So in one of our last post we talked about going to St Tammey’s school to give them musical instruments. Once we were finished we still had to get to the Boothville School which was about 80 miles south of New Orleans. This is the way it works down here. Peter Spring has the piano, Gordon has a damn good pick up, and the school could use a real piano. So we just put the dots together, one could say.
Anyway, our first stop was Peter Spring. He was busy making sure the piano was tuned and ready to go. Mike and I jumped in the van again and Gordon would meet us at Peter’s place. It was in the morning and the traffic going in again was very slow but we got to Peter’s place. Gordon was soon behind us and he backed in the door and Peter was putting the finale touches on what the piano needed. Gordon needed to do a few other things in the day so we had to get in and on the road soon. So, it did not take long to get the piano on the truck. We said our goodbye’s to Peter and headed down highway 23 South.
Going back to Buras, things looked a little bit different with some new buildings going up but at the same time you saw rundown buildings that still look bad. Hell, even the firehouse down that way is still in pieces. That does not stop the firemen from volunteering and being there just in case. For some reason the Parish President does not let them stay in the trailers there so they have to drive all the way down to volunteer. Does not sound like that make a lot of sense, but there it is.
We drove to Boothville about an hour or so south of New Orleans. The damage in that area was much easier to see. Even though there were some places obviously re-done, there were many buildings still badly damaged or totally destroyed. The FEMA camps were still in operation there.
The school still showed signs of damage too, but not nearly to the extent that Bill has seen. We got to meet the principal named Mrs. Prout who was very nice and she introduced us to Nicole who was the music teacher. Bill is proud of the fact (and rightly so) that they didn’t have a music program till he started donating instruments. Now they have a music teacher!
We had talked on the phone but have not met as of yet. She shook my hands and said with a very big smile, “Glad you came down to see us.” I felt right at home and told her Gordon was waiting out side with their piano and where was her stage area?
We managed to get the piano up on the stage in the school and took some pictures. Then we brought in the rest of the instruments. I met a wonderful young man named Brandon who took me to the principals office after I got separated while moving some instruments around in the music area. He is a prime example of what the kids are like. Happy to be there, and happy to be thought of. He pointed out the principal’s office after leading me through the building and then said, “thanks for bringing the music instruments.” What a great kid.
We met a little longer with the principal and exchanged information. Then we headed north. We had promised Sue Altkin that we would try to eat so we found a restaurant along the way. It was obviously still in repairs but at least it was open. I had a bar-b-que sandwich. MMmmmm.
We went back to Peter’s place where we returned the blankets that wrapped the piano and then got to take a shower. It’s the little things that really bring happiness. It felt really good to get the shower. After hanging around there for a while, we headed back to camp Bio-Liberty started working on the pictures and such. Then got some more sleep.
0 comments:
Post a Comment