Day Five in PassC

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This day seemed like a heavily emotional day. I think the time hearing people's stories, lack of sleep, and trying to help have taken its toll on me.

1. Depression setting in.

I was invited to attend the DeLisle Elementary School, which currently educates all students K-12 from Pass and the county. While there, I talked with David, a middle school student, who was an office aide. He walked me around the campus, which consisted of the original elementary school, and probably 50 trailers, which now served as classrooms. I asked him how he was doing and what he could use at school. David said he wanted some life on campus, since all they had was a dead tree. The rest of the campus was devoid of life, as was most of the town, missing many of its beautiful green-leaved trees, grass, and flowers. He would like to see flowers and shrubs along with trees to have live things on the campus.
A staff member at the Salvation Army also lost her home, and Jeannie told me she was having a hard day trying to balance being a case worker and trying to re-aquire her life. And, some folks making jewelry with me said that the jewelry-making was very therapeutic. It got me to thinking about psychological services for people here.
In talking with Lou and Wilma earlier this week, they mentioned that when a school has a shooting, a team of psychologists descends on the school to assist. However, in this disaster, they have not heard about any psychologists being available. I did learn that a team of students from SMU is coming eventually to help. They can't come too soon.

2. Green is the color of the day.

Noel Houlihan is a volunteer with the AmeriCorps team. He is originally from Ireland, and invited me to attend his reading of

Leprechauns Never Lie

. He wore green and shared a story of hope and hard work featuring a leprechaun, which he read to first grade classes. He used some humor, and had a colleague Barb use pantomime to act out the scenes. The students truly seemed to enjoy the story and visit from a foreigner.
I also gave some seeds to the school administration for a parent who is interested in environmental issues, and probably will plant these sunflower and pumpkin seeds around campus. I plan to send more seeds to plant around town in various garden areas. I also left some stuffed and dressed bears from a class at Heather School in San Carlos.

3. Chilling with my friends.

This evening, I cooked dinner for my friends Lou and Wilma and Marie. We ate well, then baked some cookies to take to the AmeriCorps tent. We settled into some jewelry making, which was fun, and therapeutic. We talked about lots of issues besides the devastation, which was great. With lots of laughing and story-telling, we had a terrific time.

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Photos

Wildflowers
These were some of the first wildflowers I noticed.

Tree leafing out
The lack of leaves on the trees is being counteracted by the new growth on the oak trees. A little grass is starting to grow in seeded areas, but few flowers are back.

Noel reads to a 1st grade class
Noel Houlihan is an Irishman who read the book "Leprechauns never lie" at the DeLisle Elementary School.

Noel and the rainbow
Noel tells the kids that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.