2nd day back in Pearlington

I received a nudge tonight from Anonymous that I hadn't made any posts on this trip. I have been working pretty hard on this trip, and was a bit tired the last few nights. Last year when we were in Pearlington PDA Village #6, almost 80 people were staying and volunteering. This trip, there are less than 30 and only a few of the volunteers are here for the first time. It is sad, and I think that the residents notice that fewer volunteers are coming to help them rebuild. The issue may be the economy because people are saving rather than generously giving their time, talent, and funds for the travel. Or, more likely I think, they are forgetting about Katrina because of the bigger events going on in the world. As Americans, we pay attention to short-term issues because of the TV/cable news cycles. I can't necessarily blame anyone; the world is going through a large situation rather than just one area of the country and The Storm roared ashore nearly 4 years ago.

We as Americans should be pretty sad that with all of the generosity that we supposedly display, and almost 4 years later, the people in Pearlington, Houma, New Orleans, and on and on, that these places still need us volunteers to come in and help. The residents have no funds left; insurance, if any, has been spent marking time until they could get started and most grant money is either spent or locked up in projects or red tape. Enough of my soapbox....