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Mission Trip--Monday

To our complete amazement, I got a shower Monday morning! I seized the opportunity not knowing when my next chance might be. We had a huge spread for bfast waiting on us. All 150 of us got thru bfast, made lunches and were sitting in the santuary at 7:15 for devotions!!!!!!!!!! We all went our seperate ways and made it to meet our homeowner and see the home that we were to work on. The chatter in the van was great and exciting as we rode down the coast and saw how much devastation was still there. Plus it was Mardi Gras and everything was closed--schools, businesses, etc for that. We stopped by a gas station to fill up and a lady popped her head in and thanked us for caring enuf to come! We made it to Maxine's house and were pleasantly surprized at how nice it looked! There was lots of work to do, but we were ready! The neighborhood was unlike anything my boys were used to--small homes, small lots, very crowded, ravaged by the storm and not much done to them, ppl walking everywhere, children running wild, etc. So I hung around outside not really sure what to do about the boys. Maxine came out of her FEMA trailer (on her lot right next to her house) and was thrilled to death to see 'the babies'! I was glad (well relieved!LOL).  She told us that we were free to use her bathroom (otherwise we had NONE all day) and  that she had sodas for us (I don't think we drank any, but once she found out about the coffee lovers, they cashe din on her coffee that she made for them!) She was so grateful and nice and wonderful. Mat was desperate to help and there wasn't tons for him to do at that point so ppl kept kicking him out and he was very frustrated. He was finally given a closet to prime and was thrilled. Joey played on the (decrepit) porch swing for most of the morning. In the afternoon, more life was appearing on the street and 2 children emerged from the duplex right next door. Josiah was 5 and his sister Jasmine was 7. Who knew?LOL Josiah and Joey hit it off right away and w/in an hour, Mat and Jasmine were thick as thieves. There were other children there off an on all week ranging from infant to 10yo so they never lacked for playmates! However, I didn't get alot done on Monday for hovering over the boys as I just wasn't comfy in the neighborhood. But others were hard at work. There were lots of appliances and cabinets and NOT ONE FLOOR PLAN! The women quickly found the paint and started in on that, but the 3 main guys (my dad being one of them) all took off to Lowes to get what was needed. 2 other men were trying to figure out where cabinets and appliances went and why there were 2 hot water heaters and 2 bathroom vanities (1ba home). They had no idea what Lowes was like down there--new manager, employees in plain clothes stocking so that they wouldn't be bothered, rearranging the store, etc. It would take a minimum of 2 hours to get one thing. NUTS!!!!!!! I don't know that the men returned by lunch that first day! And the ones working w/laying out cabinets and appliances were frustrated as well.

So things got moving that afternoon and we were getting sorted out to be up and running for the week. We came back to a wonderful spread for supper and were fed. We learned that the 80 ppl from NY were lots of high schoolers on winter break! We also learned that the Holiday Inn gave 10 rooms for free and that all the females were there and that the males were showering there as well so that was 80 less ppl! We went thru the undone part of the church adn saw the sleeping bags all over the floors (the NY group) and the huge tool room adn were very grateful for our small room w/mattressess! They had no privacy--no walls, doors, etc. We crawled into bed feeling somewhat better about how things were going and completely amazed that all 150 of us were able to eat and be on time for everything.