11-7-05

I have returned from my trip to Mississippi. The devastation is terrible and massive. I cannot imagine what all it will take to get the area "normal" again. I feel like my short trip didn't make much of a difference; however, I do know that it did make a difference in the lives of Carlos, JJ, Chuck, Barbara, Neil, and the other people that we met along the way. The attitudes of the people that we met were so positive and encouraging to us. They were not bitter or angry, just anxious to rebuild and get on with their lives. JJ told us that the only thing that really upset her was losing the tree in her front yard. She plants trees when her grandchildren are born and takes pictures of the children each year by the tree and then as they get bigger she takes their picture up in the tree. She had actually planted this particular tree for a baby that had died, and she had taken pictures of her other grandchildren by this tree through the years. She didn't mind the loss of all her material possessions, but was upset by the loss of this tree because of the memories it held.
We were able to help "gut out" 2 homes on this trip. Both of these homeowners had great material losses, yet both wanted to take us all out to eat or buy us things to thank us for our work. But, we were able to feed them instead with our gourmet peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! We were also able to provide some jewelry to another family that they could either wear or sell for money to fix up their home. Many of these people were not in a flood prone area and thus had no flood insurance, so they were very thankful for the help.
I am now at my parent's house (they kept the kids for me). When I get back home I will upload the pictures from my camera and post some on the blog for you to see!