Living Reflections from a Dream

Think again

A lot of people are doing a lot of amazing, kind and generous things for Katrina victims. It's so encouraging to see people come together and help those in desperate need. A friend of mine (and fellow Syracuse grad) is doing something that I think is amazing. She has taken a 2 week leave of absense from her job to go with a group of volunteers to help with the clean up and recovery. I'm going to be posting the updates she sends (as long as her Blackberry connectivity continues). They left yesterday...

Another update from my friend, Joan, who is in Mississippi helping with Katrina cleanup.

It's 1:15AM and I'm just hitting the hay. Days are hard here (physically -- labor and heat -- and emotionally) so most people are hitting the hay after dinner.

A reporter from the AP wire came by today as did some folks from CMT
(Country Music Channel). Lee, the Camp Manager, insisted they interview me
and Dave, who just started today as our Project Director since Gary just
left tonight...in addition to others of course. It's funny, the AP wire
folks thought we were housing homeless families in our tents and the CMT --
"the MTV of the South" as someone here said, ha ha! Were stuck in traffic
and were basically like what's going on here with all this. Folks from the
Kentucky Public Health Dept came by today. I did get back to Mr. Booth with
some things, and Mr. Coleman, and the two boys. I don't remember if I told
you but I found two cool backpacks for them and filled them with kids kits
someone from here brought down that I amended slightly for their age (in
addition to adding a couple treats), the Soldier bears and water. I
specifically chose the bears of a colleague of mine from work who had her
children write the notes so I could tell them they came from other children
in Washington, DC, (well Maryland) who were just a little younger than they
were. It was nice. I sent out some with another team because I knew they
had kids and they said the kids loved them!

We were in the local paper on Monday. It's strange because being here
without tv (none of us), you really do not know what is going on. Not that
you can't get a paper, but we're so focused on our Mission that's really all
we do. It's interesting though, the CMT keep filming some volunteers
playing soccer and football because they wanted to capture volunteers
"letting off steam". Although there had been some soccer balls and
footballs around, it's not like that's what people are doing once they're
back at camp. Anyway, I'm rambling and tired. Thank you for your kind
words, encouragement, and prayers.

Another update from my friend, Joan, who is in Mississippi helping with Katrina cleanup.

Greetings from Gautier! I started a response back ysesterday and my battery went dead and I lost it. Kind of appropriate for here since we lost electricity in one area of camp due to running too many cords.

So since I've been here, the camp site manager, Lee, has been hinting to me
about needing a Supply manager. Basically you get nominated as leader for
anything here you're good at! It's a pressure system, people just kind of
keep telling you you're it until you concede -- ha ha! So my entire day
yesterday was spent setting up basically a distribution center for our
supplies, sorting through boxes and piles of stuff and determing what our
needs were and what things we needed to get to someone else to distribute so
it basically wouldn't just sit here and get ruined in the rain. Yes, we are
living camp style so you've got to keep the elements in line. In addition
to setting up a dining area for 30, some of the kitchen area, an office
space for Greg our Projects Leader, a First AID stand, and I think that's
it. I've got an Inventory Control Center, a WRITTEN SOP (have to copy DIRB
cause I know they'll get a chuckle) for buying supplies, a Logs person, and
a heap of stuff to get to the Baptist Church down the road that is acting as
a central distribution point. I can't wait to show you the pictures!

Although I didn't go out and work on a house yesterday, I feel really good
about getting us better set for the months ahead. And no sooner than I took
down one of our 'illegal' close lines, a huge truck backed in (part of my
planning I must say) from Northrup Drummon (I think that's the name) and
said we got water and gatorade -- you need it? We we're like yes!
Fortunately a group of volunteers had just arrived and we made like a
military line and passed off the water to the newly designated space! It
was great! I've got to run, I'm getting pulled already...talk soon! And
keep us up to date on the tropical storm off the keys please -- I have my
cell and BB on.

Take care!

Another update from my friend, Joan, who is in Mississippi helping with Katrina cleanup.

QUICK update. AP Reporter (Vicki) and tv camera men came by camp earlier today and I talked with her and directed her to others. Thenthen went out to one of our work sites (we have 5 teams now) and shot some footage...

I also went with the two leads this morning to meet with Reverend Banks down
the road at the Baptist church. We drove around to meet with families and
do house assessments to see what / if we could do repairs. I think it was
good foe me to go because the 3 men were all business on the carpentry stuff
while I tried to provide psycho/social support -- giving hugs and asking
people if they needed clothing or health kits, or if that had family that
needed diapers etc. I'm gonna cry if I write this and I'm also trying to be
quick b/c there is just so much to do. You know it's bad when a grown man
will take the time after kindly asking him in private away from the other
men if he needs anything and he does finally say he can use some clothes
because he doesn't have anything more than what he's wearing that is soaked
through with sweat. And so I've got his sizes and went through the trailer
and tried to find the best I could for him. And the 2 little boys who
looked like twins but were actually a year apart...I'm bringing them a
football, soccer ball and 2 new cool backbacks with fun things including
some twizzlers and famous amos choc chip cookies I smuggled in! :). Later so
I can get these things to the families...

Another update from my friend, Joan, who is in Mississippi helping with Katrina cleanup.

It's 9:45PM, and I'm writing you from the back of our RV, in a camp made up of about 50+ volunteers (most in tents -- or our 'tent city') from around the country who have come to try to provide immediate disaster relief to a place called Gautier, Mississippi.

There is so much that I want to tell you about today, about the people I've
met, the things I've seen, the work I've done. About, Lee and Greg, Mr.
Price, and Dawn, and Jean, and Agnes, and the incredible resilence I've
seen, about the Mormon Team working across the street, and the little boy
with the poodle, and how just seeing a cookie cutter in the mud, the metal
kind with a wooden handle, that my grandmother used to have, nearly made me
break down and cry. About how the water lines on the doors of a workshop
that housed 60 years of a man's possessions were at least 5 feet high and
still wet. How I spent the day since we got here hauling out everything we
could from there to the front yard of the house that essentially looked and
smelled like a dump. How not only was it the water from the storm, but also
the sewer waters backed up. How incredibly hot it was outside. How there
are these strange black bugs that fly around. How I learned to operate a
circular saw so I could cut dry wall at a 4' high line so our team could
basically gut out Pop Pop's (94 year old grandfather) entire house. How his
grandson was running around trying to manage all these other houses in the
family that he hadn't even had time for his own yet. The mold, the dust,
the shattered lives. Every house's front yard next to the road was a pile
-- one big muddy dumpy mess of waterlogged ruined remains, making it hard
for pick ups to get through with shovels, and generators, and circular saws
and crow bars. Hugging people like Jean, who I had just met today, who was
still just trying to get over the recent loss of her husband, but now had
this. Her neighbor who lost 3 cars, and wasn't sure what "they" were gonna
do with their houses and asking us if we knew if "they" were just gonna
bulldoze them all. And just trying to help them get through this. How
little has been salvageable, yet losing those memories attached to those
keepsakes hurts so much. And how people are trying to salvage because they
need the money. How people need money, have tarps on their roof tops, are
staying with friends or a shelter but essentially homeless. How some don't
have insurance or the means. How they're hoping FEMA will come around and
replace their things. How they've thanked God we've come to help them. How
sometimes just helping someone laugh might mean the world to them. How I
have so much and am so blessed and how it has to take absolute catastrophic
disasters for us to really stop and help. I mean really stop, put down
everything, and help. And just how necessary this is. And how blessed I am
to be able to be here doing it. Not because I particularly like picking up
things that are heavy, dirty, smelly, rusty, musty, wet and old, but because
it might be the one tangible thing that is not only helping them get through
this but also maybe giving them the hope they need to be able to get through
this. Or the relief -- because these people are exhausted -- physically,
emotionally. I don't know. Or because I can't think of something more
rewarding than truly helping someone in need.

I know what I'm seeing here may be life changing for me. It is that
intense. I'll keep Mr. Price in my heart and prayers and remember that
despite seeing his father losing everything, and the rest of his family, and
he himself too, still teased me about "if I had a license to operate that
wheelbarrow?" and if maybe we should go to a casino to try and win some
money. But that when I suggested he might want to rest a bit and have some
water (he was 74) and I was concerned with the heat. "Rest?" He said to me,
"I've got all next week to rest."

That's it for now, but there's so much more. I'm staying here tomorrow to
help organize on site and attend the service being held here at 9AM. I knew
immediately when I saw how things were here I had a job to do, and Lee, the
Camp Manager needs some relief. I told him I'd give him 2 days over my time
here. I didn't bring the troops* out with me today because I had no idea
what to expect and people were so excited to work we really left without
enough provisions (water, etc), but when I go on Monday I plan to, and will
send some with our team that goes out tomorrow.

Did I mention I never worked so hard in my life? Interestingly though, I'm
not sore nor tired. The rest of the camp is asleep...I guess it's time for
me to do the same.

What kills me about this update is Joan has been in the Peace Corp in Africa, she once worked in an after school program which tried to keep kids, mostly extremely poor, out of gangs and off drugs. She currently works in public health dealing with AIDS in Africa. Yet, what she is seeing in Mississippi is a life changing event for her.

* troops are little stuff bears that she made to bring for the children down there.-----
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