Mississippi at last
Thursday 20 April 2006, 6:27 pm
We stayed in Baton Rouge last night. Today, we just went shopping at
Wal-Mart for more shorts and stuff because it's warmer than we
expected for April ... definitely shorts weather. We both got some
real ugly plaid bermuda-style shorts with elastic waists. They are
ugly but comfortable. Then we ate at Shoney's, a chain I don't think
I've ever been to before, but we see a lot of them out here. The
menu was real thin (one page), but the bacon cheeseburger was good.
We arrived in Bay St Louis just around 5 pm. We are staying in a
5th wheel until someone more important arrives who might kick us out.
Then we would move into a tent.
The place is now being run by Pastor Di who is a real blessing.
She worked at a homeless-reaching church in Brooklyn before coming
down here with no idea what she would be doing. She has a lot of energy
and her enthusiasm is contagious.
We have found out about a few things since arriving here. They are
apparently still doing distribution on Wednesdays and Saturdays,
but there is supposedly not much left to distribute, and contributions
are way down. We haven't seen the distribution tents yet so I don't
know exactly what the situation looks like. Most of the effort is
being conentrated on rebuilding. Most of the "mucking" work is
already done, and now they are hanging sheetrock, painting, and
installing electrical and plumbing.
Mary and I will supposedly be doing some computer work starting on
Monday. There are some web forms that people must fill out in order
to get the next wave of FEMA grants for reconstruction. People will
come in with paper forms filled out, and Mary and I will help input
this information into a web form.
We have already met Ralph, who was here when we were here before.
He cooks up a mean barbeque chicken. He has been here more than at
home for the last few months.
We have not yet seen Shirley or Cee Cee. And I am supposed to look
somebody up for the manager of the motel in Webster (Houston). Now
what did I do with that name? It must be in my binder here somewhere.
Mary was up late last night looking at stuff on rubber stamping
web sites, and I think she's doing the same thing again now. They
have several computers here, and I'm using my laptop with the
wireless they have set up all around the camp. I guess we need to
do it while we have it available.
There are lots of bugs here, and they use a vanilla scent spray to
repel them. It's not a bug spray, just a scent you can spray on.
They say that when people found out it repels the bugs, Wal-Mart
doubled the price of it. Hmmm.
Thank you so much for all your prayers. We had another "close call"
today just as we got off the freeway to come into Waveland. Someone
would not let us merge and ran us off the road. We really appreciate
all your prayers for our safety. It seems someone really does not
want us here. But we are safe in the Lord's hands.
