The satellite internet system is down at Trinity UMC in Gulfport so I haven't been able to update my blog. As it turned out, we ended up driving all the way to Gulfport Friday, getting in just before 1 am our time for a total of 12 hours drive. We listened to a really good book on the way down, and I wasn't tired when we got to Jackson so we decided to continue. I knew we wouldn't have to worry about setting up our tent if we made it there.
Once we got up and ate breakfast we drove over to Waveland for our first stop, the real New Waveland Cafe as it turns out. All this time I had thought the big tent at US 90 and Rt 603 was the new Waveland Cafe since it had a sign that said "Waveland Cafe" and it was obviously "new" since the storm. Just 3/4 mile west on US 90 though is another relief area I had passed several times before, which contained a large, geodesic dome tent, which is the actual New Waveland Cafe. It's affectionately known to the locals as the "hippie tent" since those that operate it are largely of that stereotype. There is also a "market", clinic, and FEMA "pod" (food, water, & ice pickup location run by a volunteer organization) at the same location.
We dropped off the tents and sleeping bags and most of the blankets we had.
The tents were in particular need. They had just gotten 56 within the past day and they were already gone. In fact, there was a woman there picking up her tent when we arrived. So the 12 new ones and 2 used ones we brought were very welcome. I wish we could have afforded to buy more. They require the people to come pick them up (unless they are handicapped/elderly) within 48 hours of being notified so they have to put forth some effort to protect against the "welfare mentality".
As it turned out they were pretty short-handed on volunteers this weekend so Merrie and I stayed for a few hours to help stock and pass out goods to county residents at the market. Here she is handing out items. We were told more stories of how prayer and God's perfect timing have been working here - like praying for hotdogs and having a truck come up and ask if anyone needed the 2600 hotdogs he had or running out of water the next day and 15 minutes after prayer have someone pull up with 16 pallets. Coincidence? I think not.
Sadly, this relief area will be shutting down after Thanksgiving to spur the locals to become more independent and help the economy. That will leave just the other "new" Waveland Cafe. The only places to "eat out" in this area right now are the Sonic and these relief centers. That's a stark contrast to the Gulfport area where most restaurants that weren't heavily damaged have been open for quite some time. These 2 "cafes" are serving about 3000-3500 meals a day between them so the volume has dropped quite a bit as the people do start cooking more on their own in their tents/trailers/homes. The Waveland Cafe plans to stay for the long term though and has plans to move into a permanent location (eg, a real building like an old supermarket) in the next few weeks. It's run by the Christian Life Church from Orange Beach, AL, in partnership with Willow Creek near Chicago and Heartland Community in Rockford, IL.
After lunch I took Merrie on a tour of the remains of the area, including Lakeshore Baptist Church where I had first seen the real spirit of the people over 2 months ago. They had now taken down their temporary tarp church and were in one of the tan quonset hut tents so they continue to progress. Then we passed Methodist Gulfside Assembly shown in the picture below on the way to Clermont Harbor.
There were a few trailers in Clermont Harbor now and a couple more tents nestled among the debris but to most people it would look like Katrina had hit last week. Waveland looked only slightly better as it was a little more obvious that some debris had been removed. We continued along the coast to Bay Saint Louis and then stopped at Main St UMC to deliver the remaining blankets and all the respirators we brought for the work teams. They are way behind Gulfport in the cleanup process - Trinity is nearing the end of the gutting but it's still going full force in BSL. Unfortunately, they can't support as many work teams there.
Merrie and I took the rest of the afternoon off, listening to more of the book while looking out over Saint Louis Bay. Then we drove back to the beach at Waveland to watch the sunset and we walked in the Gulf, a first for both of us. Those self-portraits are not easy to take! We finished the book on the way back to Trinity. We had to get to the end before she went home - I wouldn't have been able to take the suspense of not knowing how this Christian thriller ended!
Merrie left earlier this morning and I came up to Gateway UMC so I could get on the internet and hopefully run into the Mitchell's here at the UMCOR office. I brought some clothes from Trinity to take to Waveland but they can't handle any clothes right now, which is pretty much the same as anywhere around here. Very few places are excepting clothing because it takes so much manpower to deal with and they don't have the space to display it. A month ago you could still see mall parking lots just full of bags and boxes of clothes left for people to sift through but those seem to have been all cleaned up now. I'm going to drop them off at the warehouse in Wiggins and see if they have some flood buckets and cleaning supplies that Waveland does have need for this morning. Thus, I need to get going.
Hopefully, we can get the net going at Trinity quickly, but it could be a bit before I update again. I may stay at Waveland a day or two as well.
Peace
Once we got up and ate breakfast we drove over to Waveland for our first stop, the real New Waveland Cafe as it turns out. All this time I had thought the big tent at US 90 and Rt 603 was the new Waveland Cafe since it had a sign that said "Waveland Cafe" and it was obviously "new" since the storm. Just 3/4 mile west on US 90 though is another relief area I had passed several times before, which contained a large, geodesic dome tent, which is the actual New Waveland Cafe. It's affectionately known to the locals as the "hippie tent" since those that operate it are largely of that stereotype. There is also a "market", clinic, and FEMA "pod" (food, water, & ice pickup location run by a volunteer organization) at the same location.We dropped off the tents and sleeping bags and most of the blankets we had.
The tents were in particular need. They had just gotten 56 within the past day and they were already gone. In fact, there was a woman there picking up her tent when we arrived. So the 12 new ones and 2 used ones we brought were very welcome. I wish we could have afforded to buy more. They require the people to come pick them up (unless they are handicapped/elderly) within 48 hours of being notified so they have to put forth some effort to protect against the "welfare mentality".
As it turned out they were pretty short-handed on volunteers this weekend so Merrie and I stayed for a few hours to help stock and pass out goods to county residents at the market. Here she is handing out items. We were told more stories of how prayer and God's perfect timing have been working here - like praying for hotdogs and having a truck come up and ask if anyone needed the 2600 hotdogs he had or running out of water the next day and 15 minutes after prayer have someone pull up with 16 pallets. Coincidence? I think not.Sadly, this relief area will be shutting down after Thanksgiving to spur the locals to become more independent and help the economy. That will leave just the other "new" Waveland Cafe. The only places to "eat out" in this area right now are the Sonic and these relief centers. That's a stark contrast to the Gulfport area where most restaurants that weren't heavily damaged have been open for quite some time. These 2 "cafes" are serving about 3000-3500 meals a day between them so the volume has dropped quite a bit as the people do start cooking more on their own in their tents/trailers/homes. The Waveland Cafe plans to stay for the long term though and has plans to move into a permanent location (eg, a real building like an old supermarket) in the next few weeks. It's run by the Christian Life Church from Orange Beach, AL, in partnership with Willow Creek near Chicago and Heartland Community in Rockford, IL.
After lunch I took Merrie on a tour of the remains of the area, including Lakeshore Baptist Church where I had first seen the real spirit of the people over 2 months ago. They had now taken down their temporary tarp church and were in one of the tan quonset hut tents so they continue to progress. Then we passed Methodist Gulfside Assembly shown in the picture below on the way to Clermont Harbor.
There were a few trailers in Clermont Harbor now and a couple more tents nestled among the debris but to most people it would look like Katrina had hit last week. Waveland looked only slightly better as it was a little more obvious that some debris had been removed. We continued along the coast to Bay Saint Louis and then stopped at Main St UMC to deliver the remaining blankets and all the respirators we brought for the work teams. They are way behind Gulfport in the cleanup process - Trinity is nearing the end of the gutting but it's still going full force in BSL. Unfortunately, they can't support as many work teams there.
Merrie and I took the rest of the afternoon off, listening to more of the book while looking out over Saint Louis Bay. Then we drove back to the beach at Waveland to watch the sunset and we walked in the Gulf, a first for both of us. Those self-portraits are not easy to take! We finished the book on the way back to Trinity. We had to get to the end before she went home - I wouldn't have been able to take the suspense of not knowing how this Christian thriller ended!Merrie left earlier this morning and I came up to Gateway UMC so I could get on the internet and hopefully run into the Mitchell's here at the UMCOR office. I brought some clothes from Trinity to take to Waveland but they can't handle any clothes right now, which is pretty much the same as anywhere around here. Very few places are excepting clothing because it takes so much manpower to deal with and they don't have the space to display it. A month ago you could still see mall parking lots just full of bags and boxes of clothes left for people to sift through but those seem to have been all cleaned up now. I'm going to drop them off at the warehouse in Wiggins and see if they have some flood buckets and cleaning supplies that Waveland does have need for this morning. Thus, I need to get going.
Hopefully, we can get the net going at Trinity quickly, but it could be a bit before I update again. I may stay at Waveland a day or two as well.
Peace
posted by Michael Ray at 12:34 PM
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