Taking in a family in Katrina's wake.When my parents proposed taking in refugees from New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded after Hurricane Katrina  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. last summer, my immediate reaction was negative. I wondered how my family in California could support more people when money was already tight since my older brother had started at an expensive college. I began to dwell on to continue long on or in; to remain absorbed with; to stick to; to make much of; as, to dwell upon a subject; a singer dwells on a note s>. - Shak. See also: Dwell the consequences of taking in a family: I would have to pack away my new drum set and weight set to make living space for the family. I thought nay comfortable lifestyle would be sacrificed, and it would be a disaster. I was dead wrong. AD ON CRAIGSLIST Despite my reservations, my parents posted an ad on Craigslist offering a home to a New Orleans family of four who had lost their home. On September 7, the Evans family, whose home in the Ninth Ward had been destroyed, moved into our house. The family--Diane, 59; her daughter and son, Carmen Carmen throws over lover for another. [Fr. Lit.: Carmen; Fr. Opera: Bizet, Carmen, Westerman, 189–190] See : Faithlessness Carmen the cards repeatedly spell her death. [Fr. , 40, and Kwame, 32; and Carmen's son, Maurice, 7--arrived that evening with only a pickup truck's worth of belongings, mostly clothes, photo albums, and religious items. The three adults shared a large room in our basement where the pool table, drum set, and weights used to be. They shared a couch bed A couch bed is a couch that folds into a bed. Commonly known as a Hideabed. There are many variations, such as bunk beds with couches on the bottom bunk and half-couches. and an air mattress between the three of them. Maurice shared a room with my youngest brother, 12-year-old Max, and had a twin bed to himself. DINNER FOR 12 I thought having another family here would make daily living way too stressful. Once again, I was dead wrong. At dinner on a typical night after the Evanses moved in, we had anywhere from 10 to 12 people eating at the table, including an occasional friend of the family or relative of the Evanses. My morn and Diane alternated nights cooking. Diane made incredible Southern dishes like gumbo, fried chicken Fried chicken is chicken which is dipped in a breading mixture and then deep fried, pan fried or pressure fried. The breading seals in the juices but also absorbs the fat of the fryer, which is sometimes seen as unhealthy. , and red beans and rice Red beans and rice is an emblematic dish of Louisiana Creole cuisine (not originally of Cajun cuisine), traditionally made on Mondays with red beans, vegetables (onion and celery), spices (thyme, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf), and pork bones left over from Sunday dinner, cooked . Kwame and I took turns barbecuing. I had the opportunity to hear firsthand what it felt like to live through a disaster. Diane was an amazing storyteller: Her tale of how she and nine other people stayed on their roof for several days eating canned food canned food food sterilized by heat in a closed, durable container such as tin and aluminum cans, flexible aluminum foil and thermoplastic containers including squeeze tubes. Technically, the processes used are highly efficient and used universally. and drinking bottled water as the water level rose higher and higher will stay with me always. All four members of the Evans family stayed with us for about four months. Diane, Carmen, and Maurice then moved into an apartment nearby, so Maurice didn't have to switch schools again. Kwame is still living with us; now he has the big room in the basement to himself. A bond has been formed between our two families that will never be broken. The love and respect in the Evans family showed me a much more beautiful way of living, and the merging of our families is an event that has changed my life forever. Send us your 500-word story, along with your name, address, and phone number. If we publish it, we'll pay you $100. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Upfront, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012; or upfront@ascholastic.com. Josh Hoffman is a senior at Burlingame High School in Burlingame, Calif. |
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