3/29/2007

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Heyyalll! It is possible that your family and friends will come back speaking a little weird. The dialect is contagious- something about it being in the water.

We woke up in a fog this morning- literally. A dense fog mixed with the putrid stench of the paper plant greeted us as we walked out of our rooms this morning. And still there was excitement knowing that this would be our last day to get a lot of work done on the job sites. A number of groups were switched around, some sites were put on hold for the next group who comes on Saturday after we leave. We mentioned to the group that we are planning on traveling to the gulf coast tomorrow to spend some time touring the devastation areas and stroll on the beach. It wasn't long and a number of students came up to me and asked "If we don't get enough work done today, do you mind if I stay behind to keep working?" I shouldn't have been surprised and yet I was. It has been a big week, a hot week and a lot of tiring labor.

We have an interesting evening planned for us. Henry and Wilma de Wolder are going to serve us dinner. Very few people know what the meal is and Henry and Wilma have kept it a secret, only elluding to a feast of sorts. I'll let you in on the secret. For three weeks after the storm hit, a majority of the people in Bogalusa and the entire Gulf region were given MRE's- Meals-Read-to-Eat. I don't know exactly what this consists of, but it comes in a box and has a terribly long shelf life. Following our "banquet" a number of people are going to share their Katrina stories with us and the Noble family is going to bring their harmonicas for some entertainment.

Tomorrow is the last half day of work. We hope to tie most of the projects up by 12 noon. Clean up, eat up and hop on the bus for the 1 1/2 hour trip to the coast. Many of the people who camped this week are going to be taking off for home at the same time. Please pray as we begin to disperse from this place.

Again, we will share this week with you the best we can. We will tell you about Henry and Wilma, Pastor Marcus, the Phoenix men, Ms. Gilda, Mr. Johnny, jobs that went well and jobs that challenged our stamina, great cooks, great games, bad smells and discouraging sights, Sonic smoothies and subsequent brain freezes. We will talk about hope and wonder what that looks like, because honestly, this storm seems to have been a catalyst to open up a lot of eyes to a much larger problem that has been way to easy to ignore. We praise God for the opportunity we have had to be here. Thank you for sending us. We will see you on Sunday!