Lache pas

There's some great Cajun music on the radio out in Acadian country (Acadienne, i.e., Cajun), which is southwest Louisiana. Lots of the music is in French, accompanied by rollicking accordion and banjo. There's a French saying here: "Lache pas", which translates roughly into "Don't give up", or "Don't let go", or "Don't lose touch". It's a phrase heard often in these days of diaspora and renewal.

Met a family in Mississippi the other night who live across the street from one of our camps. A mother and daughter, about 80 and 50 years old, both with smooth charcoal-colored skin and gray hair. They laughed when I told them my name - "Like the hurricane?" everyone always says down here. Camille's not easily forgotten. These women told me their home took in 30 feet of water during the flooding after Katrina, and the house next door simply floated to the other side of the street. The mother said to me, "I can see in the mirror that I've aged since the storm. I don't look so good no more."

They also told me that they used to live in a small town across Highway 10, until NASA came 30 years ago to build Stennis Space Center and bought out the mortgages of everyone in that town, and four nearby towns. "Hi, we're your friendly government. Here's some money, now leave." I asked the 80-year old how long her family had lived in that little town, and she said, "Five generations."

Went to the Tennesse Williams Festival in New Orleans last weekend. They had a "Stellaaaa!!!" Screaming Contest in Jackson Square, which was won by a man who improvised the line by screaming "FEMAAAA!!!" The crowd was won over, however, by a 6-year old boy in Marlon Brando jeans and wife-beater and greased hair who delivered the convincingly line on one knee, calling out to the Stella stand-in on the balcony above.

Meeting a lot of FEMA people (some of my former colleagues from last fall among them). They're getting very sweet deals: fat salaries, hotel suites, per diems, etc. Only problem is, everyone down here hates the people who wear FEMA shirts. On the other hand, they come up to me when I'm walking around and say, "Thank you for being here. Volunteers from your organization came to my house and fixed my roof. I don't know what we would have done without you." Yes, I did think about working for FEMA, but this is much more rewarding and impactful, and I can be proud of what I'm doing.

Had the chance to spend some time with the Indonesians who came to visit. They were totally shocked to hear me introduce myself to them in Indonesian, and their eyes lit up when I told them I had been in Indonesia for most of last year working on tsunami relief. Some of them work on tsunami relief projects themselves, and some are actually survivors of the tsunami. One woman lost her house, her mother, and her foot, but she now has a prosthetic foot and was working alongside the American volunteers rebuilding a blind man's house in Mississippi. The Indonesians were very interested in the business of running a rehabilitation organization like ours, and wanted me to give them a mini-lecture on "The Essentials of Project Management". Somehow I came up with something to say (People + Resources + Time = Meeting Goals, or something like that), and they seemed to be impressed with that.

Finally finally finally got to chill out in my favorite coffee shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans again - writing, people-watching, drinking tea, reading the New York Times.