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Goodbye, Mississippi!

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ISP at the animal shelter What can I say? Are there even sufficient words in the English language to express how I feel at this, the end of my 10-month AmeriCorps journey? When I set out for Mississippi last August, I had no idea what the year ahead would hold. What I found were amazing friends, a new view point of our country, and a realization of who I really am and what I want out of life. How can I put those things into words? I suppose I can do naught but try. As for the friends I’ve made, I speak mainly of my teammates, who have seen me at my best and my most ornery, and who never failed to encourage and love me during our time together. Never before have I felt so much a part of a group--accepted as myself--than I did with these wonderful folks, who I now call family. Is it possible that this time last year I hadn’t met any of them? They feel like my oldest friends in the world, and I’m devastated by the idea that after this week, I’ll never live near them ever again. I’ll...
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Disaster - Day 12

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As of today, all casework for this assignment has been officially completed! That means we visited all destroyed and majorly damaged houses over 10 counties. Hurray! My whole team has the day off tomorrow, and then we'll be working in the Chattanooga Red Cross chapter warehouse on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we head back to campus for 1 week, and then home! I was teamed up with Jacquie today out in the field, so that was a great way to end this disaster project. We visited over 30 houses and some sites that no longer held anything other than former house debris. Part of the area we covered was out in the country, and let me tell you, this area of TN is absolutely beautiful. At one point, we drove past a vineyard, and we decided to stop for a few minutes, because it was too beautiful to just speed by and not properly observe and soak it up. Isn't it funny how those odd moments of beauty can undo all your previous stress and worry? I didn't realize how much I needed to le...
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Disaster - Day 10 & 11

Yesterday blogger was down, and today I got home too late to spend much time on an update. I'm still doing great, and yesterday I got lot of work  accomplished. Today was my first day off since leaving Memphis, and I pretty much just lazed around the hotel room with Ashlyn all day. Then our whole team went over to Shelly's house for dinner (she's the homeschool mom who's volunteering with the Red Cross that I mentioned in a previous post), and we had a grand time of eating home cooked food and enjoying an evening with a really nice family at their really nice farm. Shelly and her husband have 4 kids and they homeschool them all. It was really neat, because I found out that they use Sonlight Curriculum, which is what Scotty and I used, and what Mom still represents and is a consultant for. Mom: I asked one of the girls if she'd read 'Mara, Daughter of the Nile' and 'The Great and Terrible Quest.' She said they had and that she loves them both. '...
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Disaster - Day 9

Can it be day 9 already?? These packed days are flying by, and though my mind has trouble believing I've been working 10 -12 hour stressful days for over a week, my body refuses to let me forget it. I'm sore and sleepy this evening, but it's all for a good cause, and also a means to an end. I'm sure I'll miss it when it's over. I did a lot of driving today, because my team was assigned to finish the last few houses that hadn't been visited in 2 adjacent counties. We drove back and forth over a mountain several times, and let me tell you, I have seen enough beauty here in TN to last me for a while: so picturesque. I went out with Ashlyn, and an 84-year-old lady named Pauline, who is spunky and hilarious. She volunteers as a mental health worker for the Red Cross, and she is sweet, sassy, and quite a flirt with all the old fellows we ran into. We went to a Baptist church on the mountain for lunch, and we got to see a lot of neat things that are being done ...
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Disaster - Day 8

Today was great! Sarah and I visited a lot of houses (and a lot of places where houses used to be) and talked to a lot people, asking them how we could help and listening to their stories. We even got to see some of our AmeriCorps friends who are also working in the area, so that was awesome. At lunch, a guy walked up to our table when were finished eating and took our bill, saying he wanted to buy our lunch. He said the Red Cross has done a lot for him and for his community, and he insisted on buying our meal. I am constantly overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness I have seen daily while working in these disaster torn communities: neighbors helping neighbors in any way they can. One guy we talked to was using his farm equipment (bulldozer, tractor, etc.) to help clear away debris at his friend's house, and when he finished on that lot, he continued on to the houses next door, clearing up their debris for free. It got up over 90 degrees today, and I can't tell you...
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Disaster - Day 7

Today, I became a National Red Cross Client Services Supervisor. What did you do? Okay, so maybe it's not as impressive as it sounds since everyone on my team was promoted so that we can be in charge of volunteers, but still, it's quite a title, don't you think? Jacquie and I went out together to do casework today in Bradley County, which was hit pretty hard in many places. Our job is to go to houses that are destroyed or have major damage (as assessed by the Red Cross) and see if there is anything we can do to help the residents. If the people aren't there, we're supposed to leave a note with Red Cross information, saying that they can call us if they need help with anything. We try to leave this note in a place where they'll see it if they come by, so we tape it to the door if we can, or to a mail box if the house is too dangerous looking to approach. I can't tell you how many lots we bypassed completely because there wasn't enough of a house left to...
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Disaster - Day 6

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Operation bath tub laundry. I had such an enjoyable day. Ashlyn and I did our 9 1/2 hour ISP at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, and it was stress free. Except for being tired, I'm feeling refreshed and ready to start the new week tomorrow. I'm planning on turning in early tonight ie within the next 20 minutes, so that should solve the tired problem. Ashlyn performing one of three soapy agitation cycles. Also, I now have clean laundry, though it's still pretty wet...and did I mention it's hanging on a makeshift clothesline all over the hotel room? Ashlyn and I decided to wash our laundry in our bathtub, using powdered detergent. We filled the tub with hot water and the detergent, then threw our clothes in and agitated it thoroughly using an ordinary windshield scraper we found in our cargo truck. We repeated this process 3 times, then rinsed it twice in bulk, then one article at a time, after which we rung each piece out and hung it up on the clothes line with...
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