We're in the car... again. I'm just typing this up now, and we'll post it when we get some wireless!! It's hard to come by around here. So we've spent 2 days working in Biloxi, MS. The devastation is so hard to wrap my mind around. It doesn't even LOOK too horribly bad around here when you drive through the neighborhoods... except while most of the houses look okay from the outside (atleast now), almost all of them suffered from flooding. I don't mean to say everythings fine around here... because it certainly isn't. Everyday people clear out more stuff from houses and buildings and there is an endless amount of trash to be picked up all the time. The windows are broken in lots of abandoned buildings. Next to the McDonald's and Sonic's and other fast food chains that got put back together, there are whole buildings with roofs collapsed. Near the gulf, all you see are big signs for waffle house or olive garden, and the actual restaurants are nowhere to be seen. There's a gas station that is completely wrecked, and a souvenier shop that is three stories tall... the first story is completely wiped out except for the columns holding it up.
The first day we helped spray textured ceilings in a house that was already cleared out with new dry wall. Then we spray textured another ceiling in a womans house where the ceiling had collapsed and been fixed. We came back splattered with white paint, and feeling happy that we contributed in these small ways.
The next day we went to a woman's house who needed her hardwood floors ripped out in the entire house! This was HARD work. We're talking crow bars and hammers pulling wood with all our might. And a whole house worth of wood to get up! The woman's house got hit by a hurricane during the storm and she and her two kids stayed in the bathroom from 6 am to 4pm, when they came out, they're roof was collapsed in two rooms. Since then, she got her carpet removed and paid to get wood floors put in... but her wood floors were bubbling up because there was too much moisture still on the cement. So she needed some extra hands to help her with the work.
At camp biloxi many of the workers take off on sunday to do church. We decided it would be a good day to go to New Orleans and check out this kitchen I had found while researching places to volunteer. It's called the Made With Love Cafe in St. Bernard's outside of New Orleans. The drive there was SHOCKING. Things have been bad in Biloxi to the point of whole buildings and houses being completely gone and obliterated... but in St. Bernards and especially in the 9th Ward, right beyond where the levy broke, it just looked sooo horrible. There was 25 feet of flooding in this area... there are cars just scattered all over the place. We saw one truck that was upside down, and underneath and entire house. It didn't seem real that this was possible. I'm used to seeing the clean cut shapes of houses, their frames forming that triangle on top of the rectangle that you teach kids to draw when they're five... but the frames were bent, the rooms were disheveled, there were boats and fences wrapped up into the roofs that had collapsed or been blown away.
After the drive through St. Bernards... with no working traffic lights, and piles of rubble stacked higher than what was left of the buildings, we were so relieved to see the sign for "camp hope" where the cafe was located. Jason welcomed us in after a last minute call we made earlier that morning to see if we could volunteer. He was happy to have our help, a young guy, in his 20's or so. They just recently moved into the kitchen in an elementary school that had been destroyed, and we helped cook a meal for 450 people in the gymnasium. The meals were for volunteers and residents in that area. We had so much fun in the kitchen. The people in the place were mostly young. I met some fire fighters, one whose house was destroyed while he stayed during the storm as part of his job. He said the government doesn't pay attention to St. Bernards because it's not part of New Orleans. He said if it wasn't for people like us who were willing to volunteer, they would be in some serious trouble.
Given our amazing experience at the Cafe, we decided we wanted to spend more time there, and this morning we're driving back, we're leaving camp Biloxi to stay in St. Bernards. We found a great group of people in that kitchen, and we all just were so happy on the drive back to have been able to work there. I can't wait to show you all pictures because you wouldn't believe how much destruction there still is around here, almost a year later. So many people need help. I would encourage anyone who has the time to come down, to definitely come because this is such a phenomenal tragedy that our country has experienced, I feel like i'm more part of the history now that I've seen how bad it really is. And it's great to be able to feed people really really good food with a smile on my face.
With that I'm gonna go, thanks for reading all of this!
Jodi
PS- it's June 12th, Happy Birthday to Randy!!! (Rachael's Dad)
OH and one last awesome memory to share with you guys-- two nights ago we went to the beach in biloxi, i brought my guitar, and we ran into some guys with african drums! one of them was a professional and he had 5 drums, so he showed us all how to play them, and we learned a few rhythms! it's so much fun, I really want to buy a drum this summer. and it was beautiful on the beach, you could see the moon reflecting on the water. Okay, I love and miss many of you! Bye now.
The first day we helped spray textured ceilings in a house that was already cleared out with new dry wall. Then we spray textured another ceiling in a womans house where the ceiling had collapsed and been fixed. We came back splattered with white paint, and feeling happy that we contributed in these small ways.
The next day we went to a woman's house who needed her hardwood floors ripped out in the entire house! This was HARD work. We're talking crow bars and hammers pulling wood with all our might. And a whole house worth of wood to get up! The woman's house got hit by a hurricane during the storm and she and her two kids stayed in the bathroom from 6 am to 4pm, when they came out, they're roof was collapsed in two rooms. Since then, she got her carpet removed and paid to get wood floors put in... but her wood floors were bubbling up because there was too much moisture still on the cement. So she needed some extra hands to help her with the work.
At camp biloxi many of the workers take off on sunday to do church. We decided it would be a good day to go to New Orleans and check out this kitchen I had found while researching places to volunteer. It's called the Made With Love Cafe in St. Bernard's outside of New Orleans. The drive there was SHOCKING. Things have been bad in Biloxi to the point of whole buildings and houses being completely gone and obliterated... but in St. Bernards and especially in the 9th Ward, right beyond where the levy broke, it just looked sooo horrible. There was 25 feet of flooding in this area... there are cars just scattered all over the place. We saw one truck that was upside down, and underneath and entire house. It didn't seem real that this was possible. I'm used to seeing the clean cut shapes of houses, their frames forming that triangle on top of the rectangle that you teach kids to draw when they're five... but the frames were bent, the rooms were disheveled, there were boats and fences wrapped up into the roofs that had collapsed or been blown away.
After the drive through St. Bernards... with no working traffic lights, and piles of rubble stacked higher than what was left of the buildings, we were so relieved to see the sign for "camp hope" where the cafe was located. Jason welcomed us in after a last minute call we made earlier that morning to see if we could volunteer. He was happy to have our help, a young guy, in his 20's or so. They just recently moved into the kitchen in an elementary school that had been destroyed, and we helped cook a meal for 450 people in the gymnasium. The meals were for volunteers and residents in that area. We had so much fun in the kitchen. The people in the place were mostly young. I met some fire fighters, one whose house was destroyed while he stayed during the storm as part of his job. He said the government doesn't pay attention to St. Bernards because it's not part of New Orleans. He said if it wasn't for people like us who were willing to volunteer, they would be in some serious trouble.
Given our amazing experience at the Cafe, we decided we wanted to spend more time there, and this morning we're driving back, we're leaving camp Biloxi to stay in St. Bernards. We found a great group of people in that kitchen, and we all just were so happy on the drive back to have been able to work there. I can't wait to show you all pictures because you wouldn't believe how much destruction there still is around here, almost a year later. So many people need help. I would encourage anyone who has the time to come down, to definitely come because this is such a phenomenal tragedy that our country has experienced, I feel like i'm more part of the history now that I've seen how bad it really is. And it's great to be able to feed people really really good food with a smile on my face.
With that I'm gonna go, thanks for reading all of this!
Jodi
PS- it's June 12th, Happy Birthday to Randy!!! (Rachael's Dad)
OH and one last awesome memory to share with you guys-- two nights ago we went to the beach in biloxi, i brought my guitar, and we ran into some guys with african drums! one of them was a professional and he had 5 drums, so he showed us all how to play them, and we learned a few rhythms! it's so much fun, I really want to buy a drum this summer. and it was beautiful on the beach, you could see the moon reflecting on the water. Okay, I love and miss many of you! Bye now.
posted by Jodi | 9:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home