Greetings From Pearlington

Busy, busy, busy!

Brittany has been posting regular blogs since we got here, so if you've read them you can keep up. I would write more often, but I don't have my own laptop...which I really should have since I now have a lap!

We all started the first day at the "pretty" house, (but being in the south it comes out "purdy"). This house needed the sheet rock put up and we all got busy cleaning an prepping for that.

Last year while we were here at Christmas, we worked to finish Capt. John's house. He finally moved in on April 1st, with the help of our team that came during Spring Break. He had been living for four years in a travel trailer on his property. One group has been working on a ramp, that is more of a raised walkway. The property is right on a bayou so that even when it rains a little the water level rises enough to make getting to your car kinda dicey. The ramp/walkway will make it easier for him (he is an older slow moving gentlemen) to get out to his truck and when the water rises.

And while we are here to build up, some of us have been busy tearing down...Ellen and I have been helping tear down that trailer that Capt. John and his son Joel and their two dogs lived in for almost four years. It's a travel trailer that started it's life down in Florida after one of the big hurricanes down there, later it ended up in Colorado, and when Katrina hit the first responders from near Aspen brought it here and used it for their command base. Eventually it was given to Capt. John, and now it is going to trailer heaven.

Well, we tore that trailer up real good and John and his sons were mighty glad to have it gone...probably as glad as they were to get it when they needed it, but now it was just sitting there as a painful reminder.

We've been working with a fellow named D.J. who is from northern Virgina. He first came here shortly after Katrina with a group from his church, and has been coming back ever since. He is an electrician and he is a wonderful man with a great sense of humor and a loving heart. He has been here since October living in a trailer on the property at the "Purdy" house doing the wiring and is now about 85 percent finished. He was happy to come out and help us tear down the trailer, saying "it was nice to get out of the attic for a few days". He has been a real blessing to all of us, because he is more than just an electrician, but a jack of all trades and ready and willing to jump in and help with any project!

He will be working here until after new year, and he is anxious to get home to his family (they are expecting another grandchild after the first of the year). But he and his family know how imporant this work is.

I really have this tremendous desire to stay here and help him finish this project so he can go home sooner! I think he and I bonded because his name is D.J. and I am a D.J. He thought that was pretty funny!

Tomorrow is our last day of work and it looks like the ramp will be finished, and the two front rooms of the Purdy house will be done and we will all be sad to leave here since this will most likely be our last trip here.

It has been a real amazing journey.

The first day we were here, four of us went into Walmart for some groceries and the greeter saw us in our matching team swearshirts, asked if we were volunteers, almost...well, actually did cry as she shook our hands and hugged us and thanked us for our service.

That was probably the best greeting anyone has ever gotten at any Walmart anywhere!!

Ralphie