Day to Day: Poets in Exile

September 14, 2005, Asheville, NC

Our friends did not have a TV here at the condo, so we bought a TV and a DVD player, cheap ones. So, today our lives changed--we got the cable hooked up, so we can actually watch news about New Orleans. We cannot get fast access internet as the cable guy said he'd have to dig through the building to install the special cable and we'd have to get permission from "our landlord," as he said--so, I guess we just won't even bother.

On the other hand getting our mailbox at the post office is another story. We can't receive mail here as our friends' mail goes to where they live, in another city. In order to get a mailbox we have to have drivers' licenses, actually two ids each with the current address here (i.e. not the New Orleans address, but that's all we have), or proof that we actually live here. So, we had to get a letter from the condo complex secretary (who has been letting us send mail to her address temporarily). Now that we have that, we'll see if the post office will let us have a box.

Next thing is transferring prescription medication info from Walgreen’s (they don't have one here) to CVS.

They also don't have our bank here, so we've had to send checks far away to be debited to our accounts. And we can get $100 cash without a fee from our grocery store. FEMA had our address at the motel, and sent our $2,000 (only one check per family) there, so it'll have to be mailed here (once we get a mailbox, i.e.).

I called some local universities to see if as faculty from New Orleans we can get some privileges: library, internet, printing....? Still waiting for a call back. We got some stuff at yard sales this Saturday (some of the proceeds went to Katrina victims--we didn't tell them we were some of those): a TV stand, an ironing board, an old printer which needs an ink cartridge (over $60 to buy), etc. and some information/recommendations for local doctors. My tooth is killing me, so I may have to find a dentist (and try to get an appointment soon somehow). I had set up regular check-up appointments with my doctors in New Orleans, so I guess I'll now have to look for other doctors here. Of course we have no way of contacting our old doctors to get any of our records from them...except I found my son's pediatrician as his sister-in-law is a poet I know!

Do you catch the drift...wherever we turn there are obstacles.

Many things are different here: the milk bottles are yellow! Why are milk bottles yellow? Milk is white. It took me a while to find milk. I wasn't looking for yellow bottles. I was looking for white bottles. We cannot take the garbage out more than once a week. Our son is still in diapers. We have to take the dirty diapers out more often. Can't put any garbage out with food in it unless it is just before the sanitation trucks arrive for fear that bears (and other wild animals) will rummage through the garbage! We are in the mountains near to where Yogi Bear lives!

Needless to say we are arguing about little things. The stress level is very high. No, this is not like being on vacation. No, we have not seen the local sites. We have not been able to even watch a movie. And we're not tired of receiving phone calls. We want to know how our friends are who are in the same position as us, and we are grateful that others who are not are thinking of us.

We have to look for a daycare center for our son. He needs little kids to play with. We're yet to find a park with swings and slides for him.

John went to the Volkswagen place to get the oil changed, the tires rotated, etc. and he got us a mailbox at the post office, so now we have an address. We called the post office and have temporarily forwarded all our mail to this mailbox. My hostmother sent me a $1000. Too much…

We're also still looking for: Richard Collins, James Shade, David Lanoue, Bonnie Noonan, Leslie Richardson, Ronald Dorris, Vivian Wilson, Anita Harris, Chris Chambers and Laura Tuley... the list is getting shorter as we're finding some of you slowly.

Living as Refugee Poets from New Orleans

I moved to the US in 1988 to go to graduate school. In 1999 I lost my parents in Belgrade, Serbia, and my country was destroyed that decade. Now, on the eve of becoming a US citizen I am a refugee uprooted by Katrina, from my home in New Orleans.

I had married, had a baby son, and gotten tenure at Xavier University of Louisiana. In August I passed my citizenship exam and on September 3rd I was supposed to take my oath...then we had to evacuate. We took a few of our belongings and left town on Saturday before the storm hit. After a week in a motel in Natchitoches, northwestern Louisiana, where we saw the prices of gas rising by the hour, after the news of flooding got worse, we realized that we could not go back home for a while and took an offer to stay at some friends' weekend condo in Asheville, North Carolina. It took us three days to get here, and now we're settling in. We don't know how long we will be here. We don't know how long it will be before we are allowed to see our home and our offices.

Our friends are scattered all over the US, and we're still looking for many others. I have located only eight members from my department. If you read this anyone of you, please let me know where you are and if you're OK.

My son had just started daycare for the first time. He misses it and the toys we had to leave behind. He cried this morning thinking of the blocks at home. We missed a birthday party he would have been invited to. Happy Birthday Albert, your third!

No, I am not writing poetry. I am still in shock. However, I am talking to people on the phone, e-mailing a lot, and writing in my journal.

How does one organize a life away from home, away from the routine? We have to or we'll go crazy. We can't just sit and think about what we may have lost all the time. But we're hoping that some of our books are still OK. Our son keeps us busy for one!

So, I am looking for the following: Vondra Richardson, Richard Collins, David Lanoue, Thaddeus Babiiha, James Shade, Michael Hill, Bonnie Noonan, Leslie Richardson, Katheryn K. Laborde, Ronald Dorris, Vivian Wilson, Lena Anderson, Anita Harris... and Chris Chambers and Laura Tuley. I hope that you're OK.