Rebuilding My Church

People ask me all the time about my church's recovery from Katrina, and it's a hard question to answer succinctly. Our denomination went in a different direction from most, and made the decision early on after the Storm to divide the funds and give away 2/3 of what was donated by generous members of my faith tradition to local community groups, especially those led by people of color. The remaining 1/3, which amounted to a little over $1 million, was dedicated to ALL the churches of our denomination that were damaged, as well as to the Baton Rouge congregation that was coordinating the first volunteer efforts.

The upshot of that decision was that our churches of Greater New Orleans were left largely unrecovered. My church building alone sustained over $1 million worth of damage, so you can imagine that our share of a divided fund did not go far. We have been careful stewards, and diligent in our creative efforts to get things done at the lowest possible cost, but the thing is, here it is, nearing the 6th anniversary of Katrina, and we still are operating on a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy, with large areas of the building with scarred concrete floors, unfinished walls and ceilings, a limping elderly HVAC system, a leaky roof, no working church kitchen, broken and dangerous entryway, and not a handicapped accessible restroom in the place. As if all that were not enough and more than enough, in addition to Storm damage, we're under new building codes that were enacted by the state legislature after the Storm.

For those of you who like details, here's the list I'm bringing to our denominational meeting next week to seek more help from my co-religionists:

Replace/upgrade HVAC system ruined by flood $12,600.00
Fire Alarm for new Community Kitchen 4,000.00
Iron work for new Community Kitchen 3,200.00
Plumbing replace/upgrade 20,000.00
Kitchen vent for new Community Kitchen 7,000.00
Fire Sprinkler System Pump Room (new requirement) 19,000.00
Installation of Fire Pump (new requirement) 48,500.00
Arch Finishes for Fire Exits (new requirement) 35,000.00
Fire Alarm for Building (other than kitchen – new requirement)) 19,000.00
Fire Doors (new requirement) 1,500.00
Fire Damper (new requirement) 3,000.00
Repair of Entranceway Damaged by Flood Waters 6,200.00
Repair of Leak & Plaster Work at Stained Glass Window 2,800.00
FUUNO SUB-TOTAL: $181,800.00
MINUS AMOUNT ON HAND IN FUUNO’s BUILDING FUND: -77,000.00
AMOUNT TO BE RAISED: $104,800.00

Note that the above figures DO NOT include finishing of walls and ceilings and installing new floors -- we'll continue along as we have been, doing that kind of work with volunteers, our own and those wonderful folks coming from out of town. We'll also have to figure out how to afford some kind of post-construction elevator system, so that our second floor is accessible. The list above just gets us a Permanent Certificate of Occupancy, and allows us to open the longed-for Community Kitchen, getting us on the way to wholeness and resuming our full-time urban, "food ministry."

If any of you reading this have funds of any amount to donate, or if you'd like to have the new Fire Pump named after you, be sure to contact me. The church would be exceedingly grateful, and so would I.

Deacon John's 70th Birthday @ Rock'n'Bowl

Here's the thing: If Deac is 70, that means that all of us who danced to Deacon John and the Ivories at our high school proms and sock hops are pretty much old too. What's up with that? Why don't we feel old?

I am writing this on Saturday night, June 11 from Rock'n'Bowl. The place is packed. The Fortier High School graduating class of 1956 (!!) is here, and most of 'em are out on the floor, smoothly dancing. There's a good many of my nostalgic aging Baby Boomer generation here too, singing along with the familiar lyrics.

But if it were only us "old folks" here, it wouldn't be near as crowded. The adult children of the Baby Boomers are also here, some of them bowling but still rockin' out to Deac's patented jump blues. (In case I forget to mention it, Big Man is playing 2nd trumpet in Deac's amazing big 16-piece band. He's loving it.)

Deac sounds terrific, his voice only a little rougher than the old days. The crowd is eating it up, and in some ways the familiar R&B beat and horn lines bring it all back. You can tell some of the old couples are dreamily reliving some good old times as they sway and dance.

Since Rock'n'Bowl is an actual working bowling alley, and serves food beside, unlike a normal nightclub, there's no minimum age. And so on top of -- or underneath -- the 3 generations mentioned above, the place is also full of kids, including Deac's grandchildren/grand-nieces, whatever). But some young parents have actually, god love them, rolled in a couple of strollers (starting 'em young!).

In true Louisiana fashion, people keep gesturing Deac to the edge of the stage so they can pin dollar bills on him for his birthday. (Next to me, a woman nearly panicked, saying plaintively, "I didn't bring a PIN!" so I handed her a safety pin. I'm always prepared, you never know when you're gonna need one.) From where I sit, looks like he's up to about $50 now, and the first set hasn't ended. He and his brother Charlie (it's his birthday week too) should really rake it in tonight.

Black, white, old, young, grands and kids, Uptown and Downtown (and Chalmette and Metry), sharp dressers and slobs, we're all here at Rock'n'Bowl havin' a wonderful time. Only in New Orleans.

Happy Birthday, Deacon John, and many many more!!

The Heat (redux)

This post is not for tourist or Chamber of Commerce consumption, but it is the truth.

It is hot as hell here, in fact I'm pretty sure hell is cooler, or at least less humid.  Termites are swarming, and the other half of the double that Big Man and I live in is infested, requiring TONS of noisy reconstruction, carpenters banging and sawing away starting very early in the morning.  Despite the weirdness of it, on our side there's only nasty bothersome flying/swarming termites this and no apparent -- or according to the pest control guy who has a vested interest in finding *something* -- no un-apparent active termites or damage either.  How strange and lucky for us.  But all the construction work on the other half of the house has our cat Smokey and dog Keely all in a dither.

It's so hot out that really, I can't breathe and I can't think.  You sweat just getting your paper or the mail.  Walking the dog?  Fuggedaboutit -- we wait til after dark.  I literally -- I'm not kidding -- sit in the living room with a bag of ice to supplement the air conditioning, because who can afford to lower the thermostat to where you'd really be comfortable? (Big Man and I visited the lovely Latter Library the other day to pile up summer reading, and we were both thrilled at the level of air conditioning there. it reminded me of my childhood summers, when my mother would throw me out of the house, and I would escape to the St. Bernard Parish Library, which was also heavily -- and heavenly! -- air conditioned.)

Both our cars have lost air conditioning (wouldn't you know it?), and the van -- which we hate with a passion -- is too expensive to fix, and while the Mazda *might* be fixable, we're too scared right now to check, since we don't presently have the funds that our wonderful and honest but cash-or-check only mechanic would require to fix.  So I rented a car for us to drive to our denominational General Assembly next week. Believe you me, it has air conditioning.

Other than all this complainin', things are fine.  No tropical storms in the Gulf, the River level is going down, they're closing the spillways, and we've just celebrated the triple festival of Creole tomatoes, seafood, and Cajun/zydeco music in the French Market, and so life is good (if hot).