"This intimate portrait gives faces and voices to displaced and returning New Orleanians who face isolation, renewed racial prejudice, and government bureaucracy in their earnest attempts to rebuild."
-- Elliot Mandel, Booklist, 2008
"Still Waiting is beautiful! Really really REALLY well done!"
-- Doug Henry
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of North Texas
"The United Methodists and Quakers in Amherst showed Still Waiting as part of further relief organizing. I've coordinated service-learning trips from University of Massachusetts to the Gulf Coast for two years. I’m ordering it so we can use it in the seminars that prepare student teams to return to the Gulf."
-- Rev. Dr. Kent Higgins
Campus Ministry
University of Massachusetts
The day before Hurricane Katrina washed over Saint Bernard Parish, Connie Tipado opened her Dallas home to her extended family – all 155 of them.
When they evacuated, they did not imagine that their homes would be swamped by 10 feet of water, delaying their return for months.
Over steaming pots of homemade gumbo, Connie and her kinfolk draw together, consoling one another in well-knotted bonds of love and reciprocity that have functioned for generations like an emotional ecosystem. But, despite the generosity of Connie and many others who reached out to them, Texas was not entirely comfortable.
The lure of home – not just a house, but a unique and vibrant way of life – drew one after the other of Connie’s sisters, aunts and cousins back to their ruined homes on the banks of the Mississippi. They are jubilant to be back on familiar ground. But as the story tracks their return to the bayou and the unexpected difficulties they face, the hope of reclaiming life as it once existed looks increasingly remote.
Still Waiting draws viewers into the remarkable story of resilience, family, and attachment to place.
Connie left her beloved bayou home as a young adult to become a nurse in Dallas. Now, 20 years later, she provides refuge from the storm for 155 family members. She doesn’t understand why her kin would want to return to so little.
Katie is filled with the spirit of the bayou and the strength of her Creole ancestors. She refuses to be defeated, in spite of overwhelming emotional and physical setbacks.
Janie is deeply saddened and confused by her losses. She is not sure where to turn or how to begin rebuilding her life. She longs for the simplicity of her childhood on the banks of the Mississippi. For each of them, family is their comfort, their support and their hope.
