Last Day of Work Continued...

Yesterday we had several minor victories. The rain held off and the paint crew was able to get the entire house painted at least with primer, some with 2nd coat of orange, and one whole side with the final twilight green--which appears brown. They felt good that all the wood was protected before the rain hit--which it did. As we were packing up at 4:30 it began to pour. Bill and Douglas got most of the outlets in and working in the house as well. (That was all at Captain John's.)
At Mr. Pat's we got the kitchen, dining areas, 2 bedrooms and 1 bath done. Regina and Jeff are planning to pass off the rest of the job to another crew next week.
Captain John is waiting to have hip replacement surgery until he can get into his house. Mr. Pat is experiencing some dementia and desperately wants to get back to the home that he knows. His granddaughter days that he keeps trying to find a ride to Pearlington from Slidell. Ben is hoping that he can get both of them in their homes by the end of January.

Last Day of Work

Will add comments later--outside the closed coffee shop and forgot my reading glasses so ignore any typos! I want to post photos of Captain John's (the one on the water) and Mr. Pat's where we are ripping out the tiles. By the end we had figured out faster, better methods. Jeff and I finished our entire bedrooms and joined Regina in the livingroom where she had finished kitchen and dining area. After the 1st day we never envisioned getting as far as we did but again, 5 days on one room! It was awful work and my hands are so sore that typing hurts! Bill came over and got the furnace working today--still no water--it turns out the pump has burned out bearings so we've still been taking bathroom trips to the New Hope Church. I have lots of thoughts to share but will save those for a time when I have glasses :) Did see Miss Ana (last year) and she recognized me right away and gave me a big hug. That was my highlight of the day--aside from finally finishing that bedroom floor! More tomorrow....

Tuesday

Just a quick note that I'll edit and add more on Thursday--am sitting outside a closed coffee shop just to send what I already had done..we're alive,well, and exhausted! Am uploading photos of our lunch break!
Also included are the annual photos at the Pearlington sign==we're all wearing Emily's gloves in the group shot. Douglas Bill and I are the trio..

Monday Night

Monday Night—Day 4 12/21/09
Before I forget: Happy Anniversary to Randi and Jill and your respective spouses! Hope you all had great trips and celebrations!
I will try to upload lots of photos today since the ones I uploaded for Day 1 disappeared. Again, no access to WiFi so am hoping to get to Slidell tomorrow to send this! At Captain John’s, after all the harrowing experiences on the triple tier scaffolding and ladder bridges, etc., it turns out the paint was the wrong color!! (I thought pumpkin orange was a strange choice!) Now it’s some shade of green that I haven’t yet seen. So it’s back up on the scaffolding again for them. We have spent almost all the extra money we raised on the electrical things for Captain John’s (about $400)—and we weren’t able to get all of them. Bill got everything he thinks he can put in this week—all the switches, outlets, switch plates, outdoor lights, dryer and range outlets, video outlets, etc. We had 45 minutes til closing at Loew’s to find all of this stuff the other night. (You can still donate through Brittany’s site at CA2MS.blogspot.com using Pay Pal.  ) 5 of our group are staying over Christmas and another 11 arrive on the 26th.
At Mr. Pat’s we kept on removing floor tiles—it is really hard work and although we’ve tried a variety of techniques nothing has made it easier. We finally got power late this afternoon but no water or heat so we hope to get that sorted out tomorrow.
Yesterday I drove to Slidell to find the internet and buy groceries as mentioned previously. What you don’t know is that I’ve never driven here and while I can “feel” my way round and know some parts really well in Pearlington, I haven’t paid much attention to getting here. Bill showed me how to use his Tom Tom and he entered the center of Slidell as our destination. Ellen had never been to Slidell so she watched the TomTom. Unfortunately, the downtown was nowhere near anything I recognized or where we wanted to be. I drove around making what I hoped were logical guesses and finally saw a Rte 10 sign. I knew that I wanted the area right off Rte 10—which the Tom Tom hadn’t taken us anywhere near. Finally I found the Starbucks I remembered right by Rte. 10 but couldn’t find the Walmart that was supposed to be a left turn after Mc Donalds. When we ended our odyssey at Starbucks they told us that Walmart was just down the frontage road behind this shopping center. :)
Today I kept the van so I could run folks to the bathrooms—Mr. Key’s, church, fire station, wherever. Bill unfortunately had the Tom Tom in his pocket when it was time to go home. I got directions to Captain John’s from where we were but there was an overturned tractor trailer blocking the road. Jeff, Regina, and I figured we could find our way back to the house in Waveland on our own and we did. I knew how to get to the interstate, Regina and Jeff knew which way to turn, I knew the name of the road we needed to turn off on and they knew the landmarks—talk about teamwork!
Each night Jeff has prepared dinner and we’ve had our “debriefing” during and after dinner. We talk about the highlights or lowlights(?) of our day and share some of what we experienced. It’s nice having the smaller group of 8 for that and yet I miss the interaction with the other young adults in the group. (Most of them arrive on the 26th.) Everyone is working really hard and I am especially proud of Douglas and Regina our two college students. They have been outstanding—and never complain. Ben tells us each day that he’s surprised we’re still at Mr. Pat’s since it’s such an awful job but someone has to do it so guess that’s us this week. Really tired and not sure how much sense I’m making so will quit here!

Day 3--Bathrooms

By now you've figured out that there is no WIFI anywhere near where we are staying. I had typed up my blog in word so I could quickly copy it. We worked at the same sites today and I am in Slidell w/Ellen to get food for dinner (and post these entries!) Most of us take bathrooms for granted most of the time. However, working here in homes that are being readied for occupancy, we don't have bathrooms. Several of the porta potties that used to be around town are gone--a good sign but not helpful. We were told to try the fire station. The doors were open, the trucks were out, but no one answered our calls. Jeff went on in and found a guy asleep on a cot. He woke up and told us to go ahead and then went right back to sleep--snoring away :) Today, we drove to a church when the need arose and used their restroom which was right outside the main door to the sanctuary. A beautifully dressed lady was walking in as I exited in workboots, grubby clothes, bandana, etc. and she thanked us for our work and said to come anytime. Later this afternoon, we decided to walk to the church but as we went by a home I'd worked in before the man came out and said hello and asked where we were from. I told him that I had worked on the sheetrock in his house and he welcomed us in for a tour--I pointed out that we'd love to use his bathroom! The house looked great and he said he'd been in since August. He offered us a tour--Regina had used the bathroom and Jeff was in there now. On the tour Mr. Keyes stopped at the bathroom door and said "This is the bathroom==not sure why the door is closed? as he opened it we all yelled that Jeff was in there! (Interactive tour) There's a picture of Joe and I here. He said if his truck is out front we're welcome any time. One photo is of the fire house and another of the church we mentioned. We left toilet paper there today as a donation. The people in this town are so gracious and welcoming! Well off to the store to get dinner--photos from today will follow...

Day 2--1st day of work

Day 2 Mississippi 5

Headed over to Ben’s around 7:45AM to get our job assignments—he was, as always, really happy to see us. He said he needed 8 more of each of us with all the work he has lined up. We went first to the “yellow house” which many of you will remember from photos of our previous trips. Tom, the first responder who has been back every 6 weeks since Katrina and has organized “Mountains to Mississippi” (and our work), bought the house which has held a special place in our hearts from the time we “mucked” it out. We toured it quickly, loaded up the scaffolding and took it over to Captain John’s where part of our group would be painting the exterior—I hear that Douglas was up 3 tiers high! It was great to see Captain John’s house almost ready to be moved into. One of our trips we had a group trying to put in the pilings for his house but the location he’d chosen was just too low and they kept filling with water. Bill is needed everywhere to do electrical work. At Captain John’s he spent the day figuring out the wiring and what type of switchplates, etc. were needed. Our group will buy them as they are out of money—that’s where the extra money that we raise goes. The boat next to Captain John’s is the one that was in the infamous boat on house photo from the first trip.

Regina, Jeff and I were dropped at Mr. Pat’s to take up self stick tile—we thought in one room and it was the entire house. When Ben came back in the afternoon he said he wasn’t sure we’d still be there since it was such an awful job! We told him we were close to quitting at that point. Another group had put this self stick tile in but it was coming up all over the house. When we saw the extent of the job I suggested gluing the stuff back down but that wasn’t an option J We had to take out all the baseboard that had been put in and painted—without damaging the walls. The tile was really hard to get out. The 3 of us worked all day and each only removed 16-20 tiles!! I called Loew’s to ask how to do this and if heat would help. They suggested solvent but you’d have to lift the tiles a bit anyway. Tomorrow we’re going to take small heaters and heat lamps and try that to see if it loosens the glue. In the room I was in I found the ones in the sun came off easier.

It was frustrating to have to remove something where time, effort, and money had been used to get this house ready to move into and now we will spend time and effort removing all of it and then someone else will have to do a whole new floor—evidently ceramic tile and laminate. One of the many frustrations of this type of volunteer work but I tried to tell myself that this is where God wanted me to be and that I was here to help where needed regardless of what I thought I should be doing.

In the queue that will be left for the 2^nd part of our group which arrives next week, is the home of a widow that lives in Kiln. Her home here was destroyed and she and her husband moved to her father in laws home which had tornado damage but wasn’t flooded. Her husband died 18 months ago and there is a lot of work to be done.

The first day back is always hard because we see how much work there is still to do. I did see fewer Katrina cottages and trailers and saw some more folks in their homes but then saw others where I could see nothing had been done since our last Christmas trip. It feels a bit like coming home each time we return and after 5-8 trips we have a lot of friends to visit. The amount of work left in this one little town is overwhelming—and this is one little town out of this entire Gulf Coast area! I feel a sense of urgency each trip to get as much done as we can since it’ll be so long before we can get back to help again. Am hoping to find a place w/internet after dinner so I can actually post this! Thanks again for all of your support—whether financial or emotional!

1st Day

December 18^th

We’re finally all settled in our rental house in Bay St. Louis (about 15 minutes from Pearlington.) This was the first time in the 5 trips that I’ve been on that they actually had our rental vans ready for us! Leaving New Orleans we remarked on how different it was from those first few trips where everything on either side of the freeway was in absolute darkness due to the devastation. We can see lights along the way and know that recovery is happening even if it is too slowly. Some of us wore our Pearlington shirts and while several folks thought we were going to a family reunion, one of the flight attendants said that her parents had volunteered in Pearlington too! There are 8 of us working this week 5 of whom will stay over Christmas for the 2^nd week and another group of 11 arrive on the 26^th. We will be at Ben’s house tomorrow around 7:30AM to receive our assignments for the day. Part of the group is shopping for food and supplies at Walmart. I can’t wait to see what’s been done since last Christmas. Douglas was here in the spring but it’s been a year for Bill and I. I’m looking forward to visiting the families whose homes we’ve worked on—especially Miss Ana and Sam & Lyn. Some of you will remember my stories of Miss Ana and the photos of her beautiful home last year. Sam is the one that rescued and placed over 800 dogs in that first year after Katrina hit. Lyn is the one that contributed to the book “The Women of Mississippi Remember” which we gave to several of you after it came out. I know that once I’m back at work in Pearlington tomorrow, the problems at school will recede for me a bit and that will be good. However, when I do see people whose lives have been devastated and who are still not in their homes after 4 years it will also cause me to have less patience with the bickering, polarizing, and lack of tolerance and professionalism that our staff has been showing lately! That would be an entirely different blog! The photos that I am including are of the view from the plane as we approached New Orleans, pictures of the gloves that Emily Cruze knitted for every member of our group (thanks Emily!), some of our group picking out gloves, and Douglas who is sleeping on the much too short sofa!