We were told to gather at the airport for 7:15am. We all knew that at least one person would be late and we jokingly took bets as to who that would be. Many of us either thought it would be either Ursula or Tenisha. Well the winner of the late prize was Ursula. Not only was she late but when she got there she showed out over what was a supposed miscommunication. She and Tenisha got into it and when people at the desk got on the phone with security, Dr. Wallace advised Ursula to get it together or she would be arrested. I guess she got herself together because she got to the flight on time.

We arrived in New Orleans on the afternoon of May 25th. It was hot. That is not unusual for New Orleans. We filled up a shuttle bus completely with the 11 of us that went that day. Ms. Potts will meet us there after her vacation. It was very hard to be back at home and feel so helpless. My home is so destroyed. Seeing the people and the places that I knew and loved all gone just hurt my heart. Melba’s Ice Cream shop was gone. When we drove past it, I knew exactly where it was supposed to be. The building was still there but it was not Melba’s any more. Every time we saw someplace I knew, the memories came flooding back. I only hope that we have time for me to share with everyone some of the great things about my home.

When we pulled up in front of Common Ground we were all in awe of what we saw. Common Ground was being run out of Saint Mary of the Angels school. Common Ground was in the process of restoring this building with the hopes of returning it back to the church so that the school can be re-opened. We had dinner with Common Ground that night. We found out then that the main staple of food from Common Ground would be rice. We are all staying in one communal room at Common Ground. Joe the security person was in the room when we got there. He was not in the room when we got there but he showed up that evening. We had cots and a few people slept on the floor. We were on the third floor with no air and no elevator. After a few days I know I will be tired of those stairs. After we settled in we went for a short walk around the neighborhood and the stuff we saw was destruction at it’s finest. Not that destruction is ever good. We also saw the police trailer park. When Dr. Wallace was there in January the police were fighting all being put in one place as they felt that they would be on call 24/7 if people knew that they were all together. We found the Magnolia Market, a small mom and pop store on the corner just a few blocks from where we were staying. Ursula and Chandra got fried chicken and I got a big bottle of water. Even though they did not know the people there, they got the chicken and would not listen to anyone telling them not to get it.

We had our orientation training at 5:30 and decided to call ourselves Chain Reaction. Francisco did our training and he had been at Common Ground since Sept 11th last year. He shared several memorable events of Louisiana history with us. Like in 1927 they blew up the levees and flooded the lower ninth ward, and again in 1965 they blew them up and flooded the lower ninth ward and St. Bernard. It was said that these events happened because the river had swelled it banks.

For a group that started out with only 3 people, $50.00 and a cell phone Common Ground has become a commune for people that want to help and want to be able to say that they have made a difference. Every job is important from the smallest one to the largest one. We will have safety training in the morning and go out on assignment.

Hopefully I will be able to sleep in the heat on the 3rd floor and not have to run up and down the stairs too many times to go to the bathroom.

Oh wow,

I leave Tulsa at 9:04 am on Thursday morning to go back to New Orleans. I am somewhat fearful of what I will find and how I will handle all of the changes.

I have gotten my necessary shot to go there. God blessed me with it for free.

I have been in touch with friends and family and they can not wait to see me. I can not wait to see them either.

Seeing family may be the best part of the trip. My adopted nephew will be fixing dinner on Sunday for his girlfriend on her birthday. He will also use that time to propose to her.

I am so excited for Nolan and Kathy. I have alreay told David, my boyfriend, that as soon as a date is set, I am there.

As this trip draws closer, I find myself to be sharper with people, to the point of being rude. I am not like that by nature. My boss told me today that he could tell that things were just not right with me. So we talked a little bit about the trip and all that it will actually involve for me.

My greatest fear is that I am so emotionally paralized that I am no good to anyone while I am there.

I am going back to New Orleans. This will be my first time back in 3 years. I am going to help clean up. I have already told my instructor that I may be a crisis in need of intervention from the minute I get off the plane.

Some have told me to have my crisis and get it over with down there and still others have said that I just need to suck it up and deal with it. Wait and have my crisis when I get back home. I am of the first school of thought. I have been in touch with several of my friends that are still there. I am still looking at pictures and reading about all of the after effects of the hurricane.

The worst thing I have heard is that the Corp of Engeners is not going to rebuild the leave system in the lower 9th ward area of New Orleans. That means that all of the work that any helping agency will do in that area will be washed away after the first storm. I have also been told that anything Cat 2 or better will be mandatory evacuation.

I am sorry to say that it is too little to late and the loss of further life may happen this hurricane season that starts on June 1st.

Ever wonder just what would happen if we did not need sleep?

I feel like I would never know how life could really be if I did not get sleep. I appreciate my time more when I am rested then when I am not.

It is almost 6am here, I am up only because I have to be not because I want to be. I have to go to school and to work today and then to a silent dinner tonight. I am always amazed at how much I put on myself every day.

It feels like it just never stops. I have a night shirt that used to be a day shirt that said...Stop the world I want to get off...people were actually offended by my shirt as they thought it ment I wanted to kill myself. That was so not the case. My outlook on that is this, if the world stops then I am one second closer to being with God.

Now, however, I can see all of the great gifts God is giving to me. I have my health, my schooling, my job, my home and my friends. Each of those are a very precious gift from God. Even though I call all of that mine, they are all really smiles from God for me.

I know that the thoughts here today make no sence at all but today I just felt like venting and this place is all about my being able to do just that. Praise God for all of His mighty works no matter how small they may appear to me.

Ever wonder why. . .

Murphy has laws named after himself?

when there is a power failure the first thing you do is check the lights?

it only rains when you have to be outside?

nothing bad happens when everything is good?

everything bad happens when you are at the end of your rope?

stressed spelled backwards is desserts?

your computer monitor dies right before a big paper is due?

you run out of gas just across the street from the 24 hour gas station that just happened to close that one night?

nothing fits and you have a major interview that day?

nothing comes due until the week you can only work part time?

your teachers all want to test you at the same time?

there is never an empty computer at school when you really only want to play games?

there are not more hours in a day?

You have just read the last few weeks I have had. Almost every one of those things happened to me or to someone I know.

I spent some time at Camp Gruber today with the last of the Katrina refugees that are still there. I was working in the clerical section, answering the phones, running messages to the people. They fed us breakfast and lunch and we ate the same food the people staying had. The food was not bad. The people that were there for the most part were the ones that were expecting the government to hand them their living. One lady came into the building I was in and asked about the red cross putting them in a hotel. The red cross gave $360 per person to each family there. The woman was told that she would have to pay for her hotel with her own money and she started going off about how she was educated and went to one of the best colleges in New Orleans, and that no one told her that she would have to use that money for that. She went off on the fact that the red cross should pay for her hotel and that she should not have to use that money they give her for that. It was explained over and over and over again that the money was for her to use as she felt she needed to use it. She insisted that no one ever told them how to use that money and she did not feel that she should have to pay for her own hotel. The churches that are picking up the people and taking them to their community find that the people trash out the vans and buses that are used to bring them to their new homes. The churches are getting tired of it. The people just throw paper, cups, cans and bottles all over the grounds and the army is just not used to that.

To be continued.

Is it winter time where you are? It is not even fall here yet. I am sure it will happen when I least expect it.

I stay cold. Winter, summer, fall and spring. If someone is going to feel the cold first it is me. Of course it does not help that they keep each of the classrooms at school so cold you could hang meat from the celling. Some say that they do that to keep us awake. I am so cold in that case that I am miserable. I prefer to have a warm room to work in. It is so much easier that way. I know it is getting close to fall and then winter. My hands have started to get cold for no reason at all. My air is not on and my temp in my home is about 76. The air will not come on until it gets to be about 85 degrees in the house. My hands are the first thing to feel the change in the weather.

Is it good? Is it bad? Do we ever have enough? I find that the more I want to do the less time there is to do it.

Ever call yourself having plenty of time and then find yourself running late? I have done that on several occasions. I work hard to be on time. I do not like to be late for anything.

I find that time really drags when there is nothing to do. Praise God that I always have something I can do.

Sleep, that time where your body gets the rest it is supposed to need.

If we get to little then we feel really bad.

If we get too much we feel even worse.

All I can say is no matter what time I go to bed 4:00am comes way too early.

Druged sleep can be good if you have all day to sleep so that the drugs can wear off. However, drugs have to be taken before a certain time to do any good. If they are taken too early, then the phone wakes you up and then you are up all night. If you take them too late, then 4:00 am is so very hard when it gets here.

The solution of sleep deprevation? Perhaps going to bed earlier then midnight, taking better care of myself, working out more, who knows. One day I just might figure it out.

We talk about love, we talk about serving God, we talk about witness.

Talk is cheap.

How much love do we show?

How much service do we offer?

How much do we witness?

I love with as much of the love of God as I feel safe giving away, not being sure it will be returned. (I know, somewhat stupid as God's love is forever and will always be returned more then I have even given.)

Well does that service mean I have to get dirty? Does that service mean that I may actually get to know that person I am serving? Does that service mean that I am going to have to work? Heaven forbid I should have to do any of that. It is stupid to expect people to get dirty for others. Well praise God for the dirty wok. It is just as important, if not more improtant then the glamor jobs. There are 1,400 displaced people here in OK, and I am going to start serving them. I am worried that I will see someone I know and I will want to bring them home with me.

Do we witness in word, deed, in prayer, silently, or do we make a lot of noise. I chose to do all of the above.God has blessed me time and time again with the ability to do all of them. I am always amazed at the ways that God uses me.

Lord let me never never out live Your Love for me.

In His Name
Only Because He Lives
Gayle

Now stupid comes in all shapes and sizes. I have said stupid stuff and I have even done stupid stuff, but I do not know if I have seen anything as stupid as people waiting to be forced out of their homes when something that was 400 miles wide with winds of up to 175 mph were headed my way.