brendaic

So Thursday night I was in the hospital because what started off a little bit like this:




Turned into:





over the course of three-four days (can't remember), and then it looked like this when I decided to go to the E.R.:




by this time the pain was unbearable and my whole arm was swollen (you can't tell by the pics) and was hurting from the elbow to my fingertips, my hand felt cold and tingly. Off to the E.R. I went.

first of all the doc said that they were gonna have to open it up and drain all the pus and stuff out of it and of course I got reeeally scared because the thing hurt enough as it is, and they were gonna be poking it?! he said he'd numb it so I was like cool. But by numbing it I didn't know it meant he had to stick it with a needles still...UGH! so he did that and it hurt like HELL. Here's how it looked right after that:

mmmmmmmmm!


supposedly it was gonna numb after 10 minutes so we had to wait. and no I never felt it numb so I was feeling pretty scared for the whole procedure. when the doc came back I was already crying and I told him it was still very painful and it didn't feel numb at all. I could SWEAR that the doctor said "fantastic!" after that, WTF?! it really sounded like he said that and it PISSED me off, but what could I do. So he takes out this knife/scapel type thing and pretty much stabs my wound with it... OMG it was horrible horrible pain. there was an aide there with him holding a container under my arm because immediately after he poked it, all this blood came gushing out. I was kinda pysched to see the pus and stuff but at that moment I wussed out and just closed my eyes the whole time and was pretty much screaming in agony. I really don't know WHAT the doc was doing cause I wasn't watching but I imagine he was squeezing all the stuff out. then he stuffed some freaking gauzing strip IN the hole he made in my arm.. omfg more pain. so then it looked like this:




ewww I know, and it looked even worse in person. so then someone else came in and cleaned it (more pain) and bandaged it up. I have to follow up on Monday for wound care at the hospital for them to change/remove the gauzing. they gave me prescriptions for vicodin and anti-biotics. As far as WHAT it was, they couldn't even tell me! they did not know. they just said it could have been alot of things (bites) but that it got pretty infected and was spreading. Kinda sucks not knowing what it was but oh well. They do suspect it was a nasty spider that got me!

Here I am after getting home from the hospital, all bandaged up nicely


and this is what happens when you keep lifting up the bandaging to check out your knarley wound, and the gauzing falling out because of it:




that is a HOLE in my arm, not a scab!

Red Cross is sending me to St. Agnes again. Saturday was the first day we opened up there and I worked 14 hours that day..it was total and utter chaos.. since then we have seen lines this long everyday



these are not refugees that have been staying at the Reliant Complex, but refugees from all over that have been staying elsewhere.

i'm sure it'll still be mad chaos.. people sleep outside in line to be able to get their checks. so I have to be there at 5 in the morning which means I have to get up at 4 a.m. :hang


i work in this computer area


goodnight.

Hey all.. I have been working for the Red Cross at the Reliant Center for the past few days. Right now, we are in the process of distributing debit cards and checks to the Katrina evacuees. This is NOT the same as the $2,000.00 FEMA cards. The Red Cross cards work like this: $360 for family of one, $665 for famly of two, $965 for family of three, $1,265 for family of four and $1,565 for family of 5 and up.

Now here is the thing - the MOST we give is $1,565.00. This is how it works: evacuees meet with a caseworker and gives them all their information (head of household, pre-disaster address, names/ages/gender of all members of the family, etc.) The case worker fills out the form, and then gives all the forms to the Data Entry people (me). We data entry people enter all the info into the system, once we put the amount of people in the family, it automatically puts the amount according to the number of people. once we assign the money amount, we click "load" which then activates the card.

UNFORTUNATELY, not ONLY are the evacuees trying to cheat the system by giving false information and/or using their family members more than once to get more money, but today I found out that people working WITH us are theives as well.

Today us data entry people got seperated into groups. One group was still doing data entry for cards (well, they're checks now actually) that still have not been entered into the system. The other group was put to do trouble-shooting and investigation. I chose to do the investigating because it really pisses me off that people are actually trying to commit fraud right under our noses and take money from the Red Cross that does not belong to them. Since day one I have taken my job really serious and I have made sure everyone got the amount of money they were SUPPOSED to receive.

I found sooo much crookedness today, it's unbelieveable. I caught a couple of evacuees using their names or their kids names more than once. or they will change little things like their age. Or they'll be the "head of household" in one family, and be just a member in another. in other words, everytime we input a family into the system, the computer assigns a "case number" to them. each case gets their money whether it be in card or check form. I would find different case numbers for one person. In other words, some people got more than one check/card. I mean WTF?

THEN, the real killer.. I was investigating one family of four that had received $7,525.00!!! The ONLY way they can get money in their cards is from a DATA ENTRY person. I looked into this more and found out that someone originally put the correct amount of $1,265.00 on 9/8/05.. then another someone WITHIN us kept going back to that one case, on different days, and re-loaded it with more money ($1,565.00 four times). Then, the evacuee, coincidentley, cashed out the money right afterwards. When we checked her card, she had used everything but $130.00 so my supervisor immediately de-activated it.

I found another one for $4,695.. again, someone from data entry went back on different days and loaded more money into the card. When we checked the balance that person had $370 left, again we de-activated it right away. I found another one for $4,695, one for $5,060 and one for $9,390. Obviously we have some crooked people working amongst us that is stealing from the Red Cross.

not only that, the laptops we work on? five were stolen.

it just makes me so angry and sad at the same time that this crap is going on. at a time like this, when people like the ones in red cross that are helping them in so many ways AND then giving them money - and people are trying to steal from them and take advantage of them. REALLY pisses me off. too bad most of these people have already gotten away with the money.

sorry this is so long but I just had to rant.. people really suck sometimes. Yes I feel bad, I feel compassionate, and I sympathize with these hurricane victims (or else I would not have been going over there so much to help) but THIS really gets to me. :x :x

Nevermind about me thinking my job had ended cause of the "no more debit card" thing. I just got back from working a 14 HOUR SHIFT. holy crap i'm tired. And it was so chaotic again. We had to go to some church to do our work today, the laptops and case worker tables were set up over there instead. It was so much madness even Mayor Bill White came and gave us a pep talk through a megaphone, only after some preacher guy from California chewed us out first. anyway I gotta be back tomorrow at 7:00 am. So i'm gonna go to bed right now. I'll write about today some other time. *falls asleep*

Yesterday I decided to spend a little time at the Reliant Center volunteering, at six in the morning so that I can work a few hours before going to my regular job. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get up early enough because i was pretty exhausted from the night before. My boss was nice enough though to let me come in late, so that I was able to go to the Reliant Center anyway, and I got there at about 9 a.m. Well guess what? They HIRED me yesterday! Now I will be paid for working there. Someone recognized me from a few days before and asked me "haven't you been here for a few days?" and she told me about how I can get into getting paid. So I will be doing data entry/case worker work and earning 12 dollars an hour. Basically what it is, is both FEMA and the Red Cross are issuing debit cards to the evacuees.

I am working for Red Cross. We are not giving as much money as FEMA is (2,000.00). The Red Cross cards are according to the size of the family. One person is $365, two is $665, three is $965, four is $1,265 and five is $1,565. Yesterday we began the paper work and processing of issuing the cards.. and it was total CHAOS! Of course, everyone wanted their card that day. That led to them forming one line, of 9,000 people! And this is how they were trying to make it work: in one room there was a section full of tables for the "caseworkers", the evacuees are to go up to a table, the caseworker puts all their information on a form (family name, head of household, household members, pre-disaster address, phone number, etc) then they issue them a card and PIN number. Once that form is done, they go to the "data entry" people, which is the other section of the room full of tables with laptops on it. The people working the laptops get those forms that the caseworker does, and they enter all the information into a special program on the computer, and that is how the amount gets put into the card, after we enter it into the computer. There were even too many workers there.

It was so overcrowded and disorganized, that they even hired too many people to work there. Since I had gotten there at 9, all the computers had been taken, and all the caseworkers that were needed were there. so I didn't really have much to do, I had to find things to do. They actually sent me out, along with a group of people, to go out to the line and start trying to take people OUT of the line. Because it was so long, there was no way everyone was gonna be seen yesterday. We had to tell them to come back the next day and try again. I gotta tell ya, they weren't happy! Some of them were good about it, like the people at the very end. but as we started getting further up people did not want to leave the line. The worst thing was that the line was outside, so it was hot! I had to just try to convince them that they'd be waiting hours on end out there, and assured them there was plenty of money and it would still be there. BUT, alot of them had good arguments that I could just not debate. How could I know if it would be the same way the next day? All I could say was that hopefully we would be more organized that day (which it was not!). To make matters worse, security was so tight it was hard for me just to get around. I had a special stamp on my hand (RC for Red Cross) that gave me access, but still, it was a hassle! I left at about 2 that day because I had actually gotten too frustrated with everything. They told me upon signing out that I should come at 7:30 A.M. the next day.

So that was today. I got up and was out of here by 6:30 (because I had had a blow-out the day before, and was driving on a spare donut tire) I had to go slow. I got there at about 7:15 and there were already alot of workers there. Thankfully, I was able to get a computer this time. The chaos still went on, the computers were down or frozen half the time I was there. The caseworkers were not getting the paperwork to us fast enough (if at all). We basically sat there and waited most of the time either for the computers to work, or for the papers to come in so that we could start entering them into the computer.

Unfortunately, some evacuees there are trying to cheat the system and get more money out of it, and we had several "duplicate" forms, which means people that would sign more than one form using different members of the family, etc. We had to keep our eyes out for that and I did catch a couple of those. Other than that, I was able to enter the information pretty easily and get the right amount of money put in the cards. After a while, things got SUPER slow and the caseworkers for some reason were not getting the papers out to us. They started to send people (on the computers) home. They never sent me home, but I left on my own at about 4 in the afternoon because I was tired of just sitting there doing nothing. I got up and signed out, went and grabbed something to eat in the cafeteria (all the food there is free for everyone) and was making my way out to the exit. I was walking and I saw a crowd in front of me, with a camera and a big microphone. I thought maybe it was the news? or it could be someone important. So I went up to see what was going on, and I caught a glimpse of a man playing with some kind of kite-like toy. I was thinking "why are they filming a grown up playing around?" well when he turned around, I noticed it was Ricky Martin!!!



It was pretty easy to go up to him. there was not a huge crowd of people or security around him. I just went right up and said "Hi Ricky" and he shook my hand and said "Hi, how you doing" and I said "You look great" LOL! I was so nervous, I didn't know what to say, and I don't even know why I said that! lol. makes me laugh thinking back on it. Right after that he got distracted by other people. The little girl in the picture went up to him, it was her birthday today. He sang her Happy Birthday and gave her an autograph. He just hung around, met a few people, took a few pictures and headed out. It was pretty neat seeing him though and shaking his hand.. he is HOT in person!!! lol. The pic doesnt do him justice. I'm soo glad I left early (I had planned to stay until 8 or 9 originally) or else I would not have seen Ricky!

So now I hear from the news that they decided to stop doing debit cards. I'm guessing it's because of the chaos and confusion that has gone on in the past two days. I don't blame them. Now I wonder if I still have a job, lol. But that's okay, I worked two days with pay... which is better than me not getting anything since I had been taking time off my regular job to be going over there. I asked my supervisor if I would be able to work Saturday and Sunday and she said for me to call her tomorrow before 6 a.m. to see if they'll need me. I bet you they won't, especially since they're doing away with debit cards. it was good while it lasted! I may just go anyway to volunteer though.

Unfortunately, during the Labor Day weekend, after a great turn-out of volunteers... when it was back to the regular work days, there was a severe shortage of volunteers. I had to go back to work as well, so I felt bad that I couldn't stll be going and helping.

Well they have redefinied the volunteer shifts because of the shortage of volunteers. this has helped me out a GREAT deal because their original shift hours were inconvienent to my regular job hours. The shifts before were 8 hour shifts, one starting at 6am-2pm, then 2pm-10pm, then 10pm-6am. Not really possible for someone who has a fulltime job. Now they no longer have any set hours you have to be there. You can go at ANY time starting at 5:30 in the morning, until 11pm. You have to commit to at least four hours. That's awesome because I can now go before, or after work, or both.

I just got back from volunteering again, but this time I won't have a long post with pics because it was not anything exciting this time. I got assigned to sitting at the entrance to the cafeteria and not let people out of there with food. They are not allowed to take food or drinks out into the cot area. So yeah, it was kinda boring and I had to be the mean lady not letting people take food out :( . Alot of people tried sneaking food out, and some people would get mad. Two little girls came to talk to me and I "hired" them to work with me, they loved it. They helped me stop people that had food and were there with me almost the entire time (4 1/2 hours). The only time I could leave my post is if someone wanted to take food out for a specific reason (they were going outside, they were taking it to an elderly or disabled person, etc) I would have to escort them to where ever they were going. So those times that I could leave I took opportunities to talk to people and stuff. I had a few nice moments. Like the time I was going back to my post, this one guy that I had seen on Monday and who had smiled at me and said hi, told two other guys "this lady right here, is pimping" and he gave me a high five. I asked him "Pimping? What does that mean?" and with a big smile on his face he said "you don't wanna know" and he kept walking. haha. really, what does that mean? anyway, I got to play with a few kids as well again. One guy sat down for a long time with me and talked to me. Then later another guy did (a clean up volunteer). So that's about it. I really love to work the floor like I did the past two days, because I get to interact with people alot more..but oh well. we'll see what tomorrow brings

Warning: this is even LONGER! lol

me bright and early, ready to be assigned (volunteers had peach/orange wristbands, evacuees had pink)


I have to say that after my experience on Saturday I KNEW I wanted to go back again and volunteer. There just wasn't another way around it. The feeling I get when I am there is really indescribable, being around these people, in this circumstance, it's just something else. There just so many people, in such despair, I still can't even imagine it. Well, Sunday, I was unable to go because they already had enough volunteers for the entire day. I was bummed that I couldn't go, but of course I was glad that volunteers actually had to be turned away since there were so many. That is a great sign! Anyway, I decided to take the day off work and go on Monday, Labor Day.. I thought maybe since it was a Monday, some people still had to work (even though it's a holiday) and/or maybe people wanted to enjoy their holiday. So I was thinking they'd need people today.. I was right, there was not enough people. We had to wait until more showed up (even though we were already assigned to do something) because there were not enough people to go around. I got there at about 5:45 in the morning. There were only about 30 of us at first. We got seperated and given a choice in what we'd like to do. They needed four women and four men to be "shower monitors", in other words stand outside of the showers and just kind of keep guard, make the people feel safe. Women to monitor the women's shower and men to monitor the men's, of course. I bypassed that one. Second thing they needed were people to be in "bulk distribution", which means they would be in the area where people would go get things they needed like clothes, hygene supplies, toys, whatever. Basically they just tell you, or give you a list of what they need, and you search through everything we have their and give them what they need (if it is there). I passed on that too. Then there was food service, which of course is to serve food, except the food was alot different here than at Reliant Arena in the fact that there were not really any hot "meals" served, it was basically a long line of tables filled with snack type food, fruit, sandwiches, drinks, donuts. Not like at the Arena where they had eggs, grits, bacon, waffles, fruit for breakfast. So yeah, I forgot to mention, this time around I was assigned to RELIANT CENTER. Last time I was at Reliant ARENA. The way it is is: the evacuees are spread into four different places over here. The Reliant ASTRODOME, The Reliant ARENA, the Reliant CENTER, and the George R. Brown Convention Center. I noticed right away that the Reliant Center was alot different than the Reliant Arena (alot better). It was more spacious, calmer, more organized, cleaner. Ok back to what I was saying.. I had done food duty already so I skipped on that as well. Next they needed people to be stationed at the Missing Persons center. There they set up a lot of laptop computers and we were to use those to help people find loved ones. To give you an idea of just how severe the problem of missing people is, I give you this:



this is only a SMALL FRACTION of the wall in which people put signs of people they are looking for. Notice how on the wall you can see the letters "O", "P", and "Q". Those are to signify the first letter of the persons name that are posted on the wall. Look just HOW MANY notes are up there and that is just for three letters! The whole alphabet was on that wall and let me tell you, it was overwhelming to see that (it is the first thing you see when you first walk in the door, btw). Sadly, this area was always full. People trying to locate loved ones.

Another rather sad section was the LOST Children section. Thankfully, that place was nearly empty. It's still depressing to see though.



Upon our small orientation, we were asked if we could at LEAST work until 12 noon. That was just fine by me, and said so. Our "boss lady" told us we had to stay, because we were officially gonna be going on "lockdown" meaning, no one could leave nor enter the building until a certain time after 12. wha? Apparently, we were having some "very special guests" coming in. So who would be important enough to warrant such a "lockdown"? Why, former presidents Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton! WOW! I could not believe my ears that they would be coming and HERE! Out of all the facilities. Of course I became pretty excited that I would be seeing them (and a bit skeptical that they would come at all). We were told all this at 6 in the morning, then sent off to do our jobs. My assignment wasn't anything real specific such as food/shower/supplies. You see, where we were was basically a really really huge room, with cots on either side of it. They were seperated into sections. There were sections for single women, single men, families, and eldery. We got to pick which side we wanted to work at, and our jobs were to just walk around, and do anything you thought would help. Go up to people, ask them if they needed anything, bring them whatever they want, say good morning with a smile, or just chat. whatever we wanted. Whatever THEY wanted. I picked the families section, and off we went. Even though I was assigned to families, we could pretty much go wherever we wanted. I went over to the Elderly section and saw a little boy on his cot, eating a donut alone. Keep in mind it was still pretty early in the day, and most people were still asleep (with lights fully on bright, too). This little boy looked so cute. His name is Reginald. I went up to him and started to talk to him, he was shy at first but then I asked him if he liked cartoons and I brought up Spongebob. He immediately lit up and began to tell me his favorite shows.. Jimmy Nuetron, Kimpossible, etc. I then began to talk to him about video games and we talked about all kinds of games. It was such a joy talking to this kid. He became a quick friend, I wish I had taken a picture of him :(. I think Reginald played a trick on me, too. He told me he did now know where his mom was, and I told him she might be getting something to eat, or in the shower. He told me no, she was not around and had not come with him to the Reliant Center, then his eyes began to get watery. My heart sank, I told him we would find her, and I wrote down her name. A few minutes later, his mom comes and sits at her cot and he tells me "that's my mom" omg! I told him he tricked me and made me think she was missing. He laughed. I knew he was trouble! lol. So by the time I got done talking to Reginald, I was hungry, so I told him I was gonna go eat breakfast. "Come back after!" he told me. I assured him I'd look for him again, and that he should think about more things to talk about for when I come back around.

I went to go get some food (food was free for everyone) and was waiting until a proper time to call all my family members to tell them I might be seeing Bill Clinton and Bush Sr.! After I finished calling, I started walking back to work, when I saw a big crowd. And who should I see?






The President's daddy, George Bush Sr., and Barbara Bush. I was fortunate enough, to be able to walk up to them both, and shake their hands. I became extremely nervous though, and was only able to muster up "pleasure to meet you", lol. The lady that met Barbara right before me asked her for a hug. So when I only shook Barbara's hand, she said "I guess she (refering to me) doesn't want a hug!" Actually, I did want a hug.. I just got too shy to ask, lol ;( So after watching them for a while (in the pic with Barbara, she is sitting with a few evacuee children singing a song together), I walked off to see if Mr. Clinton was around. Sure enough, he was, and so was Hilary:





Again, I was able to go right up to them and shake their hands. I did the same "pleasure to meet you" spiel (yes I was still too nervous, lol). Mr. Clinton said the same to me, and Hilary looked me in the eye, held my hand a bit longer, and said she was glad to meet me and that I was there. Pretty neat! I watched the Clintons for a while. Governer Rick Perry was also there, and so was Sheila Jackson Lee:



In this photo, a woman was pleading to the camera about missing loved ones, and just how horrible it was in New Orleans. Sheila is right there next to her in the red.

Next, I spot Mr. Barack Obama! I have to say I have always liked him, and was really excited to meet him. He took the most time to talk to me. He asked me what my name was, and told me how much he appreciated me being there and how I was making a difference. Then he asked me if I thought everything that should be done was being done, and if I thought they were handling everything well. Wow Barack asking ME for my opinion? awesome! I wish I had taken a pic of him, but I did not. He was very charming though. I think I love him now, lol :)

All the aforementioned people stayed around for a while and talked to people. Many of the refugees circled around Bill Clinton and spoke their minds. It was truly a surreal experience to see all this unfolding right before my eyes. I was standing right beside Mr. Clinton the entire time that the evacuees were talking to him and telling them their stories and concerns. For an idea of how this went, you can go here: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/weather/090505_APkatrina_presidents.html
Channel ABC 13 news was there and filmed alot of it. What you see, is exactly where I was at, and I was lucky enough to see all that happen. Oh, and there were tons of Secret Service/Policemen around too.

Ok so after the media circus, I got back to work. I went around and began chatting with people again, asking if they needed help. While i was walking around, this adorable little boy threw a ball at me to catch. I got it and through it back, and we started a little game of catch. We played for a while before he got distracted with something else, and I went off again. I visited Reginald again and I told him that I had just met Bill Clinton. He was not impressed as he did not know how that was, lol. Reginald was getting ready to leave, he was going to the mall. So I wished him a good day and continued on. I came upon an old man laying in his cot, wanting help to get into his wheelchair and get to the bathroom. I located a gentleman volunteer and we helped the man. Then I passed by a woman who wanted some clothes. She and her husband had barely escaped the flood waters of Katrina. She said the water was above her waist, and as she was leaving, she had two bags with her. One full of important papers, and one full of clothes. She had to leave the bag of clothes behind. They were there with only the clothes on their backs. I asked her for a list of anything she needed and went and got her the stuff, minus a few items (note: things that are still needed are bras, women's children's and men's underwear, socks.. I was also asked for perm relaxers, body sprays, and we did not have any of those things). While I was taking the bags of clothes to the woman, the spanish news people stopped me and asked me some questions in spanish. Apparently I'm the only hispanic there, because they kept filming me, LOL. They were looking for anyone that was of spanish decent. I told them I have hardly seen ANY. Only on Saturday I saw two, that I helped with interpetation. there aren't much that's for sure.

When the spanish news crew got out of the way, one of the leaders approached me and asked me how I was doing. We chatted for a little bit, when another ADORABLE little boy came up to me, and out of the blue, gave me the biggest hug ever.



He was sooooooo cute! That made my day when he did that. I knelt down to his level and he just gave me the sweetest hug, it really just melted me. I told him that was the biggest hug I'd ever had and I thanked him. This time I couldn't pass up taking a picture, and he was more than happy to have his taken, as you can see from the big smile he flashed for me. I played with him for a while, he sat on my lap and played with my hair, and my gloves. he was so precious. Then some kids came (I think his brothers) and he went off to play with them.

I went to make my rounds again, and saw a large crowd gather, of course I had to go see what was up. It was Mrs. Will Smith herself, Jada Pinkett Smith. She is TINY in person! She was there for only a short while. I did not get to meet her, just see her and take a quick pic.



I walked around some more when two men called out to me. "You're so pretty, where is your husband?" ha, a pick up line at a shelter! That is a first, lol. I walked over to them and began to talk. The one that had called out to me, was apparently trying to hook me up with his friend, the guy that was with him, by saying I'd make a good wife, and he needed one. lol. He left, and left me talking to his friend. The guy's name was Terri (sp?), 33 years older.. but looked younger and I actually thought he was cute! We talked for a good while, he told me he was sick of the place, and wanted to get out, and asked me if I could please just take him out, if only for a while. He said the volunteers were "scaring" him with all their cheerfulness and always asking him questions, lol. I told him we were just trying to help, but I understood how he felt. Afterall, it is easy for US to be going around happily asking questions.. we're not the ones that lost everything. He told me that he had lost everything, his house, and his "baby" (portable DVD player, lol) and was mad that he didn't bring it with him. He worked at the French Quarter. Everything flooded, and he said he wasn't sure what'd he do. Possibly stay in Houston. I enjoyed talking to him for a good long while, and then noticed another large crowd. Biggest one yet. i went over to see and guess who it was?




Oprah!

Not surprising, she had the most people around her, and more cops around her, than Bush or Clinton did. It was CRAZY! I kinda felt sorry for her, because there were so many people just bombarding her. By the time I made it over to where they were, I could hardly see her, let alone get a picture, or shake her hand. There were way too many people in front of me. They finally put her into a barracaded area, and didn't let anyone pass the little gates surrounded her. She went into the "Lost Children" section, the pic I posted earlier. She talked to alot of the refugee's, signed alot of t-shirts and gushed over a couple of babies. I thought it would be IMPOSSIBLE to be able to shake Oprah's hand, seeing the tight security and all the people around her, but I was actually able to accomplish it! Somehow, lol. I did get to shake Oprah's hand (one of the officers guarding her, recognized me as being there Saturday too, and he gave me a little extra room ;)). Good enough for me. :)

Oprah then went over to the children's daycare area. The camera was rolling as she visited and played with the children. After she did that, they brought out a lady who had a story to tell. She was missing her sister. Oprah was interviewing her, and the woman was talking all about her story and her sister. Little did she know (but we knew) that her sister was there. I guess they had found her, and Oprah was going to reunite them. The sister was behind some cops, behind the woman. So after a while, they let the sister go, she went and tapped the woman on the shoulder, she turned around..and BOOM! Reunion. It was great. Everyone clapped. Look for this on a future Oprah show, mark my words on that one, lol. By the way, the picture.. it is hard to see, I know. Blurry and far.. but to the right you can see Oprah, and the lady in front of the camera. If you look behind them you see a couple of cops. Behind the cops, is the sister. sorry but that is the best I could do, lol.



The Oprah media circus was the biggest one yet, of course. But once she left, things got back to normal. Oprah sure did make alot of people's days though. I'm sure people will say she is there for publicity or whatever.. and who knows, she very well may be, but those people sure were happy, and at least they had that moment. They also voiced alot of their opinions on her. We'll see what gets done, though.

Ok so after that, I went to get some lunch. It was well after 4 by then. I was EXTREMELY tired, I had been on my feet since 5:30 in the morning. I only sat down twice for maybe 5 minutes each to eat. So I decided I'd make a few more rounds then head on home. So that's what I did, I played with a few more kids, I talked to a few more people, lent someone my phone.. and I was ready to go. I have to say, never did I expect this kind of day! Never in my life did I think I'd wake up this morning and meet Bill Clinton, George Bush Sr, Barbara Bush, Rick Perry, Barack Obama, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Oprah. Crazy I tell you. I had such a good time though..and another day I'll truly never forget.

Well I have just gotten back from my second day of volunteering for the Hurricane Katrina evacuees. I have to say this time I was MUCH more involved in it, and this whole experience has really touched and humbled me. I took several pics with my camera phone this time, again I'm sorry about the quality but this is as good as it gets from me. My phone is the only thing I took into the arena with me. (Warning: This will be LONG!)

So I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning so that I could be at the Astrodome at 6. One problem.. there was a big storm going on outside. Lots of rain, thunder, lighting.. I started to talk myself out of going and I even tucked back into bed, but then I realized that I had made this commitment and I wanted to do it, so I got my butt up and drove down to the Reliant Center, storm and all. When I got to the Reliant Center, just walking from the parking lot to the actual center itself, I could already see clothes thrown around on the floor as if they were put out there to dry (but of course because of the rain, the clothes were sopping wet). When I got inside I joined all the other volunteers that were already there, and there were also more arriving. I was happy to see so many people there, especially at 5:30 on the morning on a stormy day. They split us up into groups and sent to the Reliant Arena where thousands of evacuees were kept.

Now let me say something about the people.. there are ALOT ALOT of people there, an amazing amount. Everywhere you turn there is someone there whether you're outside of the arena, inside in the gates area, in the halls, in the corners, and of course inside the actual arena. And guess what? that was not even the half of them. Most of them were at the ASTRODOME, which we passed on our way walking to the Reliant Arena (R.A. from now on)..when we passed by it we were able to see in through one opening and there were so many people in there from what I saw. The first thing I noticed before stepping inside the R.A. was the SPCA set up outside the doors with an "Animal Registration" sign up. Coincidentally, there were no animals in any of the carriers. That to me was pretty sad because I'm sure most of the animals were left behind.



Originally my group was going to be unpacking and unloading things.. they told us that Wal Mart was sending many 18 wheeler trucks packed with stuff, but when we got there the leader said that Wal Mart STILL had not arrived even though they had been saying they'd be there since Midnight. Because of that she assigned us to do different things if we wanted, and the rest would stay for the Wal Mart stuff. I preferred to do something else other than heavy lifting. I was assigned to food duty. When I walked out to the area where the food was being served, they were already serving breakfast and there were already two lines formed (they were so long I could not see the end of the lines).




Basically what I did was I would stand around and help the people that I thought needed help. In other words, alot of people were getting 2, 3, 4, 5 plates to take back to their families. They were serving grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and waffles/pancakes (all on one paper plate) so it was hard to balance it all especially if you had more than one plate. If I saw anyone struggling to hold all their plates, I'd go and ask them if they wanted some help. I'd take some of the plates off their hands, and go down the line with them, have the food all served, get their drinks and condiments and would follow them back to their table and set their plates down for them. I helped a few little kids with their plates, and I helped an elderly man in a wheelchair that had no legs. I got all his stuff for him and he wanted to go eat outside so I went with him. Right after I set down the man's plate, I was about to go back inside when another elderly man stopped me and asked if I was with the SPCA, I told him no. He said he had come over here from New Orleans on Thursday, and had to leave his dog and 4 cats behind. He seemed kind of lost to me, I wasn't sure exactly what he was trying to tell me, I guess he wanted me to tell him if I thought they were still alive or not. I really did not know what to say. I told him I really wasn't sure, and that it depended on the area, I asked him if his house was flooded, and he said not up to the 2nd story, which is where he left his pets. I felt kind of uncomfortable in this situation because this man was looking to me for answers and I had no idea what to say to him. I just said that I really didn't know, and that as far as I knew, no one was allowed to go back to New Orleans just yet. He became teary eyed and said "I guess there's nothing I can do" I felt soo bad.. I just told him to please talk to the people from the SPCA. I went back inside. I worked breakfast duty for probably about 4 hours. It seemed like the line would never end. It just kept going and going there were so many people. It felt really good helping though, because they were so nice and grateful.. there were the occasional quiet ones, but no one mean or rude. Then there were overly appreciative ones as well (the ones that just really make you smile inside). Anyway after all that time of being on my feet and not eating yet, I took a little break, got some pancakes and stopped to chat with a few people.


THIS man was AMAZING. Just awesome. He is "Brother John". I sat with him for what was probably an hour. He told me his whole story. About how he and his family were at home through it all, he told his nephews to "go to sleep" for a few hours because he wanted to think of something to do. He said he realized that something really bad was going to come. He said it started quickly, the wind was terrible, he literally heard buildings breaking apart. As bits of his house broke they had to keep moving to different areas of it. He talked about how the water rose very quickly. He said that he himself was not afraid, not of death, he had come said his prayers and had come to accept it. He just hated to "go this way" and worried for his family. I asked him how he made it out, and how he got to Houston. He said they waited for hours and hours. No one would help them. Then he broke down. oh man, it was so hard, it breaks my heart to see a grown man cry, but he just BROKE DOWN in front of me. I went and hugged him and told him that I knew things were tough right now, but it'd get better. Then we started talking about other things, President Bush, computers, alot of stuff. He was so funny, and so nice, and overall just awesome. When he was talking he was very animated and just became really happy. He asked me about myself, and he said he was gonna get a t-shirt and put my picture on it because i was so great.. lol :) I loved his spirit.. he said he would be okay and he loves his life and wasn't gonna give up, and pretty much spent the rest of our conversation joking around and smiling. I told him about my dog and he said he had to leave his dog over there. He left it with police, on a bridge. :( Then he had to go get in the Medical line before it closed down, to get his tetanus shot.


Next I sat with a lady and her two kids. Her little girl was sooo precious that I just had to take a pic of her.

There is not much else to this. The lady was pretty quiet. She would say little things here and there. her kids were so cute.
Across the table from me was this guy, who was so exhausted that he was asleep sitting down:


I walked around for a while, there were many signs just like this:

sorry it came out so blurry. But it's basically a sign look for people. There was also alot of this:

this young man was sitting and waiting around with a sign on his leg that had a name on it. Also, people walking around with signs looking for loved ones. One man held a sign that said "Looking for (I forgot the name) Seven Years Old. Got seperated from mom in New Orleans"

I went inside of the arena:

thousands of cots spread around on the floor with people laying, asleep, or just sitting there. very sad. Also, while I was in there, I heard alot of commotion and turned to my right, only to see a reunion, on camera. There was a camera crew there, capturing a moment. a lady and a man reuniting with an elderly man in a wheelchair. It was pretty emotional. After that moment, the camera kept on rolling and two women were talking to it. This was also very sad because the first woman was crying and pleading to the camera for family members, and the second one did the same. so so heartbreaking to see.

Another room at the Reliant Arena:

hundreds of more people in cots.

Next I went to the makeshift daycare they had there. It was basically a barracaded area with little paintings and drawings hung around the gates. It was called "Kiddotown" as you can see in this pic:



I went inside Kiddotown and played with some kiddos. This little guy was soo cute!

This girl made me a "clay snake"

and this girl made me a "clay turtle" lol. btw, they relished the pics.


The kids were great. It was a blast playing with them. I played with alot more other kids, they were so cute and happy. There was one that was crying for his mom, I felt so bad for him because they told me I couldn't take him out of the play area until his mom came and got him. She never came the whole time I was there, and that kid was soo sad. He'd cry and cling on to me. :( I had to leave and I felt so bad leaving. but someone else took over.

I then took another break and called my sister. While i was on the phone with her, another reunion happened right next to me. This one was even more dramatic. Two ladies reunited, and one of them was screaming her lungs out crying. Even my sister on the phone heard it and it made HER emotional. It was something else.

Chick-Fil-A came for lunch and dropped us off a crapload of chicken sandwiches and chips. Chick-Fil-A rocks. 8)

There was another section where people registered their names and all their information, and people that are missing. That place was always full.
Later, a girl asked me if she could use my cell phone. I let her use it and she was able to contact a family member. I heard her telling her story of how the water was up over her head and she had to swim to get out. After she was done, she told me how that was the first time she was able to contact someone in her family.

I can't tell you what an experience this was. Just unbelieveable. I heard so many stories, saw so many people, so many things. People in good spirits, people crying. Happy kids, sad kids. I just dont know how to explain it all. But I did everything I could to help out and keep people as comfortable as possible. There were so many nice volunteers there. I can say with great certainty that these people are being taking care of. There is DEFINITELY enough food and water.. they will not go hungry/thirsty for sure. Anyway I just wanted to share my experience with you all and give you an inside look to what's going on.

Since Hurricane Katrina hit, I have been like most of you.. glued to the news about this tragedy. It is so hard to watch and hear about everything that is happening to those people. I can't even fathom what it must be like, to lose everything you have ever owned, and not knowing what the hell you're going to do. It is just devastating. I'm sure you all know that thousands of New Orleaners have been sent over here to Houston. I knew right away I had to do SOMETHING, anything, to help out, even if it's just a little bit. I'm not much good as far as money is concerned, as I am a lone person struggling to survive myself. But I can always spare some time.

it was pretty neat. i volunteered for the Houston Food Bank, as volunteering directly at the Astrodome has not been set up yet. I just got back from it. We packaged hundreds of boxes of food, it was great to see all the food people donated, there was a TON! I took a few pics with my camera phone but not many cause we were so busy!

sorry about the quality..

all these little boxes on the bottom right corner, we fill each and every one of them up and they go out to families. There are instructions on how to do it, like we must put 1 cereal, 2 proteins, 8 vegetables, 4 fruits, etc...



We put all the food on this table and then pack 'em up. We had just cleared the table of most of the food, but not to worry, they brought in a whole lot more.


balancing act! this nice lady I met there took this. there was so much food to pack that sometimes we had to be creative. Here i have a pack of beans on my shoulder, and in my other hand I had well.. more beans! lol haha i look like such a dork, but i dont care.


after everything was packed we got to go deliver it to the Astrodome. Unfortunately we didn't get to work directly with the people of New Orleans. I only was able to peak inside, but let me tell you, it was overwhelming to see how many people were in there!! it was so sad too. I really didnt have a good chance to take any pics there. I wanted to be respectful. I'm waiting on the call so that I can go work at the Dome. Hopefully it'll come soon, I want to spend my whole weekend there.

UPDATE* (after I typed this up).. I think am going to be working at the Astrodome from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. tonight. I got the call. I'm a little uneasy about the hours, so I'm still not sure if I'm gonna take it, or just go tomorrow.