Week Three, Day One

Sunday ...
Miss Cora Reddix has a house!!!


Remember her? She's the woman I wrote about on Friday of the first week - a victim of both Katrina and a crook who stole her FEMA money.

I wanna write that again ... *Miss Cora has a house.* Soon it'll be a home - but for now it's a house, and I remind myself that on October 6th, 2006, it was just concrete blocks. (Eva, Kerry Ann and Paula - pat yourselves on the back!!)

Sorry - I got ahead of myself.

I meet Deb L. at Cafe Du Monde for breakfast and we drive to Gulfport to pick up Danny D. We grab lunch and I drive the three of us to the Village, and by the homes that the company has already worked on. As it turns out, Jim P. is nearby so I make introductions and we catch up.

Jim lets me know that on Saturday, October 21st, six families were moved into their new homes, including Leonard and Jeannette Davis, Phyllis Bullock, and Silvia Pearson, all Nixon Street neighbors whose homes we worked on during Week #2. (Kevin, Emily, JJ and Bruce - I hope you're smiling from this news!!)

Meanwhile, Miss Dickson's house (shown here from the outside) is completely sheet-rocked and will be ready to be taped and textured before the first coat of primer Thursday or Friday.

I can’t help but remember what Miss Dickson’s home looked like when I was here during our first week in October. I vividly recall being coated in baby-powder in 95+ degree heat, with my boss Emily and I using a very busted-up tape measure to figure out the length of insulation needed in a corner of the back-bedroom - repeating “measure twice, cut once” over and over in my head so that I didn’t screw up and now I’m looking at THIS!

And, as I've already blurted out, there is a house on 207 Elmer Street for Miss Cora. PLUS, I drive by Miss Iona’s, where Jim will later check the cabinetry work before the next (and probably final) steps are started.

With all this good news, I invite Jim and Nancy P. and their crew to join the our team for dinner at Aunt Jenny's in Ocean Springs on Tuesday.

Danny, Deb, and I drive to Gulfport to pick up Karen R., and we head back to base camp, where I give the grand tour and we pick out our bunks and get settled. The Hands-On crew will be back soon so the energy will be picking up. While waiting, the four of us decide to have dinner and, when we return, another of our vans has arrived. Jaime B., Marcio C., Bruce D., Scott T., and Mike D. are having dinner at camp and introductions go all around … and then it’s time for the camp meeting. This is when we’ll get our work assignments – and we’ll introduce ourselves to the entire dorm … so more introductions happen.

Camp intros are usually name, home city/state, and favorite cartoon character … or favorite candy … or favorite TV theme song (with, of course, STRONG encouragement from the crowd to sing it). Tonight the fun factoid is admitting your most embarrassing moment – or choosing between corn and peas. Considering we’ll never see most of the non-company folks again … well, let’s just say that it can be VERY freeing to be a goofball sometimes.


Danny does us proud by relating his most embarrassing moment (if you wanna know what it is, you’ll have to ask him), which earns him a nickname. A bunch of our team sign up for after-dinner KP duty, even though they've been here 3 hours.

Our last volunteer (John L.) will be landing at 9:30pm at Gulfport and it looks likes our teams are in place. (The third van arrives while I’m picking up John, after they get to experience the lack of street signs around Gulfport. Thankfully, I’m able to remember enough landmarks to get them to camp.) Some will work on a de-molding project, while others will be on construction with George, a Hands-On volunteer, and the rest of us will be working on interior painting and caulking.

Ok, at least that's what I *think* we'll be doing as I write this at 10:56pmCT on Sunday. MUCH can change between now and tomorrow morning.