Day 5

Wow, so this trip is now more than halfway over. Unfortunately I was a bit down today. Pretty much enjoying everything except for the actual building. It's mostly the fact that I feel useless. This really isn't my sort of thing.

I woke up this morning to FREEZING. But it was the first time I dreamt the entire time I've been here. Two halves: first half I dreamt I was some (french?) girl, that looked nothing like me, that really wanted to get pregnant. She found a guy, did the deed and had a baby and was happy! Yea that weirded me out. For the second half I dreamt I incidently sat next to Sandra Bullock who I didn't recognize because she had her hair in a bun (yea...the thing is, it'd prolly happen that way). I got her autograph in a very covert way so that no one would make a big deal about a celebrity being in this restaurant. And I thought I was acting very cool about it. Except that she was sitting not too far from Brad Pitt. Apparently this was THE place for celebs to chill and hang out.

Alright so, the point is, I didn't want to get up. But I did. And I ate. And then I went back to my original house. Rachel and I gave Elliott and Nick back rubs and we started working on the roof, pulling out lots of nails and hammering the ones that needed to stay. At about 11 I ran out of momentum and anything to do so I sunbathed a little bit. Elliott and Nick never seemed to stop moving, so I felt I didn't do nearly as much work today as I should have. Anyhoo, Joe and I walked to camp (who btw, plays the ukelele and carries it with him EVERYWHERE!) and to lunch, then back again. It's been really great to actually walk these last few days, I never realized that I walked so much at MICA!

I felt even MORE useless for the 2nd half of the day so after some tinkering around and laying paper down on the roof Rachel and I took a walk around the block to cool down. We felt better but by the time we got back the gnats (or as they're called here "no-see-'ems") rose in swarms and pretty much ran me off the roof, out of the yard and into a car where even there I wasn't completely safe. So that was frustrating. But! I did get a lot of good pictures of all the OTHERS working. Go me.

We got back and pretty much every simple thing I tried to do turned into a debacle. I went to take a shower and nothing came out but blaring hot water. After about 20 soapy minutes later it calmed down so I quickly finished while I had the chance. I tried to pay my 2 student loan bills so THEY wouldn't be late and the internet was like dying of old age it was SO SLOW. I scarfed down dinner (which was very delicious, hurray for burritos) and we all went to this Baptist service. Oh man, there's no way you'd ever sleep through these services, no matter what faith (or lack thereof) you follow!

Now we're back, and the internet's running at a good speed so I finally got to pay my last (of two) bills and blog this here entry! Woo! now I gotta work on the other official blog so I gotta run....

until tomorrow!

Day 4

Well what a day today was! I switched up houses today, opted to learn the whole drywall process and everything. Remember those houses on stilts I was talking about? I was in one today! And it's gonna be huge. I envy the family moving into this house..minus the nerves about being on stilts...

anyway! drywall is a lot less complicated than I thought it would be! plus..I really didn't realize that that's what our walls are made out of...that's kind of frightening.

So that was fun...unfortunately when I got back after lunch I was so sleepy I wasn't feeling into it..so I took a nap for an hour and a half in a truck...and then when I woke up I fumbled around until it was time to go home.

But! then it was time to go to NEW ORLEANS! WOO! Of course I didn't realize it took an hour to get there...but that was a fun (albeit VERY bumpy) ride. New Orleans is beautiful. Wonderful architecture and wonderful people who serve wonderful food. We went first to this restaurant called La Maspera where I had a delicious fried shrimp sandwich with tomatoes, tartur sauce and pickles with really good french fries...and a strawberry daquiri..for a DOLLAR! That and did you know you could walk around the streets with alcohol? cause it's legal? That blew my mind. Then we went to this place called Cafe du Monde for baignets (fried dough) with powdered sugar...only MY FAVOURITE!

A new acquaintance Joe, acting as our tour guide 'cause he lived there before, told me that on your birthday if you pin a dollar to your shirt (or jacket or whatever) people will come up to you and pin other bills to you! It's apparently a strict NO thing =O I didn't get to put it into practice tho...but good thing to know for next time for sure!

Some souvenir shops and bourbon street later we found Coyote Ugly. Which was more Ugly than anything else...yea the movie improved on the idea by far!

As always I can't wait to post pictures. Overall a very good day.

Day 3

I just noticed that the day of the month is corresponding with the number of days of my trip! That's so awesome! Ok, so today's the real day. No more catch up. This is the REAL DEAL!

And now even Rachel's going to bed. You KNOW it's time for me to go when she goes.

Alright so this morning we wake up at 6. Not by choice but because Rachel's phone rang. I don't think I ever wanted to mutilate a phone so badly as I did at that moment. I finally dragged myself out of bed at 7 and had a wonderful breakfast of waffles, sausage, orange juice and an apple. I found myself a disaster relief t-shirt, we took the obligatory Gaithersburg group picture and made it to our sites! Woo! Hurray for being excited and terrified at the same time!

We went to this guy's house that we had to gut completely. It had been submerged in 30 feet of water. 30! Apparently the whole area was evacuated, and those that elected to stay behind never made it through the storm. I met the homeowner and his son. They're so matter-of-fact about the whole thing. One thing struck me that the son said. While I was asking him about it, he said that it was so long ago, he could barely remember the details. That's right! It's been 3 years. And they're still trying to get their home back. So besides running around taking a lot of pictures (almost 300 so far!), I helped sweep up debris, pull out nails and shovel up old tile. Doesn't really sound like much, but it was back-breaking manual labor. This community service thing is hard work! We got there at about 8 and worked until 4. There was such a huge difference in the house by the end of the day it was pretty amazing. Walking around outside and feeling the warm breeze on my face (it's 80 degrees down here btw, holy crap, winter is gonna kick my ass when I get back) I could see myself living in an area like this if I wasn't so terrified a hurricane was gonna come and take it all away from me.

Another story I heard today was of a woman who was 8 months pregnant. When the evacuation was announced she refused to leave. Her husband (or boyfriend?), I'm guessing only because he didn't want to stay, left her there. When it started flooding she made it up to her roof. When the water level rose above her roof she climbed into a tree. WHILE PREGNANT! Can you imagine?? So yea. She was rescued and had the baby a month and a half later. A girl. Who, no, is not named Katrina. Yes, I asked. And I guess the bf/hubby came back because he was the one who recounted the tale. I don't thing I'd TAKE him back if I were her!

Some of these houses down here are amazing. A code went into effect that required that if you were going to rebuild your house or try to save it, you had to elevate it 12 feet from the ground. So a lot of the houses I've seen on here are literally on stilts. They're like treehouses...only your HOME. I can't wait to show you. It's pretty amazing.

Another amazing thing was my shower afterwards! It's so good to feel CLEAN after breathing in asbestos/fiberglass-dust all day. Ok so I had a gas mask on. But that stuff was everywhere! Our dinner was really nice, too. Then there were games of Dominos and Boggle and now I'm on here baloggin. But not for much longer 'cause I'm tired and we're getting up just as early tomorrow.

There's a thunderstorm going on outside of our community tent right now. The wind's been getting fierce, too. We did have a tornado watch earlier and we had a place set up to evacuate to, but it seems this is the worst of it. That's good. I can't do much help if I get sucked into the sky by grandfather twister. Somehow I equate a tornado with grandfather time. Go figure. Alright, I should really go to bed now. I'm glad I won't have to write 3 posts tomorrow.

WOO! stay tuned

Day 2

So! Onto Day 2. We drove some more...yay! One funny thing I have to mention is that one of the older women I'm travelling with, Ruth, was dubbed Mary Poppins because she has EVERYTHING you will ever need. Ever. And she's one of the sweetest women you'll ever meet. ANYhoo, apparently she gets up at 5am. So at 5:20 when I got up in our little Tennessee motel room to go to the bathroom I groggily find Ms. Poppins in the bathtub reading a book. This confused me in my incredibly sleepy state. She has to be at least 70 and she made a nest out of a blanket and pillow in the BATH to read. AWESOME.

Right, so we got up and I practiced more of my juggling before we went to breakfast. Oh! I forgot to mention that in my first post. For dinner we went to Cracker Barrell (or however the eff you spell it) and I bought myself a set of juggling balls. I know what you're thinking, STOP IT. Anyway, they were 5 bucks and I couldn't resist cause I always wanted to learn. THANKS Gina. So yea, poor Rachel had to put up with a stray ball hitting her now and again in the back as I tended to practice...right behind her. Anyway! I'm surprised she didn't kill me.

Belly full we made our way for the rest of the way! We hit a few pit-stops before we drove into Tuscaloosa, Alabama to go to Dreamland, the infamous bbq ribs place. I can't wait to upload the pics for that omigoodness. And theeen I think we got into our little tent village thing at about 6:30. This ongoing debate between Elliott and I just reached a highly heated point that didn't cool until after dinner. That boy does know how to make my blood boil in a debate. But we always hug afterwards and that's why we're friends. Or were. Mwahaha. No, just kidding. Or am I? Nah, just pulling your leg. OR AM I?

Right soo uhh we're sleeping on cots in these..pod thingies I dunno. The one we're in looks like it can fold up like an accordian. It's pretty cool. Especially 'cause it's heated. Yay!

So then sleepy time.

Day 1

Hello friends!
I decided I really wanted to create a blog to document my journey to, in and from Pearlington, Mississippi. As some or all of you reading this may know, I'm here on top of the Gulf of Mexico from March 1- March 9. It's my first ever big community trip to help disaster victims (and, well, ever). Or first mission trip if you MUST call it that. Which I don't. But it's up to you. In any case, the internet connection here isn't stellar so I have to keep the picture uploads to one at maximum for each day which sucks, but I'm happy to be getting online at all.

Sooo the first day. The first day was all driving really. But it started off with a bang. We were supposed to meet the van group in front of the church at 8. My phone's alarm decided to make my life interesting and NOT go off at 6 when I wanted it to and I instead woke myself up at dun dun DUUUN 7:43. As you can imagine chaos ensued. A very grumpy, stressed out Ronni threw everything she thought she needed into her bag, while also a frustrated and anxious Elliott and Rachel paced downstairs. We finally made it out at 8:20. I was already regretting the decision to go on this trip. Anyway, it thankfully vastly improved from that point on.

There was laughter, there was a bit of singing, there were in-depth conversations and quite a handful of pit-stops. From 9 in the morning till about 8 at night we drove from Gaithersburg, MD to Chatanooga, TN. My first trip into the south! Whoa! Southern accents EVERYWHERE! There was beautiful weather and the mountains got more glorious the further we drove.

Alright, I'm gonna have to cut this short because with the internet as it is I'm becoming weary. And I've had quite the exhausting day. I tried uploading my one photo and it didn't work. SOOO I'll upload it when the internet's better or I get home. Whichever happens first. =O Hope I didn't disappoint y'all.