“East Lansing Kellogg Center to host Katrina heroes today - Lansing State Journal” |
| East Lansing Kellogg Center to host Katrina heroes today - Lansing State Journal Posted: 19 Sep 2010 01:52 AM PDT EAST LANSING - Their lives have changed in many ways, but in many ways things remain the same. Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun still tend to their New Orleans contracting business, serve their customers, look out for their neighbors and care for their family. The ordeal the Zeitoun (pronounced ZAY-toon) family endured during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath - detailed in Dave Eggers' "Zeitoun", the 2010 One Book One Community selection - is five years past, but hardly forgotten. The Zeitouns will be in East Lansing for a 7 p.m. talk on Sunday, Sept. 19 entitled "Five Years Later: An Evening with Abdulrahman & Kathy Zeitoun." The event will take place at the Kellogg Center, 55 S. Harrison, and while admission is free it's also on a first-come, first-served basis. The talk, part of the month-long One Book series of events, will be the couple's first visit to Michigan. Eggers' book details the run-up to the hurricane that devastated New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun's decision to stay behind while his wife and family fled to safety, and what happened to him after that. Given the chance to help his neighbors - and even a few abandoned dogs - Abdulrahman Zeitoun said he wouldn't do anything differently. "(If) someone needed help and I could (help them), I would do it again," he said. But in the midst of his efforts to help the city rebuild, he is arrested on suspicion of terrorism. He is held without being charged and not allowed to make a phone call to inform his wife. He was in prison for a month before being released, but he refuses to hold a grudge. He has help renovate a museum, schools and 250 homes in New Orleans. The experience has made him a stronger person, the Syrian-born Zeitoun says, and gives him a means to influence a younger generation. That way, he can remind them there's a chance they could wake up and lose everything, and then they would have to "try to survive with what you have." Kathy Zeitoun, an American-born convert to Islam, had to hold her family together. It was anything but easy. (2 of 2) "I think I cracked in the middle of it, or toward the end. I think I was my worst enemy at the time. I was always fighting myself," she recalled. While she described herself as a "very logical" person, that side warred with the frightened side. Her children's presence kept her together, especially once she realized her behavior was affecting them. "I started to tell them, 'I heard from Baba (Arabic for Daddy). He called, but he's not near a phone," Kathy Zeitoun recalled. She had to tell her in-laws the same thing, which was harder. "Not being able to tell them where their brother is was an issue for me," she said. Kathy said her particular experience made her more conscious of her faith. "It makes you closer to God with this situation," she said. "When everything else is taken away, only thing that can't be taken away is your faith." The years following the hurricane have seen their lives slowly return to normal, along with the forging of stronger relationships between their friends and neighbors. Where they might previously have just greeted their neighbors with a hello, these days Kathy Zeitoun said they are on a first-name basis and often stop for a chat. "One of our neighbors said, 'This has bonded us'," Kathy Zeitoun recalled. For more information about all One Book events, go online to www.onebook eastlansing.com This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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