Day 6 - 7:00 am
The week's work is done and the group is splintering. Three left at 5:00 am; by day's end, we'll all be enroute home. We tried to summarize our experience yesterday at our last dinner together. The consensus was: great week, lot's done, wonderful experience, expectations appropriate, new friends. Mary, a Katrina rookie 5 days earlier, said it best when she reminded us our biggest task was to go back and tell everyone how much work lay ahead, to in/ex cite our friends to get involved.
Driving to/from work sites and touring key areas, we had ample opportunity to see both the devastation and the recovery effort. Upper-middle class and low-income neighborhoods were treated equally by the hurricane. The recovery effort has been less even-handed. Several rebuilding projects in the upper and lower 9th wards show promise but the scope of the work ahead is difficult to fathom. Each house showing fresh paint and flowers sits among those sporting plywood windows and blue tarp roofs. The live oaks give shade to empty slabs. Still we heard encouraging talk from those who live here. The residents and long-term volunteers are focused on the progress and prospects. Hope has replaced resignation. The future looks brighter.
So, if you're troubled by what's happened to your investments in the last year, if you're worried about keeping your job, If you're having trouble making ends meet; come to the Gulf and spend a week and get a perspective adjustment. You can't do anything better with your time or money - and these folks will think you're doing them a favor!
Zeke
