Canción Sencilla - Simple Song

I have been meaning to write about Richard Shindell since I got to Argentina, but it wasn't until I started Music Monday that I found a way to bring him up. I first heard this song on "Vuelta" which was the first album he released after moving to Buenos Aires. Though I have always loved this song for it's simplicity, it wasn't until I revisited it today that I was able to understand not only all of the words, but also the sentiment. Vuelta means a number of things, including "turn", "return", "journey", "voyage" and "change", all of which are things I am experiencing here, on my adventure. I can't speak for Shindell, but after spending a lot of time with this song (while compiling all the lyrics for the above video) I am beginning to feel as if this is a love song to Argentina, to his new home. I can't say I share his unconditional love, but this is what I strive to feel towards this country. Right now, this is how I feel about my home, in NY.

I've been talking for several weeks (ok, months) with my best friend Amanda, who is currently working in New Orleans, about whether or not she will be coming home. She told me today that she is back in NY for the week, to think about whether to stay in NOLA or not. She tells me all she can think of is New Orleans. It's home to her now. She could sing this song to the city, and mean every word of it.

A note about the subjunctive: Subjunctive is a conjugation in Spanish that can be used in the past, present or future to imply doubt, uncertainty, or flexibility. It's sort of the difference between stating something as fact (I know) or stating something as opinion (I think). When Shindell refers to the fascinating, impenetrable mystery that he doesn't need to understand because his love is certain, that's what he's referring to.

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#20 Sugarcane Academy

Book: Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember by Michael Tisserand
Pages: 192
Entertainment Rating: 4.5/5
Snooty Rating: 5/5
Total Rating: 9.5/10
Books Read Total: 20/50
Pages Read Total: 3875/15,000

This book may be small, but it packs a punch. Riding on the wave of emotions from my recent trip down to NOLA this book could not have come at a time when I was more vulnerable. Frequently I found myself in tears over the hugeness of it all. The hugeness of the hurricane and the aftershocks, the hugeness of the indignities forced upon so many citizens, and the immeasurable outpouring of awareness on the part of those capable of giving something to the people who had nothing. In a society where education is so bound by rules and regulations, this small section of a community banded together to give families what they needed. This is education as it should be: active, responsive, aware. What these children needed was not a standardized test or even a normal classroom. They needed time and space to express their experiences, to learn about their relations to the world around them, and to make sense of all that they experienced in such a short time. Much was lost during Hurricane Katrina, but the disaster laid bare the strength, courage, determination and love that human beings are capable of giving.

Home at last...

Just in time to start up classes again in the AM. I've just waded through over 50 e-mails, and I've got 120+ blog posts to browse. I promise that journal entries and photos are forthcoming, and until then here's a sample! I still can't believe we made it all happen!

As my thoughts return to New Orleans...

I'm not really the type to revisit old journal entries, but I was looking for early images of my dreadlocks, and came across this post of a journal entry I wrote while doing relief work in New Orleans in 2006. It seems like centuries ago, and I look at these images and can't believe I took them. As I may have mentioned before, as of recently I'm the fund raising chair for the New Paltz chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and our spring Collegiate Challenge is in New Orleans.

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Originially posted on Robin Reads in February 2006, upon my return from New Orleans:

Note: This is my personal journal. Typically I wouldn't share writing like this with you all, so please keep that in mind. I've typed it up exactly as I wrote it. I feel like this is something I'm obligated to share with you all, it's an experience that needs to be shared.

January 23rd, 2006
Lakeview-

“What others have said is incomplete.” (Writing prompt) Their stories lacked the tangible disbelief one must feel upon viewing this catastrophe. Part of me is angry, feeling foolish for not being prepared, angry no one told me what to expect. I understand that they tried, even now I can’t put to words the horror and disgust I felt watching my classmates rooting about, exclaiming over something they’d found, surrounded by people’s scattered, broken lives, yet still able to laugh and interact. All I could do was cry. I didn’t want to; I wanted to be able to look on this situation as one looks on to a car accident, with morbid curiosity. I wanted the blessing of being able to distance myself from these people, these sights. I was granted no such thing. Instead photos were peeled apart, salvaged, though destroyed, from a heap of mud and scattered memories. “My grandchildren” she said, bringing me back to an earlier conversation with a 4th grade girl. “Where’s your favorite place in the city?” I asked. “My grandmother’s house, before it was destroyed.”


I’m finding it difficult to hold on to thoughts. I can’t keep my mind still long enough to capture what I think and feel, and writing about it takes the mental strength of a wrestler, pinning words to the page. I lack the graceful ability to mold prose into exactly the phrases I mean to express. It is a terrifying experience to be completely at the mercy of my emotions.

Hundreds of unoccupied FEMA trailers: Bureaucracy at its best.

Flood Damage as far as the eye can see.

Dirt and rubble piled along the streets.

Crushed by debris and water.

Crippled...