Tuesday...Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras!

And what a day it's been!

I, uh, overslept this morning. The earplugs worked wonders! The Tempur-pedic mattress was exquisite! And while I did have some strange dreams, I didn't even hear my alarm sound repeatedly at 6:30AM.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, I was greeted by Dorothy and Judy, who were both FULL of Mardi Gras cheer! Dorothy, pictured on the left, was QUEEN of the Mardi Gras three years ago!!

After acquiring a couple of wheelbarrows and some extra tools, we headed out onto Route 90 (along the beach) toward our work site. The drive along the Gulf Coast Highway was our first look at "ground zero" in this area. My friend, Ken Davis, had told me that things were leveled. You can describe it. You can see it in photographs. But you can't get a real sense of what it's like until you see it first hand. Mile after mile of the most exquisite old trees, battered and bruised, no longer offer shade to grand old homes. The houses, stores, restaurants and hotels have largely been reduced to rubble. Every so often, a building remains standing and one wonders how it could possibly have endured when all around it was destroyed.

We (Roland, Barbara, Chelsea, Max, Emily and I - along with Carol and Doreen from O'Fallon, IL, across the river from St. Louis) arrived in three vehicles at the home to which we'd been assigned. The homeowner, who has been waiting since December for a work crew to arrive, greeted us warmly, saying, "My name's Lucinda but you can call me Marie." We introduced ourselves and Marie gave us a tour of the house, showing us what we would need to do. We'd be removing drywall (they call it "sheetrock" in these parts) in two bedrooms, the living room, bathroom and kitchen. In addition, we would be removing ceilings in the bathroom and kitchen. (That's Chelsea at Marie's house.)

We assembled our tools and went to work! Emily specialized in removal of baseboards! Chelsea spent a good deal of time cleaning out cupboards and stocking the POD out back of the house before she turned her attention to knocking out sheetrock.

Max's height is among his numerous gifts! He took care of removing mouldings in order to remove the sheetrock from up top. There were a few surprises, of course. This is the South. It is humid. There are bugs. A few times, when we removed panels of sheetrock, we were greeted by the scurrying of cockroaches. We learned very quickly that Emily does not like bugs. Period. Fortunately, Max was the one who discovered the little lizards in the walls!

Here are our buddies (roomies!) from O'Fallon, IL. (Who says that Big Ten groups can't work together?!) I was reminded that about 11 years ago I had a phone interview for a possible internship at their congregation, Faith Lutheran Church. Small world, eh? There's a LOT of that around here!

BTW, the majority of volunteers are from two groups: seniors (retired folks) and young adults (students). They ROCK!

We broke for lunch at about 11:30AM, decided to grab some lunch, change our shirts, regroup and head for the parade in Biloxi. (Even the folks in Gulfport said, "Go to Biloxi. It's THE parade"!)

I'll start another entry to share highlights of the parade with you, lest this program decide it wants to implode.

You may be interested in knowing that, while typing this, I've been watching a video assembled by a man who volunteered down here during the fall. Among the observations was this: the geographic region affected by Katrina is equivalent to the size of Great Britain.

Grace and Peace,

Sue