Day Two: In-processing

My second day I learned the definition of "in-processing" .

in-processing (noun): a test of patience where only the truly virtuous are able to stand in line after line filling out paperwork and still be kind to others.

I was in line or waiting to stand in some form of a line from 8am to 4pm this second day. It truly was a test of patience, but thankfully, most were still in good spirits. Some folks though, may have ripped someone's head off if they had to wait in line much longer.

Lights on was at 6am. Got up, got dressed and waited with the other 138 folks to catch a shuttle. We headed off about 10 at a time in a shuttle to the HQ. Little did I know that the line to the shuttle was to be only the first line of the day.

Our shuttle driver was awesome. He ran a tour bus company in New Orleans and owned the shuttle that we were driving in. Volunteering his time and resources to help other people - great guy. He talked the whole 20 minutes to HQ: about the history of Lousiana, good pick up lines, even told us about his favorite chicken and shrimp gumbo recipe.

"Don't feed it to your enemies," he said. "They won't wanna leave your house if you do."

"Let the good times roll" he kept saying.

Once we got to HQ, it was surprisingly very organized. After all the news I had watched of the 'chaos' in Louisiana, I was expecting a madhouse. Thankfully it was not.

The building itself was an abandoned wal-mart so if you can imagine your local wal-mart, but completely empty, that's about the size of the red cross HQ. It was huge.

First step in it's clear that you have some paperwork to fill out before getting onto the field. So you got in your first line to let folks know you have arrived. From there you had to get in line to get your photo taken for an official hurricane katrina i.d. As always, my photo was abismal, but classic nonetheless. I'm always blinking in i.d. photos ...

After that I was in line to go to an Orientation training. For about 40 minutes I went through the essentials of what I needed to know to survive - wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, drink plenty of water, this is not you average red cross operation. About a million people were displaced because of katrina. Some of these folks left the state, but most moved into neighboring cities such as Baton Rouge. In fact, according to our trainer, the population of Baton Rouge which was at about 250,000 before the hurricane, nearly doubled in 48 hours!

After genral orientation, I waited in line for client casework orientation, which is what i'll be doing here. "What does that mean exactly?" You might say. Well, during this second orientation I discovered that basically meant helping folks apply for the appropriate relief funds from the Red Cross. So service centers would be set up where we would go and give families these disaster cards that look like your normal mastercard, but they have a predetermined amount on them - a certain amount per person in the family. Families could then use the card to purchase whatever they needed to sustain themselves.

Then I waited in line to get my "permanent" shelter since, it turns out, the shelter I stayed in the night before was only a temporary shelter for me. So I got in line for that and got my new shelter assignment inside the gym of a local baptist church. In fact, asking around, it sounded like almost everyone wass staying at a church of some kind.
At this point it was already 2:30pm and I was at my final line for the day - waiting for my assignment. This line atleast happened on paper ... You filled out your name, DSHR number (like your red cross social security number), and the date you'd be leaving. Then you waited to be assigned ... And waited and waited ...

At around 5pm, I was still unassigned and was told -- along with the other 200 or so client services volunteers -- to call it a night, and head back to the shelter and come back to HQ at 7:45am to await an assignment.

Needless to say I was a little bit frustrated since I was looking to get to work as soon as possible and as hard and as long as possible. But I remembered the advice I was given during my orientation, "Stay flexible."

So I called it a night and found some one headed to my shelter who was lucky enough to have a rental car and hopped a ride.

Lights out was at 10pm at the shelter and I went to bed promising myself that I'd get an assignment the next day any way, any how -- even if I had to clean the porto potties with a tooth brush :)