It is both encouraging and discouraging to see what is going on in MS. Encouraging in that you can see at least some progress being made everywhere, even the hardest hit areas. However, there is still a lot of red tape in the way apparently. The people have not seen the government grants yet. Zoning and building codes still have not been finalized in some places. I think I already mentioned being upset about the new casino in Lakeshore. The strip mall where the "New Waveland Cafe" had been located still hasn't been touched save for the bank out in the parking lot - one of the 2 reasons the Cafe had to shutdown Nov 30, 2005, was so the businesses could come back. But the people don't really complain - they just keep on keeping on.

Samuel turned 8 months while I was in Pearlington. Here he is 2 days after that milestone.


He's getting better at crawling and working himself upright. He's had pretty strong legs for some time so now he's working out the chest and arms to snag the chicks.


Who would have thought rice and veggies would make you so buff??? He's been packing those away pretty well when we bother to feed it to him. He's still mostly a breast baby. He's also had small tastes of nasty things like popsicles, ice cream and sherbet.

I bought 7 pounds of shrimp for $20 from one of the locals on the way to the airport before coming home, and we finished consuming that tonight. Yum! I sauted them with 5 different seasonings tonight for some variety.

Our church's yard sale began today and I'm happy to report we came home with far less than we took. Merrie got a few puzzles and books, I got some sandals and a digital scale, Sydney got some slippers and Samuel got pajamas and a riding horse like her brother used to have.

Merrie, Sydney and Samuel are walking in the Komen Race for a Cure Saturday. This past week we've been working on getting Samuel used to drinking from a sipper cup rather than a normal one. He was somewhat resistant at first but seems to be getting better at it now. We'll see how it works come race day.

After a few days of being home and sick I'm finally getting the last few pics of my MS trip posted. This was the team actually from my church that was present for this trip so we made up 1/7th of the total.


This is me getting ready to help install a piece of fascia board.


Here's an aerial view of a portion of Waveland showing the destruction easily visible along the coast 19 months after Katrina. There will be rebuilding for many years to come....

I have a few pics of some of the other people from our group and what they have gotten to do - sanding,






mudding...






and some flooring....

I have heard some in our group don't want to go home. Perhaps they understand now why I seem drawn to come down here.

Today was picture perfect - 80 and not a cloud to be seen. My team finished installing the roof joists today so we can start sheeting tomorrow. The roof peak is over 43 feet from the pad. I took this pic yesterday where you can see Jennifer, one of the nursing students, nailing straps across the peak.


The former gymnasium became known as "PearlMart", a distribution center for food and supplies for local residents up to March 1, 2007. Note the highwater mark on the backboard.

This morning I walked out to the house Merrie worked on in Dec 05. Nothing had been done to it since that I could tell, but it seems they put in a new mobile home instead.


My work team was back out on the same site and will likely be there the whole week. So much for getting to use my new power tools. Today we were able to work on the roof joists. Here we are setting the hip joist with Rob on the corner, me nailing the other end and Tom, the contractor, in the middle and his helper, Hutch, who was a set designer in NYC and decided to try a change of pace for a while.


I'll put up some more pics tomorrow. My PC locked up while writing this so I had to start over and it's getting late. I had a great time at the church service tonight. They sure bring a whole new meaning to worship. Wow! Thank you, Jesus!

Everyone from our district made it here fine. I flew down with a couple from our church and their neighbor - it was the first time I could recall flying in a private plane that wasn't owned by my parents. 5 hours of flying sure beat 12 driving. I think only 1 of the 56 didn't show up, but we found out he's over in D'Iberville where we were originally scheduled. He may stay there or join us tonight. Below is a group shot of almost everyone. The tent in the background will be the new mess hall, which will about triple the seating capacity of the current one.


We're staying in what used to be the elementary school complex. They decided to decommission it because there were only 130 students and some haven't returned. They were going to raze the entire thing but the town pleaded enough that they left the gym building and what I believe was also the library building. Those will be turned over to county parks dept once things get back to some semblance of normal.

Since we arrived early, I took our little group on a short tour of the area so they could see some of the real damage along the coast. We drove through Lakeshore, and I was quite saddened to see they had opened a casino out where one had once been and failed oddly enough long before Katrina. Waveland didn't really look much different from August. There were a few more houses but it's mostly desolate - I didn't even want to take any pictures. We learned later that many still have not gotten approval to build because codes aren't finalized or grants haven't come through yet. Some people build anyway it seems. The US 90 bridge at BSL is nearly complete. 2 more sections near the middle need to be put in place and 2 lanes are supposed to be open May 15.

There are a variety of jobs for us to do this week - painting, mudding drywall, finishing some plumbing jobs, HVAC, installing phone/cable lines, putting up decks, etc. My group was supposed to do a deck today but that homeowner wasn't quite ready yet so we got to help a contractor working on a new home that will be one of the nicest in town I think but it's quite tall. The first floor level is over 12 feet.

Katrina level was about 10-11 feet sustained here, but many new homes are not that high. The other 4 in my group got out of their comfort zone in various ways at this home, whether it be heights, ladders or learning how to use power tools. I worked on putting in the blocking for the second story deck joists.

We had lunch at the tiny Missionary Baptist Church in town. They've been feeding the residents and volunteers lunch for some time now and have fed up to 700 before. Fishes and loaves. I'm hoping to attend their Wed night service.

We had a lot of rain and it was low 60s today, but it should be near 80 tomorrow.

Here is me and Samuel on my birthday, with an old pic of Stephan and Sydney in the background so you can see the resemblance.


Ahhh... aaaahhhhhh...aaaaahhhhhh-CHOOOO!


Samuel is sleeping on my lap listening to Christian hard music while I work.




Here are all our boys


Sydney invited Grandma Rose over for a sleepover this week. He recently got his Cub Scout God and Me award.


I'll be heading back to MS next week. Our district of the UMC is sending a team of over 50 to Pearlington. Merrie worked on a house there in Dec 05.