Home

I got home from Biloxi Sunday night at about 5:00. While it is definitely good to be home, I also sort of miss Biloxi. I want to go back. It was definitely a good trip and a really good group. Even at the end of the trip when we had been with each other for a week straight and exhausted (we even slept next to each other in the Sactuary at Bethel... so literally 24 hours/7 days straight), we were still laughing. We definitely had our moments, but nothing bad and it really was good.

We spent most of the week working on Lavurta Hollingsworth's house (I hope I spelled that right... probably not). We came so close to getting her back into her house and while there were two whole rooms we didn't touch, the only room really preventing her from returning was the bathroom. We didn't get nearly as far as we wanted, but we did a lot! I spent a fair amount of time painting, helping to put up molding, and flooring. I also was often another set of hands for people when they needed it.

The week was amazing for several reasons. One was being able to get to know the other members of the group better. I think I have a better relationship with everybody who went, including Pastor Rob (my supervisor). I also valued being able to do the work and give Lavurta a good chunk of her house back. It really did go from nothing (they had gutted the place) to something really beautiful. The other reason it was good for me was to listen to the stories of all the people there. Stories of how they watched their cars wash away while huddling with 19 other people on the second story of a house. Stories of 6 feet of water in a house and hosing the hardwood floors off just to get the gunk out. Stories of giving DNA to identify the body of a son who didn't survive the storm. Stories of people watching their daughter float away in the flood. Incredible stories of what people have lost and yet are so grateful and happy for what they still have. I'll continue to tell the stories because they need to be told and there need to be more volunteers to go to Biloxi and all along the Gulf Coast.

Now for the important part... pictures. Take a look here for some pictures: http://www.loloh.org/monday.html Click on the links toward the top of the page to go to the other days for the rest of the pictures.

Now, most of the pictures on that site are mine, so at this link, you'll see a fair number of repeat pictures, but here's a few more and these have captions. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ubi1kanobi/album?.dir=/be05re2&.src=ph I also recommend clicking on 'view slideshow' to see the captions and all the pictures.

Let me know what you think.

Kate