was headed right for New Orleans, and forced us to evacuate to Houston. While that storm missed New Orleans, it did cause some minor damage.

Before I left New Orleans at the end of June, the nascent hurricane season had yet to rear her ugly head anywhere in the Atlantic. I recall packing up my belongings and storing the non-essentials that I really didn't need while I was in Africa at my cousin Mary's house in Mid-City. She allotted me some storage space in the first floor/basement of her raised double shotgun (New Orleans version of a duplex which is so named because you can shoot a shotgun through the front door, and the bullett will traverse the house and exit the back door). I recall pessimistically thinking that this might be the last time I would see any of my stuff, my old house on St. Mary, or possibly even some of my friends whose bradaggio is bigger than their brains, as I had the nagging suspicion that a hurricane would hit while I was away, and wipe out the city that I so loved. I hate being right (maybe). . . .

While this post is being written about 24 hours before Katrina will hit, I cannot expunge the thoughts of my "other home" from my worried soul: experiences I have had there (Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, parties on the street), people I have met (classmates, best friends, lovers found and lost), the sights, sounds, and smells of an eclectic, hip, lost, treasure chest of a city, one that has somehow managed to live and breathe anew with each hurricane that endangered it. Somehow, New Orleans will find a way to survive this one; it has before, and it will again.

New Orleans, I salute you, I miss you and I wish you well my stoic friend.

Inshallah (God Willing),

Craig