I want you to know that everything will work out
as it should :)

miss you!!!

and sent it to me
i guess. . . almost 4 years ago.

how things have changed since then. . .

i met you at hope, and then ran into you at a coffee shop in the bywater, recall?

i love your words here, and i think i can very much identify. people like us “value our portability,” both in the sense that we like to be able to pick up and move but also not feel tied down by interpersonal relationships. nola is a place with a lot of soul, i can imagine it’s hard to leave. but you’ve done a lot of good for a lot of people, so you ought to have a clean conscience.

best of luck with the decisions…

keep on writing, taking pictures, all that. it’s all lovely to keep reading.

home only enlarges once it has been realized. it is difficult- often impossible- to reassemble the original home in another place, but to find relics of it, a larger definition of each one. home is like love. if we are content with it, we will learn no more. howevever, if we simply realize its grand mystery- like god- we will discover new parts which were always there.

following your heart to join the heart of another is a good reason to see if home- this new orleans and whereever else- then becomes your spiritual home. that place can expand to a place like portland will be a journey and a challenge that you and i both take. i look forward to sharing that with you, in it’s many facets, and longing together for new orleans, our home.

separation is a key experience to being human: longing and knowing the desire which god and her holy spirit have for us. maybe we will talk about that later.

blessings,
carrie

we are very small and very focused compared to the broad number of projects we used to be taking on week-to-week in a year ago. we are only four people right now, noriko, william, niobo and me. noriko is taking groups of volunteers from Camp Hope (a habitat for humanity-run volunteer camp) to work in the violet community, but right now william, niobo, and i are only working on a few specific projects doing skilled labor construction. i am trying to do outreach to individuals who would like to come to violet to work for one or more months, share or learn skills, and help the community with everything from gardening to mental health to day care to construction. it’s a small operation, which keeps us sane, but i always keep open the option of growing bigger if the right people want to get involved.

one of our specific, focused construction projects is rebuilding Juline’s house. her initial contractor quit over a year ago when he discovered that the back of the house was sinking, so william took the project on himself and we are doing major renovations to get the house back together and better than before the storm. Juline moved to texas after a severe mental/emotional breakdown a year ago and is spending her time with her kids (who have been going to high school in texas since katrina). she recovered quickly after being back with her kids, and recently completed a training program to be a prison guard. her and her children will remain in texas until her home is finished, but she comes back to st. bernard often to visit and surprise us.

we have made a concerted effort to follow along with the neighborhood’s re-growth since the storm, trying not to be intrusive and maintain the level of trust we have gained with the community. it has not been easy; HOPE has always been tolerant of all types of personalities in volunteers, but unfortunately the occasional lack of responsibility and accountability can lead to disasters. i was gone from Louisiana from february 2007 until october of the same year, and found things to be in a bit of a mess on my return. i have made the decision to keep our project alive, and to keep it small. although i have all kinds of grandiose ideas to build a better Violet, i recognize i am here to assist residents, and many people are still struggling with the basics such as shelter, day care, and emotional well-being. i am here indefinitely, but vary my activities to keep myself sane (i am a photographer & musician and have begun to follow those passions in new orleans). we take it day-by-day, and only take on what we can handle. every day, william and i go in and out of the black trailer donated by the UU group (it is our tool shed), and use tools given to us by folks from all over the country. it’s amazing to think Violet has been supported by the networks of good-hearted people from all over the country.

i would really like to keep in touch with you given your background…please let me know if you see any possibility of collaboration or guidance. i battle with the idea of growing bigger all the time, but would really like to see some good institutions get started in Violet and maintained by the residents.

how is alex doing? hope the weather isn’t beating you up too bad up there. it’s usually around 60 in the daytime here… ;D

take care, and keep in touch!
nichola.

–
hope * strength * rebirth
violet, louisiana.
http://keep-hope.org