Too late (Tom) Patience, humility, perseverance, faith. The last 24 hours brought a lot lessons. One lesson was what “Format” means and the implications of what this little word can have on a digital camera full of clips and pictures. All gone!
Then, we had a little illness in the group. Poor Marcia left her nice dinner at the side of her bed. I nearly stepped in the bucket, literally when climbing down from the top bunk in the middle of the night. We had to leave her behind as we headed off to work the next morning.
After breakfast, waffles and oatmeal – yum, we gathered tools at the tool shed. It took a while to find all the parts for the paint sprayer. Driving out to the McVeay’s, we realized it was to be a little hotter and muggier than we have seen yet. We continued taping and covering the unpaintables in preparation for the serious painting. In the mean time, Peter and Liz cleaned off all the 15-year old vents and spray painted them for reuse. Chris was helping an electrian, Jason, pull wire through the attic when we heard a loud crack and a muffled scream. I saw Chris dropping through the ceiling into the laundry room. Fortunately, the most damage was to his ego. Young guys are tough though and Chris got through the ordeal with only minor scrapes to his arms. Of course the ceiling had a rather large hole and this changed our plans slightly as we sent a car back to the tool shed for gypsum repair materials and tools. Millie, the house owner, took it as a matter of course and was just thankful Chris was okay. Later in the afternoon, the paint sprayer quit working, and after several attempts at unclogging the filters and nozzle, we starting packing up at the end of the day. Only slightly earlier another crew from Camp Victor showed up and rapidly started tearing off the roof shingles; so much for our efforts of the previous few days cleaning up the yard. The gators were again well feed with marshmallows as we had visitors from FEMA and Camp Victor. Mille is pleased with FEMA and all they have done. She and her husband Walter (Bob) are currently living in a wheelchair accessible FEMA trailer just feet from the house. Mille did acknowledge that many people are unhappy with FEMA but she credits that to their selfish human nature. Today we were at the work site from 8:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and came back to Camp Victor pretty run-down. We did make it in time for dinner at camp. Goulash, macaroni and cheese, split peas, and banana pudding.
After dinner we drove down to the local beach and saw no surviving homes and only several new ones. At one of the slabs where a house once stood, was a FEMA trailer. The father was sitting in a plastic porch chair looking out at the beach, while his kids were splashing in a small surface swimming pool. This represents the face of Mississippi today. Camp Victor is hoping to finish 69 houses by then end of this year and they have 300 more on a waiting list. We heard that in Ocean Springs twenty-five percent of the homes here were uninhabitable after Katrina struck.
On the way home this evening we saw a large hand-painted sign on the corner of a back-country road that said: “God bless all the church workers who have restored our hope and faith.” Finally, something to rejoice about on this rather difficult day.
