280) Diez y Seis de Septiembre

September 16, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: The boards are off the windows and the Winds of Ike are just a memory... except for those made homeless:* those evacuees in middle school gyms in Austin; those friends of ours whose individual stories we hear by bits and pieces every day; and those colleagues from Galveston come to Austin with 60 youth and staff separated from their families. These folks are now like the tribes of Israel trying to find a place to stay for the next few months (?) until they can return to the island. They came to a private school in Austin and cannot stay there as long as it'll take. So now they are moving to a Jewish Youth Camp in Wimberly for an unknown amount of time. Our friends tell stories of how they are holding it together amidst the bureaucratic hurdles (like the feds needing to check the camp out for "security" for a small percentage of ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] youth). TNOYS will help these member agency folks by recruiting local PEAKS people to go out and do activities with the kids while they are in the area, provide library resources for experiential programming, and be there to emotionally support our colleagues!

These folks are up here from the first organized youth shelter in Texas, the Albertene Yaeger Center, started by a woman for homeless youth just after the Great Storm of 1910 wiped out the island and left youth of all ages wandering in despair. We who are lucky enough to be spared this kind of despair need to continue to reach out to the weather-related homeless. One way to do so is to donate to the Red Cross (1-800-redcross or go to http://www.redcross.org/.).

Okay. So I get here and notice the windows are open to the bright blue sky and I forget to weigh in cause using the new in-floor weigher isn't a habit yet... Rosie the Tech comes up and in the beginning salutations and catching up, I unhook my BP monitor and go weigh in at 77.0.

Rosie has been off for a few days taking care of her ill brother after he got out of the hospital for some complications from his cirrosis of the liver. She says she is happy to be back here and I reply that I am happy to welcome her back. She sticks me quickly and Celeste the Nurse comes by to do my nursing eval. She and I talk about a national insurance plan (Hillary's), the homeless adults who stand on the corner of Oltorf and 35, and the possibilities for homeless men to work if they stand at the local pick-up point downtown. She is from the Phillipines and reports they have no help at all over there... that families must care for their own and there are really no social services to speak of. Her slant seems to be that the help we have here is too easy to get for people who really could work. My slant, of course, is that the richest nation in the world ought to provide a minimal income of each and every citizen, including complete medical care for all.

Okay. So, I should be opening my Saleebey and reading up for Thursday... I don't feel like it... so I listen to NPR and cruise thru the channels on the TV and end up watching some continuing news of the Winds of Ike. Then I snooze for a bit and wake up around 8 to watch a bio on Angelina Jolie's work with youth of the world. Then it is time to leave and I zip outa there fast to rush home to a dinner with my family. So it goes.

And finally, in rememberance of 16 de Sept:

"Estoy vivo cuando todos los otros se sienten muertos,
pero soy la muerte
para todos quiénes temen la vida.
Soy el guerrero Mexika espiritual de el
Sexto Sol, despertado del sueño
de 500 años de esclavitud.
Soy todo lo que voy a, yo ser todo que era,
Soy todo que será.
Soy el Mexika del Sexto Sol. "

Ramsey Muñiz

Notes: In at 77 and out at 74.5 kgs
*Amazing Hurricane Ike Photos retrieved online from
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html#photo11

** Retvieved online from El Grito de Septiembre 16, http://www.freeramsey.com/Diez.html