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samuelgreen

 You can just imagine the mindsets of the children. They were traumatized. It took a tremendous toll on me. I was yearning for my mother. I didn’t want my son to deal with what I had chosen to deal with by going back so I sent him to live with my sister in Houston, Texas. I was devastated. I was lonely. But there was this other piece of me that I looked outside of myself and looked at the kids and they needed someone to help them.

 I looked at my situation and said ‘At least I have a job.’ But I was exhausted. I was getting up at 5 a.m. to get to school on time at 7:30 p.m. There was nowhere to eat because the Wal-Mart closed because thee were no lights, so there was always a level of fear leaving the school after dark. I had to wait to get outside of New Orleans [to get something to eat.] So imagine all of that taking a toll on your body and your psyche. So imagine working with kids who are combative and don’t want to go home.samueljgreenafter

 My godmother’s mother wants to come home and FEMA still hasn’t paid out her property. She’s 87. And that is the reality. There are a lot of positive things that have come from Katrina. I do believe the education system is better. Is everything perfect? No, but are our kids achieving at greater levels than before, yes. Do our parents have choice now? Yes. Has education innovation and reform happened in New Orleans? Yes, but have we recovered? No.

 Katrina reminds me that my mother is no longer here. Katrina reminds me that we had all this separation. While we went through one of the worst disasters in America, my mother and I weren’t together. Katrina separated families. There are still people in other states that want to come home.

 What angers me is [thinking about] could this have been prevented? What angers me is that I lost my mother at the time she needed me most. She died alone. It angers me that I don’t have my family and my sister and my nieces with me.

 It definitely dismembered the concept of family as I knew it. What gives me hope is that some people found a better life outside of New Orleans because of better opportunities or that [the relocation] forced them to wake up and seek other opportunities. And the education system is still not perfect but it is better.

 I came back because I wanted to be a steward for my community. If going back and opening a school was going to revitalize a city, then I wanted to be a part of that. If coming back just for the little bit of work that I can do can make a difference, that’s why I went back.

(Photos: Sivi Domango (pictured with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan)

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After The Storm: A Hurricane Katrina Survivor Speaks [PHOTOS]  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

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