Moments caught in time
by Rashmi Kayala
Namaste!
In the late summer of 2006, I was at New Orleans visiting as a volunteer for the International Association for Human values (IAHV). I worked with a team of young adults conducting stress and trauma relief workshops to hurricane Katrina victims and the people of New Orleans. I was touched, touched by emotions suspended in time. Almost a year after disaster, a major part of the city still appeared paralyzed and every object living or inert spoke a thousand words!
To me, time appeared to have come to a stand still with shattered homes, corroded cars laying upside down, displaced windows and roofs, a list that would probably never end. For a moment, I was taken away by emotions that wouldn’t simply stop haunting me; but, I remembered to breathe. There were families from the lower class community who even today thrive on relief work organizations for their daily meal; and it’s just so sad to see them go through these hardships. Lost jobs, lost documents, lost homes, lost families, and lost pets and in addition, having lost control over their life now. Personally speaking, my visit to the ninth ward was probably, one of a kind of experience in my lifetime. The destructions around the 9th ward were too much to handle. In the meantime, I found an opportunity to spend some time with residents in that area. I lived an entire life!
One of the course participants at IAHV stress and trauma relief workshops offered to share her Katrina story with me. She sure went through a very rough time when Katrina hit last year. She lost her home; a home with sweet memories for over 25 years was gone forever in a span of few hours. She lost her job; a job she had for over 17 years was gone with the wind. The clinic she worked for was destroyed in the storm and the doctors moved out of NO. Moreover, her husband and son were lost for three whole days as they could not evacuate before the storm had hit the city. She was so sure on the third day that her husband was not going to make it. He was a heart patient and had recently undergone a bypass surgery. She was worried; she kept weeping all the three days. No phone, no electricity, no news; but to her surprise she found her husband and son walking towards her. A miracle had just happened! She still kept crying. However, this time the tears were of happiness; she was thankful to God.
On the other hand, we worked on a summer camp project for a low income housing community adopted by IAHV. The volunteers at IAHV took care of kids abused by their families and surroundings offering them quality time by giving love, care and affection their naive hearts searched for. Spending time playing, doing art workshops, stress-relieving exercises like breathing and making them healthy nutritious breakfast & lunch made a fulfilling day! Working with those kids was fun; they were simply adorable. One day, we were on a tour to the children’s museum. I was responsible for 3 children during the tour; I was talking to them and they were curious to know more about me. One of the girls asked me, how long was I going to visit them? And I told her, I would be gone after a week and she responded: “I can come with you; I do not wish to live here anyways. Do you know five boys were killed in gun-shootings near my house last week? I am so scared to live here”.
I was dumbfounded; I didn’t know what to say? I felt so sorry for those kids; I prayed for them to be able to withstand fear and smile all the way throughout their lives. I just thought to myself, there’s so much going on and not many of us care to make a difference.
However, I was very happy to see the tremendous energy in the volunteers at IAHV and their efforts towards this cause. Their contributions have been enormous but there’s yet a lot to do, to make NO a place it once used to be known for. I was proud to be a part of this project; I’ve evolved!
I’m sure IAHV will continue to rebuild the lives of many in NO and elsewhere, where people need a ray of hope to live on. With IAHV’s stress and trauma relief programs, many have found a reason to smile, keep their minds at peace, and regain focus and energy. After the course, people simply say “WOW, I feel so good! I needed this.
IAHV needs your support and encouragement to uplift the lives of many in New Orleans. To know more, please visit IAHV’s website @
http://www.iahvneworleans.org/Thank you, for spending a moment with me. You just made a difference!
Namaste.
Rashmi Kayala
Volunteer @IAHV
I am a gift of my abilities, a chance I chose to take and explore the immense creative energy within and around me to share and make it a wholesome. 
