By Jill Foster, member of the Citizen Effect Gulf Mission this week.

I traveled to the Grand Isle for the first time this week, expecting to see  a community of locals. The goal, along with fellow Washington, DC bloggers on CitizenEffect's Gulf Mission blogging trip, was to meet and learn from fishing families about the oil disaster - hoping to find ways to help out. Despite beaches being inaccessible due to disaster response, I assumed neighborhoods and eateries would still be active hubs for local folks we could talk to.

But it was all quiet.