Last Day in Pearlington

I am safely back in the land of flush toilets, silverware and real eggs. It was a joyful reunion with my wife Marian and although a month doesn’t seem like a long time, it is when it feels like a year.

Paula Buhr arrived early Friday morning. Paula was the first outsider into Pearlington back in September, when she commandeered a military helicopter to deliver insulin and other aid to the people there. She is a force of nature and will do an excellent job with what comes now for Pearlington. Rusty Irving is also there; he is finished with the Red Cross - I’m sure they’re relieved - and will be adding his renegade magic to supervising the wind-down of the Pearl*Mart and “putting out fires.” Paula and I met with the men from Carbondale to plan an appropriate exit strategy and to consider what comes next. We are all invested in Pearlington’s recovery and want to find the best ways to continue to support the town and its people.

As expected, leaving was bloody. There were lots of tears and little gifts, including a big tray of Jambalaya. There was something different for me this time. I felt completed. I had done what I went there to do. There are still a lot of projects in the community to help these people back on their feet but I was clear that my task was finished. All are fed regularly and their immediate needs have been met. Almost all are in their trailers and have something to get them started. Paula will spearhead a field survey to determine who still needs things, what are their special and health needs and if there are repairs needed on their trailers. The survey will reveal what is required now and then we will relegate resources. The FEMA people at the Disaster Recovery Center continue to work hard and have been in touch with me since I returned to report their successes.

Leaving Pearlington, I still had three unfulfilled Dreams on my wish list. Three things I alluded to in my last posting. One of them came true just as I was leaving. The other two were still in progress. I will share the three Dreams in the next three days. They are remarkable stories and need to be shared.

As I write this, emotion comes, unbidden and cleansing. There is enormous pride and a renewal of faith in the ability of ordinary people to do extraordinary things. There is loss for the people of Pearlington and excitement in the prospect of them rebuilding their lives with a clean slate. There is anger, often felt when I complete foreign service, at the failure of “powerful” people and organizations to just do what they are charged with doing. I feel a new kinship with the American people and a hope that they do something about their lack of leadership on many levels. There is a Dream that I am given the chance to serve again, even as I rebuild my own life and deal with my aching body and fatigue. And there is joy, that Perfect Strangers all pulled together despite the odds, despite the Politics of Humanitarianism, and got an impossible job done when it needed to be done. We lived together in a foxhole, not knowing what the dawn would bring, ignoring our differences and celebrating the things we had in common: a desire to serve and to make a difference.

The Canadian relationship to America is not really about economics, mad cows or softwood lumber disputes. It is about mutual caring and respect for the basic things that we all hold dear: safety, friendship, and unconditional love. Nothing less and a lot more. If it takes Katrina to remind us all of this, she is indeed a wise Lady. Would that we remember this always, that together we are whole, not one of us will be lost, that we will all be taking the same bus together. No one will be left behind.

Not on my watch.