The Challenge

I mentioned a week ago that I suggested a date to our group about going back to Pearlington from Oct 7 - 13 to meet up with Jane's group from TX. I do not know if Jane is the leader of the group there, but she is our contact point. For now, I will call them her group. Fortunate for us probably, Jane is a bit more proactive and forward-thinking to plan ahead. I have a feeling that we were several weeks or months away from deciding on a date amongst ourselves.

The Mighty 13, so named by Cheryl B upon our departure from Pearlington because 13 of us went from Dorchester Pres, should expand to the Mighty 20 or 21 for the trip in October. We booked up the last available slots at the PDA Village in Pearlington for that week in October. Already about 8 people have committed to go on the trip.

The first challenge is to get the word out and confirm 20 people to help rebuild for a week. If I need to give a presentation each week and keep talking to everyone individually to keep everyone interested, then I will get a lot more rehearsed in the presentation each week.

I would like to find out if anyone is reading these posts. I have fun writing down my thoughts about Pearlington each week, but it is nice to know that someone is reading. In Jane's reply of excitement that we had reserved the slots for the same time, she mentioned coordinating meals because the groups rotate the chores at the camp (breakfast, dinner, devotions, and cleanup). So...

Here's the fun challenge: what about a little food competition between "everything is bigger" in TX and "we do things proper" in SC? How about TX BBQ (brisket, sausage ...) vs. SC BBQ (mustard-based pulled pork)? My mouth is watering while I type. After one trip there, I now expect to gain weight not lose weight. We will do some good work that week - too bad it can't be next week. Based on our last trip, I know that the Mighty crew from DPC will win the snoring competition each night.

Let me know your ideas and thoughts by leaving a comment.

Going Back in October

I now have a very good blog-pal in Texas, Jane Els. We communicate back and forth on our blogs and email. Our group met her while we were at Pearlington for the first week of April (if you read any earlier posts, then that statement is obvious). She has a mountain of energy and is always looking ahead. She has already talked 20 people from her church to go back to Pearlington in October (October 7 - 13). I guess that the presentation that she made last week about her mission trip to Pearlington had a good effect.

I am going to organize a group from our church to go that same week. I have already received good responses from 4 or 5. We may get the last 20 spots for that week. Barely in May, the camp in Pearlington that will hold about 75 is almost fully reserved for that week in October. That continued response more than 20 months after Katrina highlights the compassion and energy of the American people and Christians.

I would have liked to go back in June, but I wasn't getting as enthusiastic a response to going then because of the triple-H (hot, hazy, and humid) in June plus I was running into schedule difficulties. Deciding the sacrifice that you have to make along with others around you is a problem. To say selfish is a strange word, but I did get inspired after I went, so I am encouraged to go again. I found that I could help. My wife and family were at home and didn't get to experience the inspiration of the residents and the power of volunteers. I might be selfish to want to get back and miss out on family events like seeing our new nephew or my great-grandparents. So, with others hesitation and my own debate, I am not pushing for June. But, I do not like waiting until October. Maybe before then, I can sneak down there to check on things.

The Volunteer Village #6 in Pearlington is evidently very miserable in July and August. So, we are back to October as the next time. I hope that the residents can continue to be patient and have hope. We are afraid of the heat, but they have to continue with their current setup.

I have no idea if anyone reads this blog, but if you are reading this post, and you can free yourself from other obligations during Oct 7 - 13, then leave a comment or send me an email. We will keep a seat on the bus or Expedition for you from Summerville, SC.

Technology and People

Technology is a wonderful thing when it is used properly. For this week's entry, what was I going to discuss?? Well, besides being inspired by the Pearlington trip, which inspired me to create this blog, which required experimenting with the tools and capabilities of Blogger provided freely by Google, I am now inspired with Google's other tools, especially since they are mostly free. For $10, our family now has our own domain, snjgamble.com. For just a short amount of time spent prettying up the site, it is good to go. And, I was able to adjust some coloring to make it the appropriate Orange and Blue, like this blog. I am digressing after digressing now.

Using a free program from Google called Hello to get a profile image to the blog was interesting - not as easy as it sounded. Posting an image to a blog and then removing the post after copying the src link isn't the most convenient. Hello may not be useful to me. I do not have a lot of pictures or time to chat pushing pictures around.

Then, I found Picasa. And now you can see the image here today. I was experimenting with pictures from our Pearlington trip. With Picasa, I put a collage together of one of the families that we met and worked with. Since then, this collage has been asking me to post it each day from the computer. I didn't ask the people in the pictures if they mind... I will beg forgiveness if needed. All of this post was done by clicking one "Blog This!" button on Picasa. For all of that easiness, Picasa includes the little square icon below. I leave the icon in the post because Picasa deserves some credit.

---

To get back to the people part of the post; take a good look at the picture. Do you see any sad faces? Can you tell who the volunteers are and who the workers are? While working with the residents - they work alongside us when they can - you get to know them and they get to know you even if only for a week. You are happy to help and they are happy to have you visit. Everyone draws from that good energy to get real work done. The 2 volunteers in the picture (did you figure out which 2?) glued down a tile floor in a large room in just one day. I bet that when they got there, they thought never would they finish in 1 day. Well, they may have known they could do it, but I wouldn't have gotten it done in a day.

Unless you have been there, I don't think that you intend to make relationships with anyone for that week. You go to work hard to help someone get back into their home. But, you end up getting to know the residents that you are working with and the people that you are volunteering with. And, you get to share smiles like in the picture. The girl, JL, made a comment that she hesitates to make new friends every week because she has to say good-bye at the end of the week. I heard another girl a little older than her make the same comment to a group of volunteers at their house.

How strong are these families, and especially the kids, to live through what they have for the last 20 months, and still smile and be friendly getting to know people each week knowing it starts over next week? I think they are super strong, and it makes me want to go back and see how much stronger they have become.

Our Volunteer Work in Pearlington

Our Work started Monday morning, April 2. I had no idea what to expect, but I was hoping that someone in our group would be able to lead us through the tasks. I can usually follow instructions. But, I am a man so without explicit instructions I can do more harm than good. I can usually put something together and have missing bolts or backwards pieces if I do not have instructions.

As I may have said before, I am pretty unskilled at building a house. I can do most repairs around the house, but I usually hire out the skilled projects. Here is one example. We decided to change out the spray hose on the kitchen sink because it smelled (there was a leak at the bottom of the hose that was going bad). I decided that I could replace the hose myself. After several hours and a couple of trips to Home Depot, my wife had to make an emergency call to a plumber because I had removed half of the spray hose from the kitchen sink and couldn't finish it. I did get some tools that didn't really help and she couldn't use the sink for a couple of days. The plumber saved me because he said that he had a lot of trouble as well and then explained that it wasn't installed properly to get to the piece that needed to be removed. He said that if it was properly installed then I might have been able to do it myself. He had better tools than I did. I like to think that he was being truthful, but maybe he was just helping my man ego.

So, for my second post, I am already off on a tangent... but now you know the types of skill that you don't need to have to be an effective volunteer worker.

The picture above describes what we saw when we got there. Wayne's house had most of the drywall hung, taped, and mudded. Electrical outlets appeared to be in place. Now, we had to figure out what to do. Some earlier crews had written notes that we didn't quite understand. We decided that we could finish sanding and prime the walls for painting. Eight of us for three days learned how to do finish work with mud and putty knives. Luckily, a couple of guys had more experience, so they could help teach us the proper techniques. This trip reiterated for me that taping and mudding are not my strengths after another person came right behind me to fix what I had done. The moral to this post is to highlight that even without many skills, our group found a spot to make progress. Even if our 3 days of work only move Wayne 1 day closer with a professional to moving in, he is at least 1 day closer.

I met Wayne on Neighbor Night at the PDA Village and was able to see how strong he is. If all of the residents of Pearlington are like the people that we met that week in Pearlington, then Pearlington is an excellent place to live. The positive energy of the residents will keep Pearlington a strong community when rebuilt. They will need our help for a while longer.

When my wife and I had to rebuild after a tornado, we had a ready supply of contractors to hire and it still took 10 months to rebuild. The people of Pearlington do not have ready access to hire professional contractors. The contractors are busy from Florida to Texas. Drive across I-10 and you see the wide-ranging impact still. The casinos must be paying the contractors the most money, because the casinos appear to be further along rebuilding than most other places. The big name gas stations are back in business, but the mom-and-pop gas statisons are just like they were as Katrina hit.

At this point 20 months after Katrina, my guess is that the families that could afford to rebuild themselves for the most part have done it. Everyone has stopped waiting for the government grants and aid and is rebuilding on their own with our help. To continue the rebuilding, the people (not just in Pearlington) will continue to need our energy and hope. They do not want to rely on us for help, but I think that our help is needed to keep their spirits high and continue to show that Americans do care.

On my next trip, I hope to be more efficient and bring along a plumber and electrician. Our group at Wayne's was done fairly early with priming and we could have done a lot more work on his house if we had some directions about plumbing and wiring.