No Change - Did I say that I've been home in Metairie for the last week? Nothing much has changed since I was back a month ago. Still at home trying to get the house back to normal function, helping my parents get back to some kind of routine. Houses in my neighborhood are still empty, with overgrown lawns and piles of trash and debris out front. As a psychopathic packrat and restore-reuse-recycler, the slow trash pickup and lack of recycling drives me crazy. But we should be thankful that businesses are returning, and stores can stay open as late as 9pm now.

Katrina Brain - Last night I met up with a dear friend I made one year ago while I attended classes at UNO. Her story is incredible, as is each one you hear in relation to the storm. She evacuated to Houston and was finally able to come back to New Orleans in December, but only to find her family business lost, personal things lost, and the places she loved and cherished gone. She's also suffering from what her neighbor has called Katrina Brain. She can't tell whether it's her age, the fact that she's lost so dearly, or her busy schedule as a single mom going to school full-time. She said herself that she still has not been able to wrap her brain around all the devastation that has occurred, and I think that's just it.

Katrina Brain is the numbness from the shock and the slow pace of progress. And people outside of New Orleans or who don't know the city just have no idea. No idea.

New Orleans Mayoral Elections - April 22th was Earth Day and Election Day in New Orleans, with 23 candidates. By the end of the day, incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin had garned 38% of the vote, and Louisiana State Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu had gotten 29% of the vote. The runoff between these two candidates will be May 20th. The voter demography in the Primary followed predictable lines of race and class.

SPH School-wide Presentations - Two days ago, the PHAST spring break trip members presented their experiences to the school. About 1-2 members of each project presented photos and reflections, about 3-5 minutes each. I was placed at the end, after Giao's St. Thomas Clinic presentation and before Shawn's talk on sustainable student-led efforts. I was thoroughly and visibly shaken by the time I went up, after seeing all the photos again and some for the first time, particularly from Biloxi and Baton Rouge. It was like being in New Orleans again, but at warp speed.

However, not only was I just emotionally distraught by the material, but the presence in the room was also disappointing. Or should I say absence? Excluding PHAST members or those on Dr. Button's trip to Austin, there were about FIVE audience members in attendence. The presentations were horribly publicized and horribly timed during the last week of classes, coinciding with review sessions and other more prominent meetings, like HMP's shindig and biostats review sessions. I was so sad.

Eary Voting Begins Today - Early voting for the April 22nd, New Orleans mayoral election began today at nine satellite polling stations across Louisiana in New Orleans and St. Tammany, Jefferson, East Baton Rouge, Rapides, Caddo, Calcasieu, Lafayette, Ouachita and Terrebonne parishes. These seem like a relatively thorough spread of the state itself, with parishes encompassing all the major cities, including Shreveport (Caddo), Monroe (Ouachita), Alexandria (Rapides), Lake Charles (Calcasieu), Lafayette (Lafayette), Baton Rouge (E. BR), Houma (Terrebonne), and areas around the metropolitan NOLA area (New Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany).

I certainly would prefer voting at these stations myself, rather than by absentee ballot, similar to the many evacuees taking the 3 hour+ bus ride from Houston & San Antonio. to get to the closest polling station in Lake Charles. Funny, I did the same thing myself for the 2000 presidential election, thinking that my vote would do better good in New Orleans than in Houston. I was being naive. Well, these stations give me hope that evacuees will have a voice in a election after all.

New York Times
New Orleans Picayune

Something Important You Can Do Immediately - "For anyone willing to take a few minutes to support initiatives that will benefit the people and communities of the Gulf Coast, I have posted information here about the following two bills: the Hurricane Katrina Accountability and Contracting Reform Act (H.R. 3838), and the Grassley-Baucus Emergency Health Care Relief Package (S.1716). Please take a few minutes to contact your legislators in Washington to request their support and action on these bills. There has been no legislative action on these bills since last October, and probably will be none unless legislators start hearing from constituents who demand action." Posted by Shawn on the Group PHAST website on April 6th, 2006.

PHAST Satellite for Katrina - On March 23rd, a handful of PHAST trip participants and other SPH students met to discuss student-led sustainable efforts focused on long-term reconstruction of the hurricane-affected Gulf Coast.

I'm not quite sure where the meeting ended. Mainly, we decided that there are LOTS of directions we could take with this initiative, and we didn't get anywhere close to a mission for this group. Political activism, volunteerism, grant writing, etc. LOTS. We ended with one person aiming to put the group in as an official organization for the new year, and the idea that we'd recruit heavily in the fall, especially with the one year anniversary of Katrina. I like that idea very much.

I was so passionate when I returned a month ago, but my predictions of growing apathy with time and busy-ness have unfortunately come to pass. That end of the year student crunch has certainly placed Katrina and the Gulf Coast in a faraway place.