Survivor

Robby Gunther
Lei Lani Michel
English 1001-109
16 October 2007
Survivor
Nikita King, simply known as Nikki to most people, is a worker at Smoothie King. Nikki is a New Orleans native and has been part of the Louisiana community since she was born. Nikki use to call New Orleans her home but now, like plenty of other New Orleans natives, calls Baton Rouge her new home because of the devastating hurricane Katrina.
The first question I asked Nikki was if she stayed in New Orleans through out the hurricane and she told me she did. I could not believe some one would stay so I asked her why, and she told me she decided to stay because she had to watch over her grandmother and her fragile ninety-two year old great grandmother. Hearing her say that made me realize how loving and considerate she really is. She could have decided to leave with her husband and head to Baton Rouge to safety, but instead she decided to stay at her grandmother’s house to be with her family and watch after them.
Nikki stayed in New Orleans a total of seven days after Katrina. She spent three days in her grandmother’s house and four in the Convention Center. “7:30 a.m. I woke up and stepped off the bed and water was up to my ankle. Then some one went to the door and opened it and water just rushed in and every one started to panic and moved to the second floor of the house. There was about eighteen feet of water by the end of it.” She remembers being on the second floor of the house looking out the windows and wondering how could the government let this happen. I asked what part of the government was to blame and she said President Bush. On the other hand I asked her how come it wasn’t the mayor’s fault, and she believes Mayor Ray Nagin was not to blame because he was too worried about his family during the storm.
After three days in the flooded house Wildlife and Fishery picked them up and brought them to the Convention Center. “Instead of going to the Convention Center why did you not go to Baton Rouge to meet up with your husband?” I asked her. She said because there was no way for her to leave.
I asked her when she finally reached Baton Rouge and she answered quickly like it was yesterday “September 7.” “Was it difficult to live in a new town?” I asked her. Surprisingly she said no, and she explained to me that she was part of the Baton Rouge community for six months prior to hurricane Katrina. I wondered why she moved back and she simply said “It wasn’t home, even though I had family here.”
Even though Nikki knew the region well it was hard for her to adjust from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. “It took me nine months to get a job here, and it wasn’t like I was only going out looking for a job every other month but I was out there every day looking for a job.” “I believe people here are prejudice.” I looked at her with one eyebrow raised and said “Prejudice?” Nikki said she would go in to get a job and would mention she was from New Orleans and just seemed to go down hill from there.
Nikki finally got a job at First Baptist Church because she said she kept calling them asking them about the job. I asked her why she did not just give up on that job and keep on searching for another job, and she said because she was going to be able to work with kids and she loves kids. Two weeks after she got the job she said she was fired because they did not have enough room on the payroll for her Nikki swears it was for other reasons. I asked her “What other reasons could there have been?” This is what Nikki had to say “While I was there I asked if we celebrated Martin Luther King Day and I was told that they do not and not to teach the kids about him, and that’s why I think I was fired.”
What did you do after that I asked, and she replied she got a job at Shell and at the same time Smoothie King. She worked at both places for awhile she told me, but decided to quit working at Shell because it seemed like a dangerous job. I wondered what was so dangerous working a the Shell gas station and she told me that she had the night shift and it was not in the best part of town.
I asked Nikki if she was every going to move back to New Orleans. Nikki told me no because she does not see any steps forward being made for the city of New Orleans. The final question I asked her was why she chose to live in Baton Rouge after all the hassle she got from people here, and she simply answered that she already had family here and that Baton Rouge is not to far from New Orleans.