2/16/07 Friday morning
We had a wakeup call that a truck was here to unload. There was time to grab a quick plate of food and then Al, Mel and Vinnie helped Angelina, Sean and the kitchen crew unload pallets into the kitchen dry goods, the refrigerator truck and the freezer truck. There is no reclycling in Louisianna. The cardboard is brought out back to a firepit to burn, spoiled food is put in the dumpster.
Over breakfast I listened to a volunteer explain how they get the work done at the EC. It is an unstructured approach to community life that functions. People step up to the plate, work gets done in whatever way the person doing it decides. This young man had run his own business in an "efficient" model of delegation before he came down to help after Katrina. It was an adjustment for him to work in an open model. But he's been there for months now. There is an obvious joy and consciousness in the community here. He shared his discovery that "I had to stop being an asshole" and give it a chance. He realized he'd never been exposed to anything like it before.
