The weather was a bit nippy the week of Christmas 2007, as I drove from southeast Florida through the panhandle, crossing coastal Alabama and Mississippi on I-10 before entering Louisiana. It had been four years since my historic farm in a heavily wooded remote area on the coast of North Carolina was directly hit by hurricane Isabel. This was my first trip to New Orleans since around 1994, and I wondered what the area was going to look like now "post-Katrina."

I really did not anticipate my reaction to what I witnessed as I drove closer to east New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA). What caught my eye initially brought me to tears; stretching for miles and miles on both sides was a landscape lacking in tall, mature trees. Mostly there was only underbrush and dead trees that had their tops ripped off, and of course, huge root balls sticking up above the ground, still attached to the dead trees that had fallen over from powerful winds and water-saturated land that could no longer support them. The missing trees along with the piers without bridge segments that stretched for miles where the I-10 Twin Span Bridge work to rebuild this massive route across Lake Pontchartrain continued were overwhelming signs of what took place here.

I had to pull over to get a hold of myself; I was so overcome with emotion and my heart was pounding, something like a panic attack. That first scene brought everything about Isabel back to me as if it was happening all over again...that feeling of being boarded up inside my 150 year old Victorian farmhouse without power for eleven hours, while the winds beat the outside at 110 miles per hour and the ground shook from the toppling over of pecan trees and towering pines. Unless you have been through it, you probably cannot imagine what it is like to lose the landscape around your hometown. People, like me, who draw pleasure from gardening, feeding the birds, walking down a wooded path, etc., feel a very personal loss when only mud, debris and broken trees are all you can see for miles. All of the wildlife, especially tree-dwellers like the woodpeckers, have no place to go, and so a strange, empty silence is all you hear where life was once abundant.

It was over two years since August-September 2005. The locals often refer to the August 29 landfall of hurricane Katrina and September 24 hit by hurricane Rita as when "the ladies came to visit." Everywhere I looked, there were signs of what had happened. Most areas had rebuilding activities underway on every block, and in many areas, on every property. It seemed that for every house that looked repainted, re-roofed and renovated, there were several either boarded up, torn down, gutted or a work-in-progress. However, when I arrived at the B&B in Marigny on the edge of the French Quarter (FQ), I could tell that the " Vieux Carré" (Old Square) was alive and festive as always. This was one of my old stomping grounds back in the 80's when I lived in Houston, Texas, and my mood became joyous as I realized that most of the FQ was back in business.

I joined a friend at Antoine's for lunch (Oysters Rockefeller was created there), and then we browsed a multitude of shops, pubs and hidden gardens, stopping to chat with a few locals before heading by foot back to the car on the famous Bourbon Street. Then we stopped by the Covenant House and a Project Lazarus residence to drop off Florida citrus, fresh baked muffins and plush toy lambs for the homeless youth and the families living with AIDS in the area.

After a nap at the B&B, I headed out for the FQ again, only to run into a gal who moved there with her husband from Florida. We chatted awhile over a glass of wine, and then I popped around the corner to Port O' Call for one of their amazing famous mushroom steak burgers and plump baked potatoes. There, I ran into some young people who were in town to help volunteer to gut homes -- can you believe that after two years, some houses still need to be gutted? I understand there is a deadline for houses flooded by Katrina to be gutted, and in some cases, windows boarded up. I can only imagine the pressure people are feeling in having to deal with all of this, while still waiting for financial assistance to rebuild their homes.

On Christmas Day, I drove to the Lower 9th Ward to take a first hand look at the progress made in rebuilding one of the most devastated areas. My main interest in visiting the Lower 9th Ward was to drive through the Make It Right (MIR) project site. This project, started up by Brad Pitt, Steve Bing and local residents, cannot be missed as you cross over the canal bridge and enter the Lower 9th from the west. Bright pink tents appear over the horizon, serving as vibrant markers to represent the first 150 houses in the community that will be rebuilt. The "Pink Project" injects a feeling of cheerfulness where mostly a bleak setting surrounds the site.

The Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans was one of the richest cultural communities in the country, a crossroads of families, music and social interaction, until Hurricane Katrina. As one community leader aptly described it recently, the Lower 9th Ward had an 'atmosphere of engagement' that featured time spent with one another in dialog, in celebration of the music, words and history that make the Lower 9 so special. Porches and stoops were important places to catch up with one another and talk about everyday life.

In December 2006, Brad realized that an opportunity existed to build environmentally-friendly "green" houses that were affordable and sustainable to replace the houses lost in this community, and his interest in the community is truly encouraging to those who have waited over two years now for funds to rebuild their homes.

Simply click here to donate through the badge, and then return here to tell us your name so we can display it on a pink swatch as thanks and recognition for helping to build a home for a resident of the Lower 9th Ward.

For lunch, I headed up Bourbon and Royal Streets, ending up at an African restaurant for a bowl of lentil soup and Shipa Shipa, a spicy shrimp and rice dish, a taste derived from the cultures of Cameroon and Gambia. Eating African in the French Quarter? I do not know why I am drawn to African culture, but I do know that I have come to realize that supporting efforts in the rebuilding of northern Uganda and New Orleans feels the same to me. The people in the IDP camps in Gulu are very much like the people who want to come back home to New Orleans, in that they want their lives back, they want to be self-sufficient, they need education, jobs, homes and medical care. People need more than just a FEMA trailer or a grass hut and rations from the local charities, they need hope through an achievable pathway to productive and happy lives.

Christmas dinner at Tujague's on Decatur Street was pretty much like it has been for the past 150 years, and after an amazing 5-course feast, I walked around the streets in the French Quarter and took down phone numbers of rentals to begin my search for housing in the area. I had decided awhile back that New Orleans would be the best place in the U.S. for me to start-up one of my free public services, and it has already proven to be a great place for me to connect with others working on charity support projects. However, NOLA has the worst affordable housing shortage I have ever encountered in the U.S. and the places inside the FQ are expensive for the space you get. But I am determined to move there in a few months.

Since I was forced to sell my farm on the Outer Banks of North Carolina after being hit by hurricane Isabel, I am without roots although not homeless, as I temporarily reside in a rented condo in southeast Florida wondering when I will own a home again. So like a lot of folks from NOLA who are still stuck in Houston Texas and elsewhere, I am trying to "get home again."

While I was in NOLA, I read an article about how the woodpeckers were starting to come back again. It was a reminder that there is always a future to look forward to, no matter how bleak things appear to be.

Happy New Year everyone! There is much work to do, but from the looks of things, I think this year has a lot of promise...and next Christmas I expect to be helping families in the Lower 9 put up decorations in their new homes. ~ Steffanie

Messages about a family pet left on what remains of a home devastated by hurricane Katrina in the Lower 9th Ward. Check back soon -- we will soon have a program to help put homeless pets from the Louisiana SPCA and families in NOLA together so they can all come back home.

Entering the Make It Right NOLA site on Christmas Day 2007.

Overlooking a portion of the Make It Right NOLA site which marks the locations of 150 houses for the current rebuilding phase.

Prieur Street in the Lower 9th Ward.

Typical quaint residences lined up along an alley in the French Quarter.

Street scene in the French Quarter with an old-time bicycle.

Street performer on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.

Masques adorn residence balcony above a shoppe on a street in the French Quarter.