Well, it’s the last day, and we’re done working. In the end, we worked on three houses, plus did some chores around the church where we were staying. Our team was very pleased with our work on the house, and the owner was very grateful.

All in all, I’ll say that I really enjoyed the trip. It was a good experience and I got to know some of the students well, which I always enjoy. All that is left is to get ready and back on the road, after dropping off some “Thank You” posters that we prepared for the home owners. We should be back in Carlisle sometime Saturday afternoon.

We’ve spent the past two days performing construction on a local house. Most of the walls only had drywall on the upper half when we arrived, but we have almost all of them covered now. The work has been rewarding, especially when you see the look of excitement on the owners face as she realizes that she is going to have walls again. She has been living in a trailer in her front yard along with her young son.

I spent most of the first day putting up insulation with Ben, a Dickinson student. We had a pretty good time, all in all, but I was very tired at the end of the day. It got very hot, since we had to wear long sleaves and masks for most of the day. I’ll admit that I’m not used to being on my feet all day, and so by this afternoon they were definitely letting me know that they weren’t pleased. I’m toughing it out, though, and don’t think I’ll have any problems making it through the week. Today was much better than yesterday, since we only had a little bit of insulation to hang, and that meant we could wear short sleaves the rest of the day.

Not much else to say, really, so I guess I’ll sign off.

There’s really no other way to describe what we saw today. We drove through Golf Port and saw the vast swaths of destroyed lots that resulted from the hurricane. Some of the imagery was really incredible, and the things that stand out the most were the tattered flags I saw hanging. Some were hung properly on flag poles, but many were attached to a tree, which was one of the few remaining erect items on the propery. The most drastic image was of a badly torn and tattered “Old Glory” that had been ripped from its proper place and was swaying from several tree branches. The thoughts that it left me with were full of philosophical ramblings about the state of our Nation during this time.

After Gulf Port we drove to New Orleans where we met John Miyahara, from Dickinson, in the suburbs. We parked in a restaurant on the edges of a now defunct shopping center, complete with a closed Circuit City and Toys ‘R Us. Normally this area would have been teeming with folks out shopping, but the only commercial outlet available was a catering truck doing a good business of feeding the day laborers from the surrounding areas.

From here we moved on to the now infamous 9th Ward. Seeing pictures and video cannot prepare you for being there in person. There are very few houses standing, and those that are, certainly don’t look like they are habitable. In some cases it looked like the water washed the house completely out from under the roof, leaving just that laying on the ground. Taking pictures seemed almost like a disrespect to the area, and in no way could capture what had happened there. I found myself sighting something to capture, but then when I framed the shot in the small view finder, the object lost its significance when removed from the surrounding area.

Since it is spring now, there is grass growing, and some small wild flowers were even blooming here and there. I found myself hoping for a small flower bed from when people actually lived here, but couldn’t find anything where we were. Seeing a perenial flower sprouting from the ground and coming to bloom would have given one a sense of hope that is hard to come by when surrounded by such devastation.

I’ll try to come back to this topic later, after I’ve been able to digest it some more. I will post some pictures from today as well, once I have more time, even though they won’t do proper justice to the situation.

We departed Dickinson about 5:00PM on Friday and arrived in Pascagoula at about 1:30PM Saturday. The Church that we’re staying in is still undergoing some repairs of its own, but seems very nice so far. We quickly found the showers after the long drive and we’re getting ready for a quick tour of the areas most ravaged by the Hurricane. Everyone is pretty tired, yet there is almost an excitement in the air, probably because the long journey is over and we can finally get out of the vans and stretch for more than 15 minutes.

As it turns out, there’s an open access point here, so it looks like I’ll have some reliable fast access.

I’m taking part in a Katrina Relief trip through work, Dickinson College. We leave this afternoon for Pascagoula, MS and will be there for a week. I’m looking forward to the trip, but will admit that I’m a little nervous. I don’t know quite what to expect, but I am hopeful that I will enjoy the experience.

I got clearance from my boss to take a cellular modem and my laptop on the trip, so hopefully I’ll be able to post to this blog throughout the week.