Salem Katrina Report from Gautier November 10

It cooled a bit today and it feels just a bit more comfortable even with the humidity. We're doing about the same work as before but feeling some satisfaction as the jobs near some kind of completion. Dave again provided us great laughs when he asked the locals who'd called him "Bubba" if that was a good or a bad nickname, They reassured him...at least its better than "Pimento!" Say, didn't we see Dave (Bubba) and his two brothers on the Bob Newhart show a few years back? Dave was working with an Air Force vet who's Thai wife kept calling him "Bubba-san." Worth the trip just to hear that one! Somebody back at Salem First Pres needs to make a name tag for him reading "Bubba-san", okay?

Had strange thoughts today as we took a break and watched victims accepting the church's invitation to take from the food pantry. Bag after bag filling fairly new cars? Did they actually need the gift? Why were they taking so much? Why did they take church food but still have money for their cigarettes? This is wrong-thinking and who are we to judge? We cannot understand their needs...we haven't been through this as they have.

Observation: Too much aggression on the highway. Especially the contractors. Tons of vehicles whizzing past with the roofing, plumbing, landscaping and other signs on the doors. Just about nobody wearing seat belts. Kids not safely in car seats. Our camp's port-a-potties, so necessary but such a mundane item, cost PDA $8000 so far.

Over the past few days we'd delivered stuffed animals for kids at a local primary school. Today the school's principal came over to ask for another box of them, and we noticed her husband waiting for her in their truck. He's disabled with a bad back, plus he'd cut his hand so we took care of that minor injury. Then they happened to mention that this coming weekend they were hoping to start working on their house which had lost the first floor. Perfect timing...we marched them down to our eager volunteer estimating crew and now these nice folks are on our schedule to get their house fixed on Saturday....and this tired principal who cares for hundreds of storm-affected youngsters can give herself a day off for the first time in two months.

The day before yesterday we were thrilled to have the FEMA contractors pick up the tremendous pile of rubbish behind the church. However, we were less than thrilled yesterday to discover some contractor had illegally dumped another pile about a quarter the size of the first right by our motor homes. That mess has saved somebody a trip to the dump, I guess, but now the mold stink is back.

We helped other volunteers set up blogs today, so they too can have their friends and family read an Internet journal. One to visit is http://gautierpdacamp.blogspot.com/ At our evening devotion, nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they intended to come back to help for Katrina in some way. This place is miserable and there is simly no other place else we'd rather be!

Dave and I helped our camp mayor work with a homeless couple but found ourselves outmatched by circumstances and their needs. This was a homeless street couple, rather than a Hurricane Katrina family, but they came to the church for help and we fed them. Couldn't understand the man who talked in such a confusing manner. We reached the only shelter in the area and then drove them there, only to have the Red Cross refuse them entry because they, too, couldn't deal with street people. These poor folks...we ended up calling 911 and put them in the EMT's care to see if they could be convinced to accept care in a local hospital. We wanted to get the old fellow some help with the VA but he refused.

Tomorrow is Veterans' Day. Remember the veterans in your life. Thank them, won't you? As the sign reads in front of the Johnson City Veterans Hospital, "All gave some. Some gave all!"

Here in Mississippi, nearby Vicksburg was the scene of horrible fighting during the Civil War. Later, Vicksburg's World War II soldiers returning home in 1945 placed a bronze tablet before their old town hall, famous in so many Civil War photos, which reads as follows:

We answered the call others wouldn't hear.
We went where others feared to go, and did what

others failed to do.
Our families wept while others slept.

We stood at the wall and kept you safe.
We were American Soldiers

We are all so very, very tired. Good night, Oregon.