Bay St. Louis - MISSISSIPPI
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
LOTS MORE PICTURES - CLICK HERE
June 11-17, 2006
(return to Tammy's homepage here or email TamaraGross AT cfl.rr.com)
Sunday June 11
WOW - On my way to the hurricane relief, I was hit by a HURRICANE!
It took about 2 hours to drive what would have been less than an hour, because I left late Sunday, just as it started to sprinkle. By the time I was 2 miles out, it was nearly haling & the wind was blowing fiercely (I'd just put my garbage out to the curb - probably strewn all over the neighborhood now).
ALBERTO got me. It wasn't till I finally reached Gainesville that it let up completely. From there, it was just lead foot driving to make up for lost time. I was still an hour late arrive in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Very familiar stuff. It looks much like Pass Christian did in November! There's only been power & an open Wal-Mart for about 2 weeks now. The church is being run from a warehouse for pool supplies. Somehow, its structure survived, though it's by no means in tact.
They actually have wi-fi!
DAY 1 - Monday June 12
8am came too early, even for me after gaining an hour crossing the timezone. A group of do-gooders all converged on a small house being built in a neighborhood where Habitat was able to get several acres of land, all ABOVE sea level. This area was not as damaged as most, though tornado spawns left their mark pretty much everywhere. But the water only rose about 2 feet at the worst in this small area.
I've never done a build. I've never done a build in the hot sun, in June in Mississippi. Wow. Heat exhaustion gets EVERYONE here. Today was especially relentless. I became too overheated by just standing in the sun while the foreman explained this & that, so I was forced to be a shade wimp for the rest of the day. I ended up helping to put all the windows in after the lunch break. It was tedious, but certainly my part was designed for wimps. I had done enough hammering of the Tyvek in the morning to create blisters & sore muscles in places I didn't know existed in my arms & fingers, so I guess I earned it, but honestly this team of people is amazing. People just pressed on despite their misery, & had I the stamina I would have done more hammering in the sun, but I just couldn't.
Funny - I can hike in 110 degree Utah sun (which I hope to get to later this month), but this "inhale & you drown" humidity is a killer.
The wi-fi kinda went funky this afternoon when I returned, & so I had to go over to a café & buy a $4 shake to use their free wi-fi (in the A/C - it was worth it). I met a woman there who lives in town, a few blocks from our build site, & she was so thankful for folks like us (& there are MANY, but not enough). She invited me to come to her house this week anytime & enjoy a fireside chat, or even just do my laundry. (Everyone is going through clothes fast - the guys change shirts 2-3 times during the day). She is apparently not very financially steady, but is inspired enough to want to join a Habitat team too. So I gave her some contact info.
Showering only rinses old guck off. It creates new guck because there is no getting dry, so you never really stop sweating. I have such a greater appreciation for my A/C at home, & even in my car! I doubt I will ever feel dry at all this entire week.
TUESDAY June 12, 2006 
Here in Mississippi it looks too much like it did back in November when I was here. I’m surprised. The beaches are AWESOME, but now they’re cluttered with storm debris that no one has removed. So the beaches are unuseable.
The fact that SO many houses are condemned yet not torn down is another oddity to me. I’m still taking it all in & trying to process it. I suppose that it's easy to think I can figure it all out coming in from outside, but it's never that easy. What do I know?
Last night the pastor of the church (which is a warehouse) told the incoming teen group that he grew up here, but was pastoring a church in another state when the hurricane hit. He had pleaded with his mother to evacuate & eventually got her to listen, but they could not persuade his aunt & other relatives. Those who stubbornly stayed all drowned. He returned with his mom after the storm & felt the calling to move back to be a part of the rebuilding of homes & lives. So he started a church out of a warehouse. So far they've had just 3 weekend services.
The church is "Lagniappe Presbyterian." Sounds like "LAN-yap" & it is a Cajun word that basically means to do or give more than is expected. My mom taught me to always return borrowed things in the same or BETTER condition than I found them. It's sort of like that, only more generous.
Speaking of Mom - not sure she has a house right now. Alberto was a hurricane as it passed through Lake Panasoffkee. Not sure if all is OK until she can drive back up there. She's safe with my doggy in Cape Canaveral for now. She says it's very windy & rainy, but manageable.
Today I had to fully wimp out at the worksite. The heat exhaustion from yesterday had never really subsided, leaving me with a lingering headache. I was sluggish, so at 11am I decided I should leave for the day to recoup, & hopefully will be all better for full days to end the week.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2006
Taking a half day off when the heat has gotten you is a good idea. I actually started feeling better as today wore on, so my rest yesterday helped a lot. It's still VERY VERY hot, but Monday was definitely the killer.
We finished our part of the work on the house on Union Street today. Pros take over from here to do some finishing work. We go to another house tomorrow.
I took a drive to Pass Christian at sunset, & while I did see some improvement, it looked disappointingly the same in many places. It is ahead of Bay St. Louis in some ways though. Below are two pictures of the Wal-Mart in Pass Christian. One was taken in November, the other today. Can you tell the difference? I couldn't. Still completely gutted & nothing seems to have been done at all there.
I didn't drive to the houses we worked on. I'll save that for the weekend. I'm hoping to see a big difference on the main road of the neighborhood where we worked in November. God's Katrina Kitchen is still there on Rt 90 in Pass Christian. Looked busy as ever, now with a Rusty Pelican big top tent planted next door.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
We worked at another house today a few blocks away. The family lives on the property at the "old" house that they called home for over 25 years, & they are involved in the building process. This house is closer to finished. We primed & painted & hung doors all over the house. Tomorrow will do more & another team will do more finishing next week.
The house is the 1,001st Habitat house in Mississippi. It's great having the homeowners there & hearing their story. They waited to leave & couldn't get out when Katrina came, so they spent 7 hours in their attic, & they've been living in a FEMA trailer ever since that finally came. The man of the family, Billy, lost his Dad who lived in a nearby town & stubbornly stayed. Susan's sister lived nearer to the beach & stayed, but miraculously survived.
Mississippi folk are definitely stubborn! But it's not always to their detriment. It makes them VERY hardy & determined in their contribution to life.
Lagniappe Church has a Thursday night praise time all are invited to, which excited me since I felt I needed the spiritual injection. But they have their logistics a bit backward for music. During the week, they are hosting volunteers from all over the country/globe, including Habitat people from many walks of life. And on Sundays they pretty much just have the locals here. But musically, I was made to feel like a very awkward outsider since all but one song was very specific to the Presbyterian denomination. I do praise music for a living, but I'd never heard of any of those songs or the authors (& they sang ALL SIX verses of EVERY song!). The words were really hard to follow (lots of Elizabethan phrasing with big unfamiliar words), & it sounded like youth camp stuff from the 70s. The kids from the visiting Presbyterian churches all knew the songs, but the rest of us were just standing there clueless. Apparently on Sundays, when locals are here, they try to do a mix of more recognizable hymns. Hmm. Seems backward to me. There are a few things that Lagniappe does unintentionally which sort of puts some Habitat people at odds. But they are still growing & learning, & I think/hope that most of us are cutting a lot of slack.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Our final day. Homeowner Susan changed clothes 2 or 3 times helping us & running family errands. She's a go-getter! Habitat usually only works for first-time home buyers, but in the wake of Katrina they are bending their own rules, which makes sense since so much extra money is coming in specifically because of the catastrophe.
The homeowners had some really great videos that show the true impact of devastation from the perspective of those who lived it. I especially want to share the before/after photos of the neighboring town Waveland. If I can get those files uploaded, I'll post the link.
Meanwhile, we accomplished a lot, but there's still much painting & carpentry to be done by next week's team. Most of the Habitat folks are leaving early tomorrow, but some are staying to do more work. I may put in an appearance, but I have to get my music work done first.
Sad to say goodbye, we all met at a local eatery that has good seafood. It was great, but conversation was tough with the acoustics of the place. We all blew curfew & some are still not back I think (it's almost 11pm as I type).
I've learned SO much while here, I can't begin to sum it all up. Until you participate in a project like this, you can't really learn from anything I would say. If you've been through any kind of catastrophe, then you do know how important it is to have outside help. Until some men from North Carolina showed up at my door in Orlando after the Hurricane in 2004, I was at a complete loss with two huge trees sitting on my house. If you haven't had that happen, or you haven't ever volunteered, I urge you to travel to the gulf port region, or to volunteer in your own community, or join a Habitat team, or the likes. Perspective changes, & it changes your life. It's still changing mine.
Tammy Gross
----------------------------------------
MORE PHOTOS from my road trip are being updated through 4th of July...
New Orleans photos (sorry - didn't take many pix, but the devastation on the outskirts is really evident just driving from I-10). Mom's 70th birthday was this weekend, so we toured the French Quarter & Garden District. Got to see famous Bourbon Street, & stayed in a hotel right off of Canal Street. We saw Nicholas Cage & Courtney Cox (well, our carriage driver spotted them).
I did stop in Thibodaux to talk to Habitat people about the possibility of an AmeriCorps assignment. Due to some strict rules about pets & part-time work, I won't be taking the position, but it was good to see first hand the location & drive through the Bayou area where there is a lot of damage from both Katrina & Rita.
Hikes photos on the way to The Grand Canyon...