Long time no hear!

Greetings y'all:

Sorry I haven't been a faithful blogger. It's been such a pretty busy week, and ever so full! The experience is nothing at all like I thought it would be, but then I am not sure any longer what I expected. The community's needs are wider than the Grand Canyon and deeper than the Pacific Ocean. The notion is almost overwhelming -- where do you begin? Is it possible to do anything effective, to make any difference, in the midst of such incredible need? And what do various members of the community think the most pressing need is? After a roof over your head (and what constitutes a roof!) where do you turn next? The nursing and SP2 students have been amazing teams, and have uncovered a deep stack of needs. Now what do you do? This is a community that does not appear on the state "radar screen" -- most of the providers that I have met with shudder when I say "Pearlington" and follow that with -- "My god, we have no idea what is going on there but we know the needs are vast." So what can one offer? Is it what the residents need most? If not, are we just one more group who comes through and disappoints? Resilience has been redefined for me -- in the past I have ascribed a positive hue to the word. I now see it as a stress reaction, though not necessarily a healthy one. People layered in PTSD can be resilient, but weakened from the stress. Many have reported pulling themselves up and just putting the shoulder to the wheel. It helsp getting them focused on getting their lives back together -- but what do they truly have when they are done? The life they had? A life they feel is full or satisfying? My sister-in-law lives not far from here, and lost her home in Katrina. She and her two daughters just got out of their FEMA trailer (a tiny little box of a dwelling) after being in it for two years. She just received her MEMA cottage, which feels palatial after the trailer. After 18 months she can buy it, which she will need to do because she was financially wiped out from the storm and does not have the money to do anything else. If you met her you would say "my god, she is resilient" and what she described last night in graphic terms was the deep depression that has just hot her. We are beginning to fully appreciate the term "community" and "intervention" in a whole new light. Check out the pictures that others are posting -- quite eye-opening in every sense of the word.

We are rustling up the troops to erect the tent we will have for the Health Fair we are hosting on Saturday (it's a huge tent!) so I gotta run. I'll be back tomorrow with reflections from MS!

Julie