"Katrita" effects

During our command team meeting this evening, one team member referred to the bulk of people we are seeing these days as being "Katrita" victims, an amalgam of victims from both storms in many cases fleeting both storms this past month. The stories of double-upheaval are striking in an already trying time.

Wednesday saw the beginning of our effort in two new communities: Kaplan and Mamou. The needs were as great as expected in the southern parish town of Kaplan and the team in Mamou could've spent another day seeing folks. However, our focus continues to be taking care of the special needs unit back 'home' and further establishing our presence at our flagship Parish Health Unit (PHU) clinic at the Public Health Unit here in Lafayette.

Our special needs unit saw many discharges throughout the day, giving us a bit more breathing room to reach out to our other sites with precious staff. We reserved shots until reinforcements arrived from Baton Rouge; gearing up for our mass-immunization clinic at the Cajun Dome (yee-haw!) this coming Saturday. Thank you to Hennepin County and MDH folks who offered a wealth of information to aid us in planning this effort!

Finally, we've had an integration of teams with teamwork that is clearly evident in our work and play. We come from the University, Mayo, Fransiscan Skemp in LaX, Eau Claire and Mankato, but we feel like 'Minnesota Lifeline' and are 'the folks from Minnesota' to the locals.

Health protection & promotion

We've seemed to hit the apex of admission needs over in the special needs unit. One person described it in healthcare linugo: "It is like a giant medical unit in a hospital," as medical needs have increased as has acuity these past two days. Yet, this night shift has seen no new admissions and the day shift was amazing at d/c-ing folks.

But we are not forgetting our colleagues working out and about in various parishes, getting primary care needs met and introducing health protection amongst the people. I can't cite exact numbers at this time, but client acute care visits have numbered in the 90s in the local public health for two days straight, up from 60-70/day by report from last week. (This is all in a 8-9 hour shift.) Vaccinations...an amazing story. It is now common practice to have the vaccine coolers of 200-300 shots come back empty from vans coming back from rural parishes. We estimate 600-700 individual shots given Tuesday at Lafayette Parish PubH Unit, most by one nurse as our staffing has felt the effects of less folks in round 2.

One particular community to think about, and pray for (if you pray for things), is the small town of Kaplan in Vermillion parish. The town was visited by Team 1 admin folks yesterday and they spoke of abject poverty and high-needs in the people holed-up in the VFW shelter there. Please pause to consider their lives.

A shift in focus

We've heard that Hurricane Rita was bad. We've heard it through the stories of the people we see in Lafayette, in Abbeville, in New Iberia, in Ville Platte. Yet, these stories didn't seem much different than the ones we heard from folks living in New Orleans affected by Katrina.

Rita became more real as we witness the dramatic increase of patients coming into our Special Needs Shelter. You saw the photo of the FEMA helecopter drop two days ago. Now we've seen an amazing run of patients in the past 24 hours that has made us pull resources to staff a near-literal hospital unit, full of respiratory cases, med cases, psych cases, etc as the hospitals in town are busy and full themselves.

We've shifted our focus to help in this extreme time of need. Nurses getting back to basics, being true generalists, physicians, NPs, the entire team pulling together in a way that would write the book on 'teamwork' for the School of Business.

Note to family: Yes...it took me only two days to pull off a 24-hour day. No...I promise I won't repeat it!

The torch is passed!

As we near midnight of the first day for team 2, the torch is passed. The team 1 Mayo buses left this afternoon to head north and the U folks have one more morning trip planned to head south for the striken towns of Abbeville and New Iberia.



This officially signs-off Dr. Eric Meininger (left, above) as the "keeper of the blog" and charges Scott Harpin as the current torch-bearer. I hope I can keep it nearly as well.

Hats off to you, Team 1! Safe travels home.

Happy Hour

Kevin Smith and Cristina Baker discussing the patients of the day (yeah, right!)

After a record breaking day of just shy of 100 patients at the Lafayette Clinic, we stopped off for happy hour at the Filling Station, a local watering hole while waiting for the rest of the team.

A Busy Afternoon

The Mobile Pharmacy

We made it back to home sweet Heymann Center and were deployed almost immediately, this time to a shelter in the New Iberia Senior High School. Driving down, it was apparent the amount of damage from wind and rain the area had sustained. I'm glad we evacuated.

We had a busy afternoon. One patientt I saw had been staying with his sister in Abbeville, hitchiked down to New Orleans just before the hurricane, came back to Abbeville when his home was flooded - now her home is under water.

A mix of patients was about half evacuees from New Orleans, and about half that were either from Texas or the flooded local areas. A number of folks were from Port Arthur where hurricane Rita made landfall.

It's our last night in Louisiana - the next team should be on the bus heading down here by now.... Hopefully we will be able to have a good time debriefing tonight once we gather our bags.

Returning to Lafayette

FEMA now has a presense in Lafayette

We broke camp early this morning in Mississippi, and arrived back in Lafayette early in the afternoon.

Along the way we dodged a few tornadoes (just kidding!) - but we did pull aside because their was a tornado supposedly following the same road we were driving on. We pulled off at a church which looked like a good shelter, but it turned out to be open only the third Sunday of the month. We stayed there about a half hour until the threat of tornados was past. As we were leaving, the sheriff pulled up because several townspeople had called to report suspicious activity.

On the way out of town, we stopped to get gas (they were out) - When he asked where we might find gas, one of our docs who is of Panamanian descent had his license run we suspect because he isn't Caucasian.

How to be fluid

Dr. Wilkenson shows us his prize for fluidity, "the wacky water wienie" - rumour has it that the Mayo wouldn't sanction it for the official Mayo Clinic blog.

By the way, if you haven't seen the Mayo blog, written by Carolyn Petersen, the link is on the right along with the ARC website.

Category Five

Theresa Wytaske and David Hilden after the fraternizing rules got lifted. The forward team left, and our licensed sexologist, Simon Rosser was added as a team leader. We decided that we had reached category 5 status, and threw a hurricane party.

No, they weren't delivering a baby.... The wine was a little stubborn :)

Plans are that we will relocate tomorrow at 7 am if the forward team feels that things are safe. Apparently the National Guard has taken over digs at the Heymann center, so rumours are that we may be sleeping at the Cajun dome.

Evacuated Again

As hurricane Rita wanders North, she spun off several tornadoes. One was sighted 4 miles west of the camp we are staying in. We evacuated, once again - this time to the designated shelter using Simon's public health evacuation plan we had set up only the night before. Fortunately, the tornado was heading west of us.

Camp

Here is a picture of the cabins we are staying in to ride out the storm. Not quite the luxury accomodations we were led to believe. The air-conditioners are big swamp cooler units on the roof, and the showers are less than desirable.

Hopefully we'll be able to relocate back to Louisiana soon. I'm looking forward to the new team coming in - two weeks has been brief and an eternity at the same time.

High Water Mark

I picked up a copy of 'Good Poems for Hard Times' selected by Garrison Keillor. I flipped it open almost eerily to this poem by David Shumate:


High Water Mark

It's hard to believe, but at one point water rose to this level. No one had seen anything like it. People on rooftops. Cows and coffins floating through the streets. Prisoners carrying invalids from their rooms. The barkeeper consoling the preacher. A coon hound who showed up a month later forty miles downstream. And all that mud it left behind. You never forget times like those. They become a part of who you are. You describe them to your grandchildren. But they think it's just another tale in which animals talk and people live forever. I know it's not the kind of thing that you ought to say . . . But I wouldn't mind seeing another good flood before I die. It's been dry for decades. Next time I think I'll just let go and drift downstream and see where I end up.

(reprinted without permission)

Waiting for the Rain

One of the drive-thru liquor stores we drove past in eastern Louisiana yesterday

We stopped at Barnes & Noble after driving around Jackson, Mississippi this afternoon. If I'm going to spend a day inside during the storm, and possibly 20 hours on the bus, I needed a few books. I didn't plan on having large segments of down time, and while I've been able to amuse myself by answering e-mails for short periods of time, there is no cellular internet ouside of the big cities here, and only 8 laptop that Mayo brought. I picked up the new Harry Potter and the DaVinci code - I should be able to keep myself entertained for a while...

Henry S. Jacob Camp

We're here -- we've arrived in Utica, Mississippi. A group went into town -- and turned back around. It's going to be a slow few days. I'm hoping I can scare up a good book somewhere before the rain starts.

I have several posts that haven't made it up on the blog yet -- sorry. As soon as I have cellular internet connectivity I'll beam them up.

We're looking forward to the arrival of the next team. It's not clear yet whether we'll move back to Lafayette, or stay here and fly back home from here.


I talked to Scott Harpin from the wave 2 team this evening - I'm hoping that he'll be able to continue the blog through the next 2 weeks so that those of us from the first group can continue to follow vicariously, and the folks from the third group will have some idea what they're walking into.

Everyone evacuated safely

Everyone evacuated safely. We are enroute to Utica, Mississippi. We are all safe, well in advance of the Hurricane. I won't be able to post pics for a while until I have access to wireless internet again.

Goodbye to the Heymann Center

Because of the evacuation and the impending hurricane, this will likely be the last time we see the Heymann center in Lafayette, although I anticipate that wave 2 of deployed providers will likely stay here until other accomodations are arranged, or the theater needs the space to put on a production.

Interestingly enough, it's still sunny and warm outside, with no sign of rain. It all looks normal until you realize that the clouds are moving from East to West - opposite of the way they usually go. The meteorologists are predicting a significant storm surge (in addition to all of the rain). They say the ocean could come inward up to 50 miles - we were much closer to the coast than that, so it's good, I suppose, that we're relocating for a while.

Pit Stop

One of the gas stations we stopped at while evacuating also sold bait.

I've been to Louisiana a number of times - between interviewing for my residency, and a number of conferences, but as I reflect on our experiences - the people we've met and the countryside we are seeing - I realize how little of it I know.

Hi to Beth's mom

As I said, there was a lot to be done packing up, yet we were mostly milling around waiting to leave.

The long road home

Simon Rosser catches 20 winks enroute to Utica.

As we drive to Utica there is a significant amount of traffic heading in the same direction, making the going slow. Normally it would be a 3-4 hour trip, but I suspect it will be evening before we get there.

For those who are wondering, here are some stats on what we had accomplished through Tuesday, September 20th (courtesy of the 'News from Camp Cot' newsletter):

¤ A total of 3,433 immunizations were given
¤ At 4:30 Wednesday morning a team immunized workers at the Cajun Dome who were on their way to New Orleans to assist with clean-up

For those who are following on a map, we're just about to cross into Mississippi - almost 2/3rds of the way to our evacuation site. Now we're evacuees too...

Demonstrating the correct use of the satellite phone

Here is Jon Hallberg demonstrating the more effective way of using the satellite phone. Unfortunately, the sat-phones have not been particularly reliable.

Making sure the communication equipment is working

Here is Tim Schacker making sure the satellite phone is working.

Striking Camp

Here is the men's side of the stage about half packed up.

As has been the history, upon return it was hurry up and wait. There really was a lot of work to be done, but it wasn't well organized. It felt more like we were milling around. Eventually we had all of the bags packed, loaded in trucks, and we are off. Everyone is now on the road as we head to the Henry S. Jacob camp in Utica, Mississippi.

Evacuation!

With Hurricane Rita reaching category five status then suddenly veering North, many of the Parishes of Louisiana south of interstate 10 declared either voluntary or mandatory evacuations.

New Iberia and Vermillion parishes had been under voluntary evacuation since early morning, so we called off the clinics that day at the Iberia Inn, the New Iberia public health department, and Sacred Heart. As a result, the entire UofM team (along with some of our Mayo colleagues) went to staff the Lafayette Public Health primary care clinic.

We called in at noon as requested from a busy clinic and were told that the decision had been made that we would evacuate immediately. I must say, I've never seen a clinic emptied that quickly. I practically turned around with my last patient, and suddenly the entire building was empty.

National Guard

We've been kept safe by the Louisiana National Guard. Here is Corey Suire, a guardsman from New Iberia, Louisiana.

A Threat of Rain

A busy afternoon today at Sacred Heart Church. Lunch today was a wonderful jambalaya served to us at the Boys & Girls club shelter. Feeling stuffed (most of us passed on the hoagies we had brought with us), we arrived at the Sacred Heart church where Lisa, one of the volunteers had made pralines for us.

This fueled us for a busy afternoon. I think we're starting to see more people who are reaching a low point in their mental health. We continue to provide immunizations and medication refills, but more primary care, and a growing amount of mental health.

The growing hurricane Rita is weighing heavy on all of us, Minnesotans and Louisianans alike. We have an evacuation plan, and they are starting to move people in shelters, but our risk is low. It's quite traumatic for the evacuees in the shelter, though. Having to evacuate again triggers PTSD symptoms in some, and reminds others that return to New Orleans is once again uncertain.

Tomorrow will be a busy day again, so I'm off to my cot on stage to sleep.

VZWPIX.COM

Waiting for the Rush

We set up the morning in the Boys & Girls clubs of Abbeville - a small shelter in Vermillion parish, but one of the sites that is central to where many evacuees are staying.

It did end up being steady flow of patients - entire families at times - who came in for immunizations, medication refills, and acute medical care.

We've gotten really good at moving in to a site, setting up shop, and directing the flow of patients. For those who will follow behind us, I recommend taking a few minutes at the beginning of the day to plan out patient flow. Additionally, the first day it's worth emptying out the tubs of supplies and medications so that everyone knows what is available.

Since I'm putting in advice for those who will follow - the other thing I've learned is that it's okay to slow down. You don't have this luxury in clinic at home, but few places that we've been have required speed - if we're overwhelmed there's usually another team that can come in to help. Listening is therapeutic and can't be rushed.

VZWPIX.COM

Success in the Hunt

Here is one of the dozen or so Nutra Rats we found, courtesy of Dr. Benson.

If you could see a little closer, you'd see the orange teeth.

Hunting the Nutra Rat

A good third of the Minnesota Lifeline crew took a brief trek behind the Heymann Center where we are staying in Lafayette to find the not-so-elusive Nutra Rat.

We had a successful afternoon at the Sacred Heart clinic site. This continues to be one of our most successful ventures. The parishioners and volunteers (especially Robert, Christine, John, and Lisa) are amazing. It wouldn't be as successful without them -- and Robert is ubiquitous. He showed up at the city park shelter today and seems to just appear at times.

Stamping Out Disease

Cristina Baker working with evacuees at the Iberia Inn

We started out today at the Iberia Inn - the hotel we visited yesterday. It started out slow, so after hearing from the Red Cross that one of the nearby shelters had just lost their nurse (it turned out it was the city park shelter we've been visiting regularly) I hopped into one of the Mao minivans with Tim and Terry and we went to check it out.

Afterwards, I paid a visit to the public health clinic in New Iberia. They usually don't offer any primary care services, so I think this will be quite the change for them.

When I returned to the hotel, it was hopping. We ended up seeing more than 60 patients. They were crawling out of the woodwork.

Debriefing at the end of the day is equally important

Brad Benson and Nancy Grimsrud at one of our daily debriefings

I went with a small contingent to help out this afternoon at the Lafayette public health clinic. As things begin to return to normal more of our work will shift from the shelters to supporting the current health infrastructure. The Lafayette parish public health clinic opened today - I will be visiting the New Iberia parish public health clinic tomorrow to see what their capacity is, and how we can best support their efforts as the health needs of the evacuees shifts there.

To the folks who have sent in comments - thanks. I'm glad to hear that our current CDC intake form has been reduced from what was probably a many page longer tome. And for those who have been asking 'why haven't there been any pictures of xxx' - I'm trying to send in a variety of pictures showing what we're up to, and give some heads up to those who will follow behind us. I welome your feedback - click on the 'comments' button below.

Well it's late... Until tomorrow...

It's important to start the day off right

Coffee at Mel's

Public Health at it's Best

Linda Carlson readies the totes for deployment.

The drive to return home is strong - yet many aren't sure what homes they'll be able to return to.

One of our big goals, beyond refilling medications and assessing acute medical and mental health needs is to prevent outbreaks of infection. To date, we have given out many many doses of hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and tetanus. There have been rumors of a few undocumented cases of possible hepatitis A in one of the parishes which has made the project all the more urgent.

Most of the patients we see come from New Orleans proper and the surrounding parishes. An injury can result in tetanus if your vaccinations aren't up to date. Contaminated water - such as when all of the sewers flooded can hasten the spread of hepatitis A. As it is, we're seeing some series of diarrheal illness - probably Norwalk virus - spread by poor sanitation and many people crowded together, such as in the Cajun dome.

Always in Transit

Here's Bonnie Sweeney during our trip across the region by ambulance.

The region that we cover is so broad that oftentimes it takes us half an hour or more to get from or home base at the Heymann center to one of our sites.

We networked and distributed flyers after the shelter clinic this morning for an immunization clinic we'll run out of a motel ballroom tomorrow at Iberia Inn.

The owner told us that when the evacuation started, he cut his rates in half, and filled all of his rooms, the hallways, the ballrooms, and even the office with people. After the hurricane, he and his staff chipped in to feed all of the people staying there. It was several days before any relief agencies were able to provide any food. FEMA paid for each of the evacuees to stay for two weeks, but he's worried about what will happen once that's up.

A lot of the folks staying in hotels, motels, and campgrounds evacuated from some of the parts of New Orleans that are still under water. There is an imcredible drive to return home...

Relationshipbuilding Pans Out

A day of identifying needs and building relationships pans out. As we learn in public health - a good needs assessment is a good first step.

We started out the day at the City Park shelter in New Iberia parish. We saw a number of patients here, but it turns out that all of the school age children were in school (which we expected) and most of the parents were at a job fair (which we didn't expect).

Overall, I think we did good work - we spent some time with the children - even though we couldn't immunize them because their parents were away at the fair. The children were very needy - I think some were worried because first they lost their home, now their parents had disappeared. Children are so concrete, that I'm sure some of them worried that their mom or dad might not return.

Nutra Rats

Simon Rosser found out he wasn't too fond of these orange toothed creatures...

Sunday part II

No... This isn't from today. Spirits are much brighter after a little time off yesterday, and the news that we'll be pretty busy for the next few days.

Part of the team spent the day driving around and meeting with local officials to identify where evacuees are located. Others of us contacted colleagues from the area to identify where our resources are most needed. (Of course some went down to feed the nutra rats in the swamp - see the next picture). The result is that we have a number of potential sites to provide services.

A Day of Rest

Spirits were somewhat low this morning as some of the frustration came through that we aren't being well utilized. Most of the University team had the day off - the team leaders drove off to meet with local leaders to identify areas of need, and the mental health folks and one of our internists were deployed to one of the shelter sites.

The rest of us had some time to visit the Cajun Zydeco music festival (eating things on a stick is apparently not just a Minnesota phenomena). Everyone who wasn' deployed this afternoon took a road trip down to Cypremort Point state park - right on one of the gulf bays.

A full day

Today was a busy day - with the exception of some fun over lunch, and the daily evening debriefing over good Southern food and spirits, our team was fairly occupied.

We started out the day at a Red Cross shelter in New Iberia. A second shelter had been consolidated into this one just the night before so there were now 300 evacuees staying there. It was a busy morning of assessing patients, refilling medications, and giving immunizations for tetanus, hepatitis B and A.
We did learn the challenge of addressing chronic pain in this setting, and have decided that we won't fill sedative hypnotics or narcotics anymore. The community around is fairly intact - just stretched - so we will refer people out to longer term providers.

This afternoon we were back at the Sacred Heart church clinic. Pictured above is the substantial pharmacy that has been donated. The parishioners here have done a wonderful job getting the word out to the community, and we gave a lot of immunizations. I only hope the supply lasts....

Looking for the kitten

Don't ask.

Paperwork & Laundry

Sitting here waiting for some laundry to finish in the washing machine, while others finish up paperwork from this afternoon (some of my Mayo colleagues from one of the other teams - they went to a shelter, and then to a large motel to see patients this afternoon.

Somehow I was hoping to escape some of the paperwork, but alas - the CDC intake form is 5 pages long. I'm pretty good about completing the risk factor survey, less good with the rest -- but one thing that working in a community health center has taught me is to finish the paperwork before I leave. It's no fun having to stay up late into the night working on it.

We had a vote at the briefing after we returned. The consensus was that we came to work - we will work a full day on Sunday rather than a half.

It feels like we've been here a week already, rather than the 2 days that it's been (it is Friday, right?). 11 days to go! By then I hope that we have some of the kinks worked out.

A busy afternoon

Our needle shortage this morning was solved thanks to the generosity of the pharmacist at Robicheaux's Pharmacy who gave us all he had.

We were called this afternoon to assess a clinical site at Sacred Heart Church in New Iberia put together by a group from Kentucky. A med/peds doc, Dr. Jeff from Arkansas, who had family in the area has been staffing it for the last few days since the Kentucky group left. We also had a volunteer pharmacist from the community, Christine, who was organized the meds and acted as an interpreter. Several from the Minnesota crew joined in and we were gratefully received by patients and volunteers alike.

Minnesota Lifeline crew who staffed the clinc this afternoon:
Pictured are Theresa McPartlin, St. Kates; Brad Benson, Primary Care Clinic; Nancy Grimsrud, School of Nursing; Eric Meininger, Community-University Health Care Center; Mary Benbenek, School of Nursing. Not pictured is Simon Rosser, Schools of Medicine and Public Health.

Changing Directions

New Iberia, Louisiana

A lot of what we're doing is building relatoinships that we can follow up with. We stopped here at the shelter and saw one patient with a bite - picked up on untreated hypertension, and felt like we had accomplished something. We're also connecting a lot of people with resources - whether it's cell phone psychiatric referrals, followup, or phoning in additional sites that should be followed up on.
The nurse from the American Red Cross told us that this shelter would be getting 150 more people later today when another shelter closes, and promises us we'll be busy when we return tomorrow.

Pictured above is team leader, Dr. Tim Schacker receiving our next assignment.

For those who are wondering, I send the text and pictures from my Treo 650 by instant message and it's posted to the blog automatically. I work on the posts during downtime between sites.

A quick trip to the

A quick trip to the local pharmacy and we have the needles we needed to give the vaccine to the person needing one. Now it's on to the next site

Resources

Distribution of resources continues to be a challenge in the relief effort - whether it's bus drivers, water, immunizations or health care provi

Team Tetanus

How many health care providers does it take to give a Tetanus shot? None if you don't have any needles for the vaccine.

Catching up on the news

We left Minnesota, yet it's hard to leave the technology...

Debriefing

Here we are "debriefing" at the Blue Dog Cafe. Pictured is Terry, friend of the churchladies on the other UM team who went to the dialysis center. As you can see, he's endeared himself to the rest of the team.

Hello to all the Minnesota friends and family who are following along and supporting us from home.

First church shelter

We spent the afternoon in Abbeville seeing some of the residents of the St. Mary shelter. We assessed both adults and children, and gave some immunizations. The pediatric immunizations haven't arrived in yet, so we'll have to come back. We didn't see a large number, which gave us the opportunity to learn what kind of supplies we had and where the limitations were. It was also good to have the luxury of time to cut our teeth on the paperwork. I think that we'll have to figure out what is important and what isn't. I think that what was most important was that we actually came.

The pastor of the church has arranged 6 week job placements for each of the people staying there. Jobs will be important - many of the people have lost everything. I asked one woman where she lived, and she said, "you mean where I used to live? I don't think it's there anymore."

If anyone wants to send a donation, it can be sent to:

Pastor Willaims
St. Mary Congregational Baptist Church
213 S. Louisiana St
Abbeville, LA 70510

St Mary Cogregational Baptist Church shelter

The FEMA official met us outside the church and spoke very highly of the parish and the town of Abbeville. Apparently they had a disaster plan in place and strong leadership. Everything had been going according to plan.

The church building in the picture was built in 1905, and the congregation had taken in a number of evacuees both before and after the hurricane.

Hurry up and wait

Here is the Minnesota crew in our hurry up and wait mode. I have a feeling we'll be doing a lot of that over the next few weeks. Here, we had received a notice that we should be ready right away for a deployment, then found that it would be another hour before we actually left, and no-one knew any of the details.
It turned out that we were being deployed to two shelters - one a special needs dialysis shelter, and the other a church shelter with children who hadn't been asessed by health care providers yet.

Contaminated Water

This was a sign posted at the Jimmy Swaggert Center outside of Baton Rouge. We spent the morning here in the relocated digs of the Public Health Department. Apparently the original is flooded.

Credentialing was pretty straightforward - the looked at my DEA, my license and my ID, made a couple of copies, and I was done... Gosh, if only credentialing was so straightforward in Minnesota :)

Tent Village in Baton Rouge Louisiana

This is the tent village we are spending our first evening in. Tomorrow we will move on to Lafayette after getting emergency credentialing.

We have been told that we will be aiding in a mass immunization project at the Cajun Dome in Lafayette where several thousand people are housed.

Day 1

After much anticipation, here we are in Baton Rouge. Each person we meet seems to have a bit more of the puzzle - Charlie Moldow met us at the airport (he was flying out as we were coming in) and gave some details on where we would be staying and what we would be doing. He also warned us about the military level of the command structure. The woman from ARC (American Refugee Committee) told us about our ride from the airport and where we would be staying tonight. Slowly, it's beginning to have more flesh, but it still seems pretty surreal.


There is a group of us from the U and a group from the Mayo. It's odd that the groups seem to separate so much. Simon Rosser did a nice job of introducing and meeting people at the airport while we waited. When we got here, the U had sent two passenger vans, and the Mayo had rented a bus. Besides the bus being a bit more comfortable than 20 of us cramming into the vans, I also saw it as a way ro connect with some of the Mayo folks. Apparently there is this longstanding rivalry between the two. I guess I'm just enough on the outside that I don't really get it.

It was useful to talk with some of the Mayo folks because their briefing was different from ours. We learned things they hadn't and vice-versa. It was useful to compare notes.

It was useful to talk with some of the Mayo folks because their briefing was different from ours. We learned things they hadn't and vice-versa. It was useful to compare notes.

When we arrived at the tent village here in Baton Rouge it was quite the setup. Imagine the AIDS Ride with nicer air conditioned tent apartments. As with the ride, the food was good, and plentiful. I'll have to watch or I won't fit into my new shirts I ordered when I get home.

The setting is pretty surreal, though. There is a uniformed guard with a rifle, and police helicopters that fly over every so often. We saw a little bit of hurricane damage when we rode in, but I bet that when I look back from the end, today will seem pretty tame.

Note to my trainer - they just came by and told us we couldn't go jogging in the morning -- they're worried about our safety. It will be a challenge to keep up the exercise regime over the next two weeks.

I miss Peter already. I feel kinda bad leaving during the two weeks that his parents are here, but it almost makes it easier. I get the sense that they know anyhow, but two weeks is a long time - especially when we don't speak the same language. I'm glad I did get to meet them - now I don't think the eventual trip to Korea will be so bad... We'll see. Maybe the opportunity to tell them will come up and he'll take it.

Well, I have cell phone internet, and I'm not too tired yet, so I'm going to knock out a few more emails. I'm dreading the inbox when I return if I don't whittle it down a bit along the way.