#12 Day Two: Orient Yourself

At the shelter I sat up talking to "Alex" and "Amy ", until very late. At about midnight, "Alex" hushed us, and told us to listen. In about a minute a loud crackling and rushing shot through the large air conditioning vent above us. It sounded like an alien roaring through the vent. Everyone in the room shot up in their beds, and then lay back again to sleep. It happens twice every night.

Woke up the next morning to the woman next to me bumping my bed while she was getting dressed. I opened my eyes to see a great big mostly naked butt, practically in my face. Closed my eyes quickly and rolled over. Jeeeeeezzz........ Good morning. It was 5 am.

The shelter told us to pack all of our things, and take them with us, in case we weren't going to be coming back to that shelter. Sleeping bags, pads clothes, everything. I, "Amy", "Paul","Wanda", and a new guy, "Rolf" from Alaska crawled into the car and took off. FIgure of speech. Got to headquarters after an hour and a quarter's drive in miserable traffic.

Sat through an orientation. Sat through a second different orientation. Sat through the first shelter assignments for the day. We were not assigned to a shelter.Sat through a third orientation by "Client Services", the department that I am to work with. Still no assignments for anyone, but then we just got there.

"Paul" and I decided to go ahead and take the "Supervisor" orientation. Thought we were both going to slide off of our chairs into a stupor. It was very badly taught. The class kept on having to correct the instructors instructions. "Paul" had acted as a supervisor previously. He kept on saying with surprise, "Hey, that isn't right", and then proceeded to correct her again. It was a long long class.

Went back for another orientation. Still no assignment. Heard from "Wanda", that "Amy" had gotten assigned to a shelter in the south. We wouldn't see her again.

I have noticed a few things: Disorganization is an overriding theme. Hard and fast "rules", change from day to day, hour to hour. No one knows what the next person is doing until they are doing it there, right this minute. People have sat for as many as 5 days before getting assigned. We'll see. Another thing the Red Cross seems to breed, is people who are unable to delegate. They insist on crossing every T, and dotting every i all by them selves. This leads to an incredible backup of process, as no one person is capable of adequately handling the volume of information and logistics that this has generated.

There is also a problem with the staff tossing newbies into the fire without adequate training or information. At the Slidell location deep in southeast Louisiana, this led to at least 5 people collapsing from the heat, and being sent out of the area. In this location, information was taken from clients, in a drive through set up. It ended up in chaos, as some waiting for hours with their families in their hot cars were turned away. The next day, the head of that project described it to a new group, as, "going beautifully!"

On the other hand, we have sheltered more than 500, 000 people across the country, in last minute circumstances. Everyone works really hard, even if not a lot gets done in a timely manner. Ok, I am discouraged, but being politic.

Other than "Amy", the rest of us ended up there at headquarters all day, with no assignment. I think I can now confirm myself as "oriented". Hope there is at least somewhere I will go to help eventually, since this is what I came here for. Here I sit in Baton Rouge. All dressed up, and no where to go. Sorry this post isn't more interesting or amusing. I think they might have oriented it out of me at least for now.....
Best,

Lisa