Broken Fabric, Loose Ends

Today, I feel I learned more about showering that I have in the past 26 years. By the time I leave, I might get pretty good at showering. Since the water in all of DC is highly toxic and not being purified right now, I took a shower today using bottled water. It was a great outside shower, in a backyard surrounded by luscious plants, tall oaks (I think they’re oaks, but I haven’t actually looked), and fallen tree limbs. Had my soap, had my shampoo, and I had that definite stench which forced me to clean myself. The difficult part was that I only had 2.5 quarts of water divided amongst 5 0.5 quart bottles. I’d fashioned a shower head using one of the bottle cps and a wine opener, and my holes were a little too big but that’s all I could find. A little sprinkle here, a little sprinkle there, a little soap, a little scrub and a little sprinkle again. Water goes quickly. I know I grew up in the drought stricken Los Angeles basin, But I have no idea how much water my showers typically take! I’m going to guess I surpass 10 gallons by the time I start thinking about soap!

I don’t know how much all the trouble was worth, because I’m just going to put on the same clothes I’ve been wearing for almost a week straight…and they stink.

I’m headed back into the EOC again today, to finish cranking out a set of maps they’ll be distributing to the general public, clinics, and emergency services. If all goes well, I’ll be giving them a crash course in GIS mapping, research skills, and setting them up with a simple infrastructure to continue with. It looks like tomorrow I’ll be headed down to Houma, LA, which is a disenfranchised Native American area down in the bayou. Old fishing villages, with an influx of Vietnamese (or so I’ve heard). From my anti-establishment contacts at the Common Ground Collective Free Clinic and Distribution House, the Houma community is not receiving aid yet. Its October 4th, six and a half weeks after Katrina made landfall.