Note from Francis Molloy in New Orleans

This morning we all attended the church service here at the Lutheran Church, where we introduced ourselves and our stories to the congregation. Following this the ashes of one of the members of the congregation were scattered in the flower garden which many of us had spent much of the week creating. We largely took most of the rest of the day off, playing basketball with the local kids, catching up on rest and writing up grant proposals. We did manage to look at a prospective house for rent as a base for our operations, and have inquired after another.

Yesterday was a big day for networking, we went to the World Asthma Day event at city hall, and met with different people from the department of health, discussing and learning about the various health issues affecting NOLA post katrina, in particular mold , and what we need to know to perform mold remediation. The free food at this event was much appreciated. Later in the afternoon a few of us attended a meeting called The Organisers Roundtable, a meeting of activists involved in the local scene focused on the cooperation between different socially concious organisations in NOLA. Again we made great contacts and again we experienced southern hospitality in the form of food. I think many of us are taking a liking for the food of the south.

Thursday & Friday we completed several little things around the community. Assisting to clean up the property of a household which had just lost a father and husband, and whom could only afford to hold the funeral in the home. We helped Pastor Walker with a few things, moving items from a storage unit and patching up the exterior walls of Noah's Ark. Other little tasks include helping to hang drywall.

On Friday we became aware, after stumbling on an article in that day's newspaper, that Linda Hobbs, who's story of deprerssion and life in a FEMA trailer inspired many of us to remain in NOLA, was being sued by the local council in an attempt to force her out of her trailer. We took action upon learning of this, contacting Tracie Washington, the civil rights lawyer whom we have been working with. We are monitoring this situation and are going to to attempt to help Linda how we can. We hope that we can perhaps help her get some momentum towards getting her life back together.

We largely seem to be focused now on gaining momentum through assisting to clean up and rebuild the medical laboratory which is adjacent to the lot where Pastor Walker's health clinic will be built.

Everyone has enjoyed having Dan's mother with us over the past few days, her direction and assistance in the gardening was invaluable, and her genrosity in buying us groceries was immensely appreciated. On Thursday we went to dinner with her downtown, and followed this by a visit to Bourbon Street, where Texas Tony, earned some $$ by performing poetry on the street, and then followed it up with some spectacular display's of dancing for someone his age in one of the bars.

Everything is well with us. Things seem to be just falling into place for us, the frequent occurance of instances of serendipity seem unreal. Atlhough the danger was again underscored this evening by another shooting up the road, and other similar events in the neighbouring vicinity.