Today was a little hotter and more humid than yesterday. We returned to the McVeays and picked up where we left off. Sanding walls, scraping floors scrubbing ceiling beams and painting the ceiling were the order of the day. We were more prepared today and accomplished a huge amount of work. I am very proud of our group. The conditions are very difficult to work in and yet they jump into each task and do it as if it were there own. But maybe it is, in that these gracious and patient people are all a part of God’s family. There lives have been completely torn apart and the resources to rebuild them are almost solely dependent on the help of friends and complete strangers such as us.

After working all day and sweating profusely we returned to camp Victor and showered in the showers that our group had cleaned that morning as part of our house chores. The younger members of the group applied itch cream to the bites they received while standing in the tall grass at the house trying to entice the two resident alligators out of the pond with a bag of marshmallow. They fed them almost the whole bag showing little regard for the dental health of these pets. Apparently the alligators love marshmallows. A tip that might come in handy should any of you come here for a visit.

After resting in our beds for a short time, by the way we share beds and have divided up in the following manner: Doug and Leena, Tom and Marcia, Joanne and Chris, and Peter and Liz. Oh yeah, I forgot to say the beds are bunk beds! We then went out for dinner at Aunt Jenny’s, a very southern restaurant, for southern fried chicken, cat fish, shrimp, biscuits, hush puppies and yams. Delicious!!!!!!!!!

We took a self guided tour of Biloxi after dinner and were both stunned and sobered by the scale and amount of destruction to this absolutely beautiful city. The most moving among many, to me was the total destruction of the Episcopal Church and the partial destruction of the memorial to the victims of hurricane Camille. It was an incredible memorial with the names of the victims engraved on black granite with a mosaic of a hurricane centered in a circle of water in front of it. The church was destroyed but the memorial remained fairly in tact. Standing there with the broken trees and the dead trees with debris still hanging in the branches was so powerful.

We also saw empty lot after empty lot where huge buildings once stood. As we passed a parking garage that had totally collapsed Doug turned to look and narrowly missed rear ending the car that Tom was driving. The Tom and Doug driving show has all of us questioning whether they should be allowed to drive. Tom is prone to crazy and erratic driving moves while Doug is so laid back we’re never sure if we’re going or not. It gets dark here sooner than Seattle so we had to cut the tour short.

Tomorrow is painting day, Yahoooooooooooooooo

This trip is exhausting, it’s amazing!!!!!!!!!!!

Marcia