First Night: Popcorn Post

We left Tech around 9:40. 10 hours later we ended up sitting around the campfire eating s'mores and pondering the word "healthy". The choices are barfing, chicken pox, a morgue, milk, a school cafeteria, etc. The s'mores turned out to be delicious and the last of a day full of gorging ourselves on homemade cookies, chips, muffins and cokes. Barbara Walters is harmful, while bankruptsy is irrestisible. The vans were amazing.

We nicknamed my van "Baby Blue". Music sets the mood for the trip. I found out what kind of music each person likes and it helps me figure out their personality. I only had two CDs and one was techno and the other were hits from the top 40. The techno and dance music did go over too well. Surprisingly, Bob Marley still has an influence on young college students. Regina Spektor was a new artist that we enjoyed. She had a unique sound and I don't know how to describe it right now. When I gained head of the caravan, I used cruise control to smoothly pass other vehicles. Baby Blue is amazing. After several stops, we finally arrived to a swarm of gnats. The next step that we took was to get bug spray! Tomorrow is our first day and I am super excited.

I'm so ready for this week to get started because I finally get to do something I've always wanted to do. Maybe for once I can do something really good with the spring break that I have always taken for granted by killing as many brain cells as humanly possible. I figure that the satisfaction I will get from seeing the look on the families face will be ten fold that of partying til I can't even remember the week. It's so beautiful out here that I can't understand why more people have not taken time out of their schedules to come help. If a bunch of Tech students can find the time....what's your excuse?

We had a lengthy discussion in the van about Glenn's (he's the guy that runs One House at a Time) comment about the more sketchy parts of town. First of all, Pearlington's population is a staggering 500 people. After a bit of discussion, we were convinced that if Pearlington were ever victimized by violent gang wars, then surely there would be no more than two or three members per gang. For some reason, I keep imagining that scene in Westside Story one they're dancing with knives whenever I think about gang wars in Pearlington. It's been a lot of fun making fun of Pearlington's ghetto situation, but I suddenly realized the gravity of the situation a short while ago. It's absolutely terrifying. I'm caught in a crossfire between rednecks with shotguns and hoods with glocks.

We took our first trip to Walmart this trip. For some reason whenever I take a trip anywhere, I always make a point to stop by a Walmart just to see the regional clothes. The Walmart in Waveland had plenty of great shirts, including one with a hooked fish that read "Take it to the Limit, Waveland, Mississippi." It's like when you're on a road trip and you stop at random gas stations just to see what kind of crazy hats and shirts you can dig up. On a more serious note, the Walmart down here is probably one of the most important stores in the area. Other than distribution centers, Walmart is the most visited store here and the fact that the prices are lower than most other Walmarts helps a lot as well.

There's actually a lot of other groups running around this camp; Glenn says it's going to be around 275, Even more surprisingly, for the guys in this group at least, many of them are female. This has filled us with a mixture of trepidation and awe. We hope to recover from this shock by tomorrow so that we can be productive on the work site.

Our fire has nearly died out in contrast to the gasoline-ignited blaze that hovered over us a few hours ago. Seeing familiar places and faces today as we pulled into Pearlington was exciting for me, and someone even said it made them feel like they were "coming back home again". It's been just three months since the earlier service trip here, but I'm anxious to see how the people have progressed since then, with the help of countless other volunteer groups that have come before us and have set the stage for our work on this trip. I came back to meet more new people (and work again with old friends), to learn new skills (and practice some that I learned before), and to have an amazing time during Spring Break. I hope that this week gives me an even better perspective on the situation here and what role community service is playing in it. I'm looking forward to getting to know the rest of the group this week, and I know that I'll return with an abundance of stories to share with friends and family.