We put the finishing touches on the shed during the day. The people on the shed yesterday worked pretty hard and set it up so that we could finish by lunch time. We started off slow when the first piece of siding was cut wrong and it had to be remeasured and put on. It went smoothly from there. Nailing the siding and trim got to be a pain if the nails didn't go in straight, but it all worked out in the end. The shed looked excellent and ready for them to put their laundry machines and use efficiently as a storage. The family was short on space and desperately needed that shed as soon as possible.
Later that day we went to the beach, there's something about the beach around here that doesn't seem as welcoming as other beaches. It might be the fact that there's massive construction going on while people are doing their own thing around them. Bert and Connie, the family whom we built the shed for, had a cookout later that night. Connie showed us how to find crawfish in their mud tunnels. The crawfish build their homes as a tunnel system in the ground with small mounds of mud on top. After finding the crawfish in the tunnel, Amanda quickly flicked it out. Unfortunately, before I could take a picture, their dog ate it.
After that, all of us wrote comments on the inside of the shed as a memory. I found out Bert was a Saints fan (just like me), so I wrote Geaux Saints! with a fleur-de-lis on the wall. They were very greatful for the shed and it was nice building it for them. ~ Akshay
Today, I finally finished working at Tim and Jackie's house. It was neat being the only person who worked at that house every day. I got to see the whole project progress and finish. They're set to move in tomorrow. They deserve it. Tim is a great guy. I got to spend sometime with his daughter and grandchildren. The children are wonderful. His granddaughter has the most beautiful eyes. I spent my entire spring break painting one family's house; it was completely worth it. ~ Jesse
The red welts have gotten worse.`Byron
I've decided that there are many different types of people in the world, but there is a certain type of people who walk among us that should be justly discriminated against by our society. They put on facades of cool and polite demeanors, but there is a cardinal flaw within their outwardly prestine personalities. Many of you may know the type I'm talking about: the port-a-potty bandit. For those of you who are fortunate enough to never have come across one, port-a-potty bandits are of the lowest of lows. They are often hard to spot amidst a crowd. However, once they cross the threshold of a John, some deep and dark instinctual urge instantly ignites. Their expressions turn grim, and their eyes grow wide as they fling poop-stained toilet paper at the walls, hang used condoms from the ceilings, burn wholes in the plastic, and fling tampons at the walls in such a way that they stick. The port-a-potty bandits must be destroyed.--The Lumberjack
Friday, March 23, 2007
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Justin on a Hot Tin Roof
7:10am:
I stumbled out of bed. Byron walked by confirming to the rest of the cabin that I was still alive.
7:40am:
I wearily crossed the doorstep into the commons tent for breakfast: cereal and a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich.
The period of time between 8am and 5pm remains a series of foggy flashbacks to me. Bright lights, sharp objects and a strange portrait of Elvis form the extent of my comprehendable memories. I'm not quite sure what happened to me, but I seem to have a strange tick and one of my pinky toes is larger than the other.
Naaa, I'm just kiddin'. I spent the day working on the shed that we've been working on for the past few days. It's about 16'x9' with a single pitched roof and ply-panel siding. We'll finish, for the most part, by lunch tomorrow.
Some of the other people from our GT ASB group are painting the homes of a few fair citizens of Pearlington.
I've spent most of my time on the roof of the shed which sits about 15 feet off the ground. Seeing as I am a bit of a thrill seeker, the roof seems to be a comfortable place for me. However, sometimes it gets a bit boring being up there hammering away in the noon-day sun. There's a quick cure to these not-so-gripping times. I simply complain that my arm is swelling from ant bites and pop a few benedryl. Being up on a 15 foot roof while drowsy and slightly less coordinated is quite the rush especially when you're a bit dizzy from dehydration.
The roof has been fun, but I think I'm in need of something of a larger caliber, something more thrilling. Maybe later on tonight I'll go wonder down crack alley alone, with no clothes on. That should get the old blood flowing a bit.
One final note: all of the activities mentioned above are slightly less leathal than listening to a political discussion amongst our ASB group members. --Justin
I stumbled out of bed. Byron walked by confirming to the rest of the cabin that I was still alive.
7:40am:
I wearily crossed the doorstep into the commons tent for breakfast: cereal and a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich.
The period of time between 8am and 5pm remains a series of foggy flashbacks to me. Bright lights, sharp objects and a strange portrait of Elvis form the extent of my comprehendable memories. I'm not quite sure what happened to me, but I seem to have a strange tick and one of my pinky toes is larger than the other.
Naaa, I'm just kiddin'. I spent the day working on the shed that we've been working on for the past few days. It's about 16'x9' with a single pitched roof and ply-panel siding. We'll finish, for the most part, by lunch tomorrow.
Some of the other people from our GT ASB group are painting the homes of a few fair citizens of Pearlington.
I've spent most of my time on the roof of the shed which sits about 15 feet off the ground. Seeing as I am a bit of a thrill seeker, the roof seems to be a comfortable place for me. However, sometimes it gets a bit boring being up there hammering away in the noon-day sun. There's a quick cure to these not-so-gripping times. I simply complain that my arm is swelling from ant bites and pop a few benedryl. Being up on a 15 foot roof while drowsy and slightly less coordinated is quite the rush especially when you're a bit dizzy from dehydration.
The roof has been fun, but I think I'm in need of something of a larger caliber, something more thrilling. Maybe later on tonight I'll go wonder down crack alley alone, with no clothes on. That should get the old blood flowing a bit.
One final note: all of the activities mentioned above are slightly less leathal than listening to a political discussion amongst our ASB group members. --Justin
Paintin'
We painted all but one portion of Tim and Jackie's' house today. While paiting, I accidentally painted over two frogs. In my defense, they looked like leaves that were lifeless against the doorframe. I felt bad, but they quickly hopped away. Hopefully they lived long enough to get the paint off. See, frogs breath through their skin, which means if they are painted on, that's that much less skin for them to breathe through. I know we're out here in Pearlington this week, but Texas A&M lost today to Memphis by one point. Where was Acie Law IV at the end of the game to nail the game winning shot?! In my defense, I was unable to watch the end of the game and do not know what actually happened. Back to painting. We took before and after pictures of the house and before it looked just OK. After we finished painting it looked awesome. Tim did not see the finished product when we were still there but he and his daughter thanked us. It was easy to tell that they were very greatful and thankful.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The fire in the grass roots
Last night Larry and Glenn came down to talk to us. It's a wonder how people survive in a world where the governments are run the way they to. In some ways its a test on the human experience to survive under such trying conditions. Larry grew up, since the middle of third grade, in Pearlington. Having weather every storm since, he stayed in the NASA centers near the town. A month later, he came to find that the school had been gone and people had been using it as a community gathering focal point since the disaster. Having no experience in emergency effots, he applied with the county to use the school grounds as recovery center, and started taking case loads from there. The town was charged by FEMA for loans. Meaning that even the help they did apply for was expected, by the government, to be paid back. The town, already poor, is working its way slowly out of debt. Glenn saw the need for housing (the habitat for humanity houses require people to pay back them back with a 2% low intrest, this town however has no one who is qualified to apply due to poor credit or lack of being able to pay back the loans), came down with the intention of a few weeks. Two years later he's still here pluggin' as they say. Through it all, you just find yourself relating to the town. You can see yourself in the teacher you help paint thier shutters, or the old woman's yard you pick up. Family is all around it seems, even this far from home.
It's Shed Time
Today I went along with Team Shed.
Together we framed the walls and started putting up the roofing. I, however, helped shovel sand to walk on around the shed(since it's really wet land), kept the fires going(to help keep the bitting gnats away), held ladders with people hammering on them, sang along to the country radio, and helped the neighbors down the street shovel some black sand around their yard.
the most interesting part of the day was shoveling the sand in the neighbor's yard. They told us how the town was dependent on church groups for the first month after katrina. They said Perlington really didn't receive as much attention as other larger towns around them(ex: Waveland). they lived in their tents during the day and went south west to Covington to stay with a brother who had a generator, food, and plenty of other guests.
When they did get their FEMA trailer, inspectors came by every other day to check alarms and gas and other things. The husband claimed it was a big waist of money paying them to come out and do unecessary checks. The wife was happy to offer us "cokes"(wasn't quite the real thing, but still very much appreciated). I'm glad they let us help them... I had to say please.
Together we framed the walls and started putting up the roofing. I, however, helped shovel sand to walk on around the shed(since it's really wet land), kept the fires going(to help keep the bitting gnats away), held ladders with people hammering on them, sang along to the country radio, and helped the neighbors down the street shovel some black sand around their yard.
the most interesting part of the day was shoveling the sand in the neighbor's yard. They told us how the town was dependent on church groups for the first month after katrina. They said Perlington really didn't receive as much attention as other larger towns around them(ex: Waveland). they lived in their tents during the day and went south west to Covington to stay with a brother who had a generator, food, and plenty of other guests.
When they did get their FEMA trailer, inspectors came by every other day to check alarms and gas and other things. The husband claimed it was a big waist of money paying them to come out and do unecessary checks. The wife was happy to offer us "cokes"(wasn't quite the real thing, but still very much appreciated). I'm glad they let us help them... I had to say please.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Snake in the grass
We worked on the backyard at Tim's house some more today. We put the finishing touches on the back yard by cleaning up the random pine cones, sticks stones and other random debris that hadn't been touched since 2005. While we were cleaning the small garden near the back of the house, we found a snake in the mud. It wasn't a big snake, just a small brown snake with black dots and stripes that probably wasn't poisonous. We made up a story for the rest of the group that Jim, who was painting the side of the house, saw the snake as well. He picked up the snake by the tail and whipped it on a rock and its head popped right off with Jim standing there triumphantly. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen, but it was interesting to see the wildlife that developed in the backyard of one home. Earlier that day we found a frog, the day before we thought we saw a Black Widow spider. There are many many anthills all over the yard, not to mention the bugs that would have been there anyway, like small spiders, roly polys, cockroaches and mosquitoes (being in Mississippi). Later in the day another snake came out, much bigger than the first one, and slithered its way under the deck in the back yard. It wasn't too significant, but it made for a much more interesting day.
Q: "How do you kill a gecko?"
A: "Put it on a leash."
I spent the morning helping to move sheet metal roofing and plywood that were donated by a Baptist church, some of which we will use this week to build a shed for laundry and storage. Although their were enough supplies to put together several sheds like this, I was surprised to hear that their value was estimated at $100,000. It is amazing the extent of the contributions that people have made to help the community here, and this is just one example. During the afternoon I helped to finish painting the exterior of a house. I felt that once we got going, our group really started working together well and we finished painting the siding faster than we had expected. Again it's great to be able to work together with so many other people that are committed to the same goal and being able to see visual progress.
I got over my fear of the extension ladder today. Hey, that thing bends and wobbles. And that's about as profound as I can get after 8 hours of painting over my head.
The food at camp and at the Baptist church in town is amazing. At the church today, the ladies made green beans with ham hocks, chicken and a wonderful peach cobbler.
"Objects in the rearview mirror appear closer than they appear."
I looked in my rearview mirror as we left the work site and saw the woman that lived there. She was walking to her car with a bag of Sharpie markers. Earlier in the evening she told us that we could sign her shed when it was finished.
This woman had the biggest impact on me. She was an older woman that seemed like she was made out of old world material. Her determination inspired me. This determination was in stark contrast to her environment. The wildeness was on the edge of her broken home and we were fighting it. Our weapons were hammders, nails, and our team spirit.
This situation provided insight on how much that we actually help. The woman seemed so small in the mirror, but I knew that we only a reflection of Pearlington's determination, hope, and spirit. --Byron, Biology 2009.75
Small group discussions today have been very insightful and productive. My group stumbled upon the realization that Americans have been bred into a very independent society, and it is often hard for us to depend on each other and work together as a strong community. In other words, accepting help from our neighbors seems to be a thing of the past, referencing the ever classic 50s mom who would borrow milk and sugar from Betty Sue next door for the double chocolate chunk cookies....mmmmm (my mom never baked cookies.) We concluded that the only way to solve this problem would be to force every state to succeed from the union. We felt this would be a close model to the small Eastern European countries (like Maldova and Romania) who apparently have stronger communities, according to our group. However, we found ONE potential problem with this plan. Texas, seeing as it is a country already, would eventually conquer all of the independent states of the artist formerly known as the United States of America. This would result in a terrible travesty: the United States of Texas. Oh, the horror. ;)
Q: "How do you kill a gecko?"
A: "Put it on a leash."
I spent the morning helping to move sheet metal roofing and plywood that were donated by a Baptist church, some of which we will use this week to build a shed for laundry and storage. Although their were enough supplies to put together several sheds like this, I was surprised to hear that their value was estimated at $100,000. It is amazing the extent of the contributions that people have made to help the community here, and this is just one example. During the afternoon I helped to finish painting the exterior of a house. I felt that once we got going, our group really started working together well and we finished painting the siding faster than we had expected. Again it's great to be able to work together with so many other people that are committed to the same goal and being able to see visual progress.
I got over my fear of the extension ladder today. Hey, that thing bends and wobbles. And that's about as profound as I can get after 8 hours of painting over my head.
The food at camp and at the Baptist church in town is amazing. At the church today, the ladies made green beans with ham hocks, chicken and a wonderful peach cobbler.
"Objects in the rearview mirror appear closer than they appear."
I looked in my rearview mirror as we left the work site and saw the woman that lived there. She was walking to her car with a bag of Sharpie markers. Earlier in the evening she told us that we could sign her shed when it was finished.
This woman had the biggest impact on me. She was an older woman that seemed like she was made out of old world material. Her determination inspired me. This determination was in stark contrast to her environment. The wildeness was on the edge of her broken home and we were fighting it. Our weapons were hammders, nails, and our team spirit.
This situation provided insight on how much that we actually help. The woman seemed so small in the mirror, but I knew that we only a reflection of Pearlington's determination, hope, and spirit. --Byron, Biology 2009.75
Small group discussions today have been very insightful and productive. My group stumbled upon the realization that Americans have been bred into a very independent society, and it is often hard for us to depend on each other and work together as a strong community. In other words, accepting help from our neighbors seems to be a thing of the past, referencing the ever classic 50s mom who would borrow milk and sugar from Betty Sue next door for the double chocolate chunk cookies....mmmmm (my mom never baked cookies.) We concluded that the only way to solve this problem would be to force every state to succeed from the union. We felt this would be a close model to the small Eastern European countries (like Maldova and Romania) who apparently have stronger communities, according to our group. However, we found ONE potential problem with this plan. Texas, seeing as it is a country already, would eventually conquer all of the independent states of the artist formerly known as the United States of America. This would result in a terrible travesty: the United States of Texas. Oh, the horror. ;)
thumb blister
i feel like every time i do service work i get this blister on my thumb. this time it's from power washing. which i've decided will be my fall back career. good use of a georgia tech degree.
today was yard work day. exciting events include 2 snakes and fun time with a little frog.
we went to a local church for lunch and there was a whole church choir in line with us so they sang a few songs which was very enjoyable.
tonight we are having an ice cream party for our fearless "One House at a Time" leader, Glenn. We asked him the first day what he missed from home. he said he missed having a place to go get ice cream, and he misses tv. he said he has his wife send him tapes of "Survivor". so i'm glad we can hang out with him and feed him some ice cream.
hopefully we'll put some pictures up soon.
today was yard work day. exciting events include 2 snakes and fun time with a little frog.
we went to a local church for lunch and there was a whole church choir in line with us so they sang a few songs which was very enjoyable.
tonight we are having an ice cream party for our fearless "One House at a Time" leader, Glenn. We asked him the first day what he missed from home. he said he missed having a place to go get ice cream, and he misses tv. he said he has his wife send him tapes of "Survivor". so i'm glad we can hang out with him and feed him some ice cream.
hopefully we'll put some pictures up soon.
The interesting about learning, is that the importance of it is never grasped until much later in life. Yesterday, while faced with a difficult task of producing paint buckets out of thin air, I remembered how my father had slowly taught me a majority of my understanding of worksite etiquette. Gazing around I found an empty water jug. With a few cuts it became the perfect paint bucker (with handel included!). I had not relazed until I was cutting the plastic, that I had seen my father doing this many times when we were working with my high school youth group. I watched him in the most depressing situations, trying to make a house just slightly more stable. And as he looked at the slanted house, telling everyone it should be condemed, he went to the owner and gave him another six stable months in the house. Because not everyone can pack up and rebuild. Some people are forced to see the situation and do what they can. Like Glenn's One House at a Time. He doesn't know how to handle case loads, he doesn't have a templete to rebuild a disaster situation, but he does know how to contract; and he can give individuals a little hope and a little extra time with what he has. The tools we gain from life are often not realized until placed within a difficult situation, but in those situations it is the test of that knowledge that seperates us. --- Whitney
Yesterday I was really impressed with how much we were able to accomplish at Tim's house. He came home and was speechless. Our group really just jumped in and went to it in his garage and his yard. I can see the progress that Pearlington has made since December and it is encouraging. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to interact with more residents of Pearlington as the week goes on and hear more of their stories.
As a group, we are a powerful force. Each individual works on a small task to accomplish a larger goal. This is exemplifed by One House At a Time, Alternative Spring Break, Pearlington's community, and the families that we help. I knew that we were helping when I saw Tim's expression of hope and happiness at what we did in one day. ~Byron
Yesterday I was really impressed with how much we were able to accomplish at Tim's house. He came home and was speechless. Our group really just jumped in and went to it in his garage and his yard. I can see the progress that Pearlington has made since December and it is encouraging. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to interact with more residents of Pearlington as the week goes on and hear more of their stories.
As a group, we are a powerful force. Each individual works on a small task to accomplish a larger goal. This is exemplifed by One House At a Time, Alternative Spring Break, Pearlington's community, and the families that we help. I knew that we were helping when I saw Tim's expression of hope and happiness at what we did in one day. ~Byron
Sunday, March 18, 2007
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.
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.
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