Day 7

Ok, I'll make this post brief because I'm tired and, more importantly, my roommate has to be up at 4:45 to be in the lobby at 5:00 to head out to work. He and the rest of the HS people (11 to be exact) are heading down to the Lavalette area, a part of the barrier islands where residents are only now being allowed back in. They will be setting up an emergency aid station and roving around the island, providing medical care for the residents who will just now be sifting through the remains of their homes.It will be a good experience for them, as most of them are new to the Red Cross and really need to see why we're here. I, on the other hand, will be in HQ with the chief and manager. I offered to go out to the island with them and the reply from the chief was "No, you're staying here with me." Well, I can't argue with that, I'm happy to be wanted, and I guess I've made myself enough of an asset to have to stay around the office and help.

My day today was quite busy and my day tomorrow will likely be much of the same. Today I split my time between working on closing cases and sorting out a few new condolence calls we have. For closing cases I have bene making phone calls to clients and determining what, if any health needs they have and finding ways to meet them. The new condolences came to us from FEMA, and we have spent the last couple days verifying that they were disaster relating and determining how to handle them. I have had a lot of people ask how I am able to do the computer work, phone calls, and paperwork so happily, and I guess it is a combination of knowing that this is what I was getting myself into and also knowing the importance of these activities. I guess I'm able to keep the big picture in sight and know that making sure the cases are squared away in the computer system ensures that the clients get the help they need. Maybe I'm just happy doing anything that contributes to the smooth operation of the operation.

Well I promised it would be short, so thats all for today. I finished the day with a dinner with a few of the nurses that had been in the shelters followed by a visit to the bar with a new friend in community partnerships from Oregon. Tomorrow promises to be another busy day (synonymous with good day, I like to have a stack of work bigger than I know what to do with), but I suppose we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out about that.