6:30 PM (Tom Pfaff) Well here we are in Ocean Springs! Mission work seems to start way too early for all of us. We met at Grace at 4:45 A.m. to catch a 6:20 a.m. flight with connections through Houston, Texas. Peter had gotten home at 2:00 a.m. from his job at the theater, Liz got home at 2:00 a.m. from a concert, and the Prindle's got home at midnight after catching a ferry from a camping trip wedding. Needless to say - sleep was abundant on the flights. We safely arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi at 3:05 p.m. right on schedule except for the Young's luggage which failed to arrive with the rest. After a few wrong turns, we arrived at Camp Victor, a pretty amazing facility run by Christus Victor Lutheran Church. The site is an old garment factory and warehouse. It is now home to 200 volunteers from all over the country. The bunk rooms each house 48 people. We are in a room called Antioch. Later this evening we plan to sight see some of the damage still remaining from Katrina, which hit 11 months ago. Flying into Gulfport we saw many of the FEMA trailers. They say there are more than 25,000 just in this area. At the airport there was visible damage to one of the large hangers and to main terminal building, which is still being reconstructed. Camp Victor is well stocked with many staples; however, the need is great. Neighbors can come every three days to picjup grocries and other items. More to come tomorrow when we rollup our sleeves and really get to work.
8:20 (Leena) We have now been 'oriented' to the happenings in and around Ocean Springs. The people we will be helping out are home owners (like many of us). They have to pay mortgages on pieses of concrete that lay where their homes used to stand. Most of the homes around here were affected by the flood that occured when the hurricane caused the Gulf of Mexico to rise. Bayous are "tidal'. This meanswhatever happens in the Gulf, happens in the Bayou. It is amazing to hear the stories of people . I think that is my favorite part. Christoffer is hoping to catch a few stories on his video camera that we can share with others later on. Speaking of the Young's - their luggage has arrived in Gulfport - Yay! A few went for the ride to get the luggage and the rest of us are just chillig in the dorm because we are SO tired and orientation lasted a bit later than expected.
Time: unknown, Location Ocean Springs,
At this point the only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. We may have an idea of what we might encounter in the next few days but only time can really tell. With all members of our team already exhausted from late nights and long travels tomorrow will be the hardest of our days here. I look forward to the time we will spend here this week and hope that our experience here will be a positive one for all of those involved. - Peter
