Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving tomorrow and to also let people know that it is supposed to be about 75 degrees here tomorrow which is approximately 30 degrees warmer than what Connecticut is supposed to be. As much as I miss ya'll I won't be missing the weather. And I am sure ya'll will be missing my pecan pie. And I gotta go now since I have one to make.

Thank you to all for the donations in September

Earlier in November, Justin (my boss/co-founder) of On-Site Relief returned to New Orleans. And as he promised he got things done in our house. Honestly things are amazing. We are currently sleeping 11 people (Justin, Jan, myself, and 8 girls from University of Georgia). Here are a few photos of some of our new additions to the house.

We got a washer/dryer, stove, 16 mattresses, 4 sets a bunk beds, built 2 more sets of bunk beds, 12 lockers, and lockers for people to lock their valuables up, a futon, 2 computers.

My First Experience With Health Care in Louisiana

So every November for the last 5 years or so, I have gotten an ear infection. Its not normal for adults to get these, but I do so whatever. Regardless I started feeling it coming on Sunday night and after experiencing a fair amount of pain last night I decided today that I needed to get to the doctors. Way easier said than done. I knew that all I needed to do would be go to a pharmacy walk in the back and find the amoxicillin pills and count out 30 of them (3 a day for 10 days).
But unfortunately you can't do that so this morning I called a doctors office near my house that I found on the internet. At lunch time I talked to one of my friends who said that I could go to the military barracks a few blocks from where we work since they have a free health clinic. So I drive to the barracks and have to speak with a fatigue clad sentry at the gate just to get in to the compound. When I arrive at the clinic (a mobile trailer) the secretary is at lunch so I sat and waited without talking to anyone for 45 minutes. When the secretary gets back she says that they are all booked and can't take walk-ins today. I ask about tomorrow and she says again they are all booked and may not get to walk-ins even if I came in early in the morning. So I walked out to go home and try and figure something else out. While unlocking my car door the secretary comes out and says that they will indeed be able to see me today. So I go in and grab a beeper (one of the kinds they give you at like Chili's or Applebee's to wait for your table to be ready).
After another 45 minutes the secretary calls me to get all my information. Then I wait for another 45 minutes to speak with a nurse. She does all the basic things that a nurse does, however this did include asking me questions such as "Can you read?" or if I take any "street medicines". I guess those are part of standard questions down here. So I wait another 30 minutes to see the doctor. She looks into my ears and says that they are so pink "Like a child's". I could have told her that. Then since I was a new patient she asked me all the other types of standard questions including whether or not my mother was alive (Sorry dad, I guess she didn't care about you...haha).
The doctor then sends me back to the waiting room to wait while the nurse had to process my rX (must have something to do with the fact that it is a free clinic). Then once I had this I had to wait for the secretary to schedule a follow up appointment (which is Jan 12, 2009). Maybe this is why I couldn't have gotten an appointment until December.
So I while I had heard that after Katrina (but certainly not because of Katrina) the health care system in Louisiana is in shambles but now I see for real that it certainly isn't like going to CVS Minute Clinic or the UConn infirmary back in Connecticut.

First Forray into VBlogging