Here We Go....

So here I find myself sitting in the Philadelphia airport, full of excitement, anticipation, and a slight anxiety (hoping that I make it out of the airport soon...), as I head back to New Orleans. I am going to spend the week working with a church that has partnered with my internship organization, Love Knows No Bounds, since Katrina struck the Gulf almost 5 years ago. Mostly, I think, I will be working with a summer day camp program coordinated by the church, and doing other outreach and "social work" sorts of things as the opportunity arises.

Since beginning my internship in May, or maybe even since beginning my MSW work this time last year, I have started to see the world in a drastically different way - not better, really or worse, just different. Thanks in part to some incredible teachers, books, and individuals, my eyes have been opened to a lot of the race and class issues that still overwhelm our country - in New York, New Orleans, and everywhere else. So, it is with this heightened sensitivity to these issues that I head back to New Orleans this week. I have spent time there before, but typically work trips involve little interaction with the local community and culture where you work. This week, however, will be quite different.

As I drove to class last week, knowing that I really needed to jump on the blogging bandwagon for the trip (both for reflection and sharing purposes), I figured that, if I am going to do it, it ought to at least have a decent, clever title. In addition to my love for New Orleans, I also love sailing, and had a few prime opportunities to do so during the past week. When we go sailing, if your sail gets too full, the waves get too big, or you just lose control, your boat might capsize - flip over onto it's side. Now, if you are quick and lucky, you can probably get around to the bottom of the boat, and flip it back up with out too much trouble. However, if you are slow and/or unlucky, the mast and sail will completely submerge in the water until the boat is entirely upside-town, or "turtled." It is both an invigorating an nervewracking experience to turtle a sailboat. There's a rush of life in the risk involved in being boatless for a few minutes, and it can rather disorienting. However, the disorientation isn't permanent; once you make sense of the circumstances, you can quickly and relatively easily re-orient yourself, get back in the boat, and be on your way.

I thought the title "Turtled in New Orleans" was appropriate because this week's experience is going to be one of "total immersion." I am going to live with the Pastor of the church and his wife, eat their food, love their people, laugh at their jokes, and share their tears. I am anticipating that it will be fun, frightening, eye-opening, disorienting, challenging, and much more, but that it will ultimately be an incredible growth experience. And, that in the end of it all, I will re-orient myself, with these experiences in mind, and come out of it all a little better equipped to do whatever it is that God has prepared for me to do.

So, I hope, first, that I can be maybe a bit more committed to this blog than I have been to others in the past. But also, that it will be a tool for me to share with you all of the things that challenge, inspire, disorient, change, and encourage me this week. I hope those who read it will be challenged, inspired, disoriented, changed, and encouarged by it, and that you will be prepared for authenticity that might be overwhelming. I hope that you will keep reading and keep praying for me through this experience.