Hey everybody; Heres an update on the recent activities of the C3relief crew in Lousiana hurricane affected areas. On Tuesday of last week a contingent left from NOLA to the bayou communities located to the south of New Orleans about two hours away by bus. The SPAZ bus and Lady Holyday (Gemma Jones' bus) traveled to the communities of Point-Aux-Chenes and Isle-Jean-Charles bringing supplies to replenish the relief aid distribution center that is currently set up there. And to work with rebuilding projects. The mission was coordinated through the Four Directions Relief Project, a new group that is being established to work alongside indigiginous communities that have been hit by the disaster. ( http://www.intuitivepath.org/relief.html ). The experience there was very good, the communities are rural and traditionally isloated. These areas suffered relativley little damage from Katrina but were nailed hard by Rita, water lines are visible on any house which doesn't satnd on twelve foot pilings, (which many there do). The damage there is quite different but no less intense than in the urban areas. It is apparent that the people have had to take a much more self sufficient attitude, as is the nature of rural living generally. FEMA and the Red Cross are nowhere to be seen in these parts, that may be just as well given those groups record, but still.... Shrimping and crabbing are mainstays of the local economy and food supply, we were gifted a bucket of live crab which later that night was cooked into an amazing gumbo at the hands of some of the local people who met and hung out with. Initially it was laid out that the group would break up into squads to work work with different aspects of the community in varying capacities ranging from construction to supply distribution to networking with locals. On the morning of the first full day the plan evolved into a full fledged renovation project on the land of a woman named Marys', whose property had been severly damaged by the flood waters. When we arrived we found a bridge that accessed the property that had been completley lifted off of its pilings by the water and set back down in the canal in a crazy criss-crossed tangle of beams and pilings. It had been the only direct access to the buildings from the roadway. There was also damage to some of the buildings that required interior reconstruction. The project seemed totally daunting from the outset. Picture two busloads of clowns and freaks being shown a destroyed piece of infrastructure like that and bascially told "Go for it!" with next to nothing in the way of materials and only the most basic tools. It took quite a bit of head scratching before the plan was cracked to use the SPAZ bus as an improvised crane to lift the fallen sections of the bridge out of the water. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Although the actual physics weren't on our side, at least at first. After rigging the whole crazy crane contraption up using a scavenged flood debris water heater covered in vegetable oil (miracle wonder substance that it is!), as a fulcrum at the bank of the canal, the bus began to pull back and the entire first bridge section magically began to lift. Until it crashed down off the pilings that it had precariously rested on, down deeper into the canal, rendering what had been before at least a quasi-functional foot bridge, (which was the remains of the pre-existing car drivable structure), into a complete mess. Now we'd done it, we'd just bought ourselves the project of demolishing the entire thing and reconstructing it, there was no way around it now. So it began and three days later there now stands a brand new bridge recycled from the boards planks and pilings of the old, recycled nails and all. The second application of the bus-as-crane contraption worked much more as planned, it was used to tow out of the water a section that easily weighed close to a ton, preventing the crew from being forced to conduct underwater demolition in the bayou mud. In fact through the whole thing Carter was the only crew to truly become one with the amazingly odiferous organic sludgey lair of the crabs and crawdads. It was a massive team effort and an inspiring constellation of forces working in tandem on the different parts of the project, from recutting planks to straightening and sorting the 27 year old nails, to keeping the crew fed and fueled and the interior refinishing of the house which included paneling a room and installing a window and water proofing the leaks. Mad props to the crew that pulled it off; Slim Chance, Missa, Carter, Katie, Bill, Joy, Gemma, Nina, Lucas, John, Naomi Archer from Four Directions. The next plan for the SPAZ bus is to go to Mississippi to help with the rainbow kitchens for Thanksgiving in some extremeley devastated there. Before heading north for the Rev. Billy tour. After the very positive experiences in the bayou areas there is ongoing disscusion of establishing a longer term coordination with the people there and perhaps a base to operate from, so there will be many opportunities and a need for more people to go down there throughout the winter into spring. eyebrain ogo