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.

Group Debriefing - All 40 PHAST Gulf Trip members finally met in whole last Thursday. One promising outcome is a strong interest in starting some kind of satellite group that will focus on sustainable Katrina/Rita efforts along the Gulf Coast. Good to get input from members of other projects, as we all had very different experiences and perspectives on how to move on productively.

I'm not sure about how I felt about the meeting. I noticed a relatively quiet New Orleans group throughout. By the end the meeting, I burned with unresolved points I had wanted to bring up, but had missed the time or opportunity. So many people wanting to chime in. Great to hear all the different perspectives, but it was hard at times to believe that that some of my peers had spent the week in the same hurricane-devastated area. I certainly didn't feel as optimistic as some of them.

Different Takes - After the meeting, a teammate/friend and I went to see a screening of The Grace Lee Project (check it out). On the way, she talked about how hadn't been able to contribute to the meeting at all because she felt like her experience had been so different. So many peers talked about experiencing "the call to service" because it was their first time to witness disparity and poverty. Well, what if we already knew about poverty and disparity before going on the trip? What if we already understood the call to service? My friend has not had much support and feels quite alone. I felt a different reaction as well, not surprised by the poverty or disparity, but more overwhelmed by the enormity of this problem. People still don't seem to grasp it, even those who were on this trip.

First Debriefing - One week after our return from New Orleans. From free association talk, everyone divulged that this past week had been very overwhelming and difficult. I'm glad everyone was able to get it out on the table. How did some people deal with it? Some tried to tell the stories of our experiences to friends and family, but most became frustrated because those who have not seen it, who have not been there, cannot understand the enormity of the situation. And it just gets frustrating talking about it because the other party just seems to not care. What can we do about it? It's so true that you just cannot understand it without seeing it, but since most people will not have the opportunity, how can we bring New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to Ann Arbor?

Shawn and I had been tossing around ideas of creating sustainable student-led grassroots activities to keep working with the area. This would be an organization separate from PHAST that any SPH student could be a part of. And by sustainable, we mean that it would continue even after we graduate. That's the difficult part about organizing anything at SPH since, at two years, our programs are so short and intense. I hope for a good reception at the group PHAST debriefing this Thursday.