Camp Ubuntu

Below is the text of an email I received a few days ago. I encourage anyone who views this to consider this opportunity:

The Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana is requesting help in developing "Camp Ubuntu" a day shelter, summer camp and resource center for the several hundred youth who were traumatized by evacuation to the Superdome, separated from their families, many of whom died, others who have left for jobs up north. The youth are frequently faced with trying to figure out where they will sleep from day to day, ending up with multiple health issues- physical, mental and emotional as well as learning challenges.

St. Luke's Homecoming Center in lower New Orleans, is trying to support these teens to help them get back on their feet, to assure a viable and productive future for them and for the city itself.

Very important to the mission is the creation of a spiritually uplifting environment for the ministry. We need the help of the Church to create the sort of holding space that can heal these traumatized youth. We want it to be an environment full of "ubuntu", the Bantu spiritual principle guiding the whole project. Ubuntu was central to the theology of Desmond Tutu as a way to rebuild community in the image of God's Kingdom. It speaks of the essence of being human. We discover our human dignity through honoring the humanity of others. When you are generous and hospitable, you are friendly and compassionate, you are open and available, you are full of ubuntu. You show others their worth and discover your own.

Camp Ubuntu will create an environment that teaches and shares this spirituality through mutual service and through the physical transformation of the center's large gymnasium space. The youth and their supporters will be filling the gymnasium from top to bottom with large works of art expressive of our care, generosity and support of one another.

To be part of this new beginning for these youth we are requesting gifts of ubuntu from you, such as:

Art material and supplies:

*large rolls of natural colored canvas

*acrylic paints and paintbrushes

*spray paints in lots of colors

*stenciling kits in large letters so the kids can spell out inspirational messages on the canvasses.

Comfort

*stuffed animals

* candy or granola bars wrapped with notes of encouragement

We also welcome your works of art and those of children around the world to create a visual rainbow expressing ubuntu for the healing of so many New Orleanians whose humanity has been devalued.

We also welcome the loving presence of volunteers. Volunteer teams and material donations are needed to:

* Equip and staff the center - stipends for summer seminarian interns; funds for purchase of a van to transport youth; funds for a custodian to clean a space utilized by many children.

* Volunteer groups are needed for a ministry of hospitality, listening, and supervision.

Please contact the following if you are interested in volunteering or send donations to:

Courtney Cowart
Office of Disaster Response, Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana
1623 Seventh Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70115

"Water lines" (by Jenn Onofrio)

It seemed that every day we went out to volunteer, we journeyed through neighborhoods marked with water lines. These orange lines were the stains left on the sides of buildings, the result of standing water that had stood unbearably long after the infamous levees had broken.

The lines were sometimes four feet high, but sometimes they were higher than a person is able to stand. In some desperate cases, the lines are not terribly visible because the water rose all the way to the level of the roof. In these cases, the "x" mark of the rescue team who came searching for victims is marked on the roof of the houses instead of the exterior walls. The walls were entirely submerged.

It is a profound, chilling experience to stand beneath the mark of a water line and look up to see that, when standing 5'7" tall, the waterline still has at least a foot on you. What's more, we were told that the flood waters actually crested higher than this. The water line was only left where it was because it was standing for long enough to leave a stain.