We're Here!

Even though this will not be posted until later tonight, I am currently flying from Detroit to Atlanta on leg #2 of this trip to New Orleans. It is crazy to me to think that my first trip was just this time last year. Due to the time of year, I have been thinking a lot lately about the difference a year can make in a person’s life, at how much work God can do with a year, and all that can change in a year. I will start by saying how grateful I am that He has orchestrated all of my New Orleans experiences into my life. I have seen and learned things I am not sure I could have learned otherwise. I have grown immensely in my faith, my character, and as a social worker. It is a city that lives in a paradoxical state of being incredibly heartbreaking and yet magical at the same time and each person I have met there has challenged me and helped me to grow in countless ways. For this trip, I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I know God is good and am trusting in Him to use this week to do some good work in me and in others.

This round is a little different than the previous two have been. Instead of traveling on my own, this time I am traveling with a group of students and two instructors from my MSW program at Binghamton. The MSW program has coordinated a student-lead trip for 4 years now to do disaster mental health work in the 7th ward, also working with Pastor Bruce and his many community programs. During this trip we will be staying in a hostel in the downtown area. This will be a new experience for me, but I am excited I have been promised that I don’t have to shower in the trailer of an 18 wheeler (wooo post-Katrina work in Mississippi), so it will be just fine. Another difference between my past two trips and this one is that we do not go with a specific plan in mind for what we will be doing when we get there. In the past, I knew the program that I would be spending most of my time with and then filled in the gaps during the week. This week, however, because things in New Orleans are so hectic, and because it allows us to be open to whatever opportunities arise, we will not have an agenda. In some ways I still have to work at embracing this, but in others, I am grateful for it.

That being said, I do have some hopes and goals for this week. I am hoping we get to do some some home visits, because they are always a favorite for me, just getting to visit people who aren’t able to get out much. I also enjoyed and was positively challenged by my outreach experiences with the HIV/AIDS program in October and would like to do that again. It has potential to be fun, awkward, educational, and empowering – both for myself and the community – so that is a hope. Also, having been a few times before myself and having been forced to work through some tough stuff related to race, class, politics, HIV/AIDS and more, I am hoping to be able to provide some support to those in our group who are new to this experience. It can be difficult to work through it alone, and I was really blessed during my experiences to have others to talk through things with, to get to process and share through the blog, and to have had some really key learning opportunities beforehand that set me up for understanding, so I hope I can work with others through all of that. That being said, I hope to also be challenged myself this week. I never really know what it is I expect to experience or learn or be changed by, but my previous experiences in New Orleans, both with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and with Pastor Bruce and Saint John’s, I have grown in my faith and in my understanding of the social work concepts I am learning in school. I hope for both of these things again, recognizing and embracing the fact that it could happen in a variety of ways.

Word is that the hostel has wireless, so I am hoping to be able to post pretty regularly again. I like to have this as a tool to process all of it for myself, but also to share stories of people who have largely been neglected, judged, and forgotten. I hope, as always, that you will take some time to read it each day, be challenged by what comes up, share it with others, and that you would take some time to pray for myself, my group and those you read about. Let the turtle-ing begin 