How did I get to Red Hook?

Jovan and I drove into Brooklyn New York on Friday November 2nd because we wanted to help with Hurricane Sandy relief. We were on a roadtrip in North Carolina from Michigan when the storm surged up the coast. We got supplies and food and filled up with gas before we got into the city. We even filled up an extra gas tank because there was a gas shortage in the city. While driving or trying to drive into Manhattan we wanted to take the Holland Tunnel when we got there it was closed because of flooding still 3 days after the storm(it was actually closed for weeks). So we rederected ourselves towards the Lincoln Tunnel asking police for directions. We were stuck in a traffic jam in Hoboken New Jersey and asked the police officer how to get to the Lincoln Tunnel, she said we were in a gas line I needed to get in the other lane. This gas line that went around the corner and kept going we never saw an end to it. That happened a few times while I was driving in New York City. Hoboken was all dark except for flashers and headlights. Trash piled up all along every road. They were ambulance and Red Cross trucks and police cars. We made it into lower Manhattan to find more chaotic darkness. It was a very eerie feeling being in a big city that wasn't lit up all the way. Yet still, We made it to see Mike in Brooklyn without too much problem.

The next morning jovan, Mike and I drove to Coney Island to try to work at a site. It took longer to drive there than I thought it would because of different traffic jams(including more gas lines that people wait days in). We got there late and there were a bunch of people gathered at the address but no boss to put us to work. Some asked if I was the boss. Not yet. This was right on the coast and we were able to see the sand for blocks off the coast that had been washed up from the storm surge. Jovan was digging into the street to see how much sand was there and it was more than 6 inches deep. While waiting for the boss we walked a few houses over to the coast to find cars thrown against fences and to find the boardwalk in concrete pieces and found a boat washed up onto those concrete pieces. The boss eventually showed up over an hour later and didn't give us a job. He took our phone numbers and said he would call. He never called. We drove to the heart of Coney Island to find piles and piles of sand that had washed up on the shore and found more trees down blocking the roads. We found many stores and building close. We saw all lines of people waiting for some kind of help. We saw a fire hydrant opened so that people could get water. There was a man filling up buckets of it to take home. We drove back to Mike's sister's apartment and realized how much gas we used just that morning. We said we couldn't be driving around this much if we were not going to be able to get gas in the city. We were going to have to use the public transportation more. That afternoon we went for a walk with Mike to a flea market we drove by earlier. We found lots of cool stuff with lots of expensive price tags. That evening I wanted to visit Jessica who I had lived near in Wonju, Korea. So jovan and I had to take a special shuttle bus into Manhattan because the subways were not open yet between Brooklyn and Manhattan with the flooding. We met up at a Starbucks near Penn Station and talked for a while. Jessica also directed us to korea town or korea street. It felt so good to be back in the Korean culture. I took the job of ordering in korean and we had somgibsol and dokpokie and many other great korean specialties. After that we walked over to Times Square doing some people watching and seeing what Broadway shows were playng. We found out that Newsies(the greatest musical ever!) was playing on Broadway. So we splurged and bought some of the discounted tickets. The musical was amazing!

On Sunday November 4th Jovan and I where lazy in the morning. But then we found the schedule for the Brooklyn Tabernacle. We walked a long ways to get there and really enjoyed the service. Great music and more importantly a great heart for taking care of the people in Brooklyn after the super storm sandy. They were asking for people to sign up to volunteer. So we signed up. Then we walked around Brooklyn some more exploring and made our way back to the apartment. I got an email from Mike, who had left the night before, with a bunch of links to different volunteer groups in the Brooklyn area. I looked into those different links and found the closest one to us, Red Hook. And that is where the rest of the story has taken place. The start of a beautiful relationship with a beautiful community that was in chaos after the storm.