Hope floods my soul by Sunshine Dixon 2007: This trip has made my love for New Orleans Rise up like the mighty waters and flood my soul with hope You see We saw the headlines ...Amazed Sat staring at the television for days As ‘Help me’ ‘Diabetic here’ signs waved But higher powers seemed unfazed And can you tell me WHY during the flood the ninth ward bridge was RAISED? When the worst was over by all accounts Still seemed like no one came to help out We saw huge traffic lines but even cars didn’t get far And if you had just a bus pass, and tennis shoes Well baby you really had the blues In a dome Away from home Those waiting out the storm...were soon overcome By lack of food and too much heat Folks were running out of food to eat And the chants The tears The rants The cheers All seemed to fall on deaf ears One t-shirt read Been let down By Mr. Michael FEMA Brown This trip has made my love for New Orleans Rise up like the mighty waters and flood my soul with hope You see when the levees broke It released tears I didn’t know I had I sat paralyzed by the pain I’d witnessed I mean Who could imagine HOPE being dried up by TOO MUCH WATER? Honestly unbelief sat beneath the grief And tides of anger rushed in like water A little on the floor Then coming through the back door And BAM up the stairs in full stride Fleeing for life to the attic With an ax and a pick Cut holes through rooftops Waving sheets for someone to stop All the time Hoping the water would stop its climb Then time and Rita passed by It’s been over 500 sunrises since the devastation Now we’re focused on Relief Recovery and Restoration Relief Recovery and Restoration The next stop and our final destination To get there will take a village and then some Combining our united wisdom Creating solutions and working together Some say it will all work out for the better And speaking of WORK There are some She-roes I met There’s no way I will ever forget Starting with our Lower Ninth Ward Powerhouse Sister Named Trisha In order to get King School on track Dr Hicks and 95% of the teachers came back. With a team of just three to process them in NENA hopes 8000 will come back again Tracking neighbors by colored push pins Red-SOLD Yellow-ON HOLD White – Trailing right and working through the night And Green – green like the grass is a hopeful sign That it’s gonna be tough but we’re gonna be fine The levee broke in three places Bringing on these phases Close to 1600 died first Thousands of others were dying of thirst And though the lower ninth ward seems desolate and flat There are thousands of residents dying to get back And that’s the thing I have to say They may have waded in the water but they’re coming back to stay Another group who suffered great loss was the Association from Holy Cross Pam with Sustainable Restoration sees District 8 As a shining example to the rest of the state And need I say more about programs galore, diversity restored, in fact “insured” in Broadmoor. Little did I know before coming this way that I would meet so many She-roes in just one day La Toya the president, longtime Broadmoor resident her passion was evident I can’t leave out the magnificent men Pastor Bruce, Pastor Gilbert, Charles, Darryl and Hal Let’s get back to the ladies now Deborah first lady, all the members of H.I.V. Linda at Steamboat, Mignon I adore and the whole wonderful team of MercyCorps. This trip made my love for New Orleans rise up like the mighty waters and flood my soul with hope. I ‘m just one voice from our one hundred and ten who believes New Orleans will thrive again.

Thank you Sho & Loen Dozono and Thank you New Orleans for your hospitality 2007 Flight of Friendship Sho and Loen Dozono along with a number of leaders in Portland Oregon’s corporate and non-profit community organized the Flight of Friendship. MercyCorps hosted receptions, directed tours of the hardest hit neighborhoods, and they planned a workday for the 110 people who joined the Flight of Friendship to let the people of New Orleans know they have not been forgotten. Lower Ninth Ward President Patricia Jones is working with a staff of three people to process forms for over 8,000 of their 14,000 residents. They are tracking communication with current and former residents by using colored push pins on a grid of the neighborhood. Broadmoor Improvement Association President La Toya Cantrell shared stories about the Broadmoor area pre-Katrina. it was incorporated in 1970 as the Broadmoor Improvement Association, Inc. to stop "blockbusting" in Broadmoor, a well-established, multi-racial/multi-ethnic community already living in harmony. Holy Cross Neighborhood Association Pam Dashiell’s team has adopted Sustainable Restoration as a tool to rebuild their neighborhood with a several historical homes. Seventh Ward Pastor Bruce Davenport and his wife Deborah gave us a tour of one of the houses chosen by MercyCorps for deconstruction. We also met a team called the H.I.V. Team as well as the children and tutors in their after school program.

You must all tell your stories! I've heard a little from the Bishops, but everyone needs to know the reality of New Orleans today. Gather together people from across Oregon to hear what is in your hearts after your experience.

To Lise and our friends at the Port of Portland: Nothing said "Welcome Home" to me as much as arriving in our BEAUTIFUL Portland International Airport. I must say that during our travels through New Orleans, Denver, and Los Angeles international airports, I sure did miss the beauty, comfort, coffee, and free WiFi of PDX!

An amazing trip! Thanks to Sho and Loen Dozono for conceiving of this and offering the opportunity to the residents of Oregon. There is no question that New Orleans needs our help. There is a keen sense of abandonment by residents of New Orleans. Our trip infused a little hope into the Broadmoor and Lower Ninth Ward neighborhoods where grassroots activism is more than alive. As a representative of the Port of Portland delegation, we were able to hear firsthand how the airport and marine port in New Orleans recovered from the storm and how these organizations gave a handhold to their employees who had lost everything in the storm. Both established FEMA trailer camps on their property which are still in use today - forever changing the relationship between employer and employee. Only with jobs are these residents able to rebuild and return to the New Orleans they love. We also were privileged to meet with the Coprs of Engineers management and hear about how the lack of a systematic look at the levee system in New Orleans which contributed to this disaster. The levees were constructed in 1964 by the Corps to the standards of the time and then turned over to 21 levee boards in the City to operate and maintain. 41 years later, with the failure of three of the levees (17th Streety, Cancal and Industrial), it is clear that these levees were not systematically maintained. Just as residents are rebuilidng their communities without a blue print, the Corps is working against the clock of the start of the next hurricane season (55 days and counting) to protect the community against future hurricanes.by building flood gates on the vulnerable levees. Pumps on these gates can empty the canal in three minutes. These pumps are tied into the City's 6th street pump station so the City's efforts to move stormwater from the City are not undermined by the pumps closer to Lake Pontchatrain. To ensure a more systemmatic look at the levee system, the 21 levee boards have been consolidated into 2 levee boards.. When the committee first envisioned this trip, we wanted it to be more than a one shot deal. We wanted to learn about how Oregon could make a significant contribution to rebuilding New Orleans. Our New Orleans friends suggested: 1) contributions to Mercy Corps to extend their tour beyond Dec. 31, 2007, 2) advocacy to our Congressional delegation as a disater such as this can happent to any community; and 3) money for the grassroots efforts like the Neightborhood Empwerment Network Association in the Lower Ninth Ward, the Broadmoor Neighborhood Association, and others.

I'm back from New Orleans... what an experience. I was extremely proud to be associated with the effort, and with the representation provided by our local NGOs and public leaders. The short story is that there is a lot of finger pointing at virtually every bureaucratic level, all resulting in an appalling lack of momentum towards recovery. The place, frankly, is still a mess; with many places apparently looking very much as they did shortly after the flood waters receded. I often literally felt like I was in a 3rd World country, and not one of the United States of America. Most of us were able to personally listen to talks given by The Commanding General of the Army Corps of Engineers for the region and NOLA Mayor Nagin. It was, at times, difficult to reconcile the glowing list of accomplishments cited by the General, with what we actually saw on the ground, and the utter frustration still being cited by Mayor Nagin. It was heart-wrenching to listen to the incredible personal stories of survival; yet spirit-lifting to witness, first hand, the efforts of these individuals struggling to take back their lives through a "Kafka-esque" gauntlet of government ineptitude, confusion, and indifference. What positive things I did see were almost exclusively inspired by grass-roots efforts, i.e., communities working with agencies, such as MercyCorps and the United Way, to obtain grants for neighborhood recovery efforts and mentoring for local business development. I heard testament upon testament stressing the criticality of continued assistance from these agencies (and others like them) for the survival of New Orleans communities. The fear that relief agencies might disassociate themselves from NOLA, due to a lack of funding, was articulated several times and palatable. I sincerely hope that the Flight of Friendship will inspire continued attention and resources to the needs in New Orleans.

It's been great being along to take pictures of the Flight of Friendship folks. They are working hard on an incredibly hot and humid day. Neighbors are coming out of their houses and saying, "Thank you for coming!" and "Thank you for not forgetting about us!"