Blogs from Pass Christian, Mississippi, United States, North America

The one about what remains of Katrina Up very early – that stupid one hour time change is going to rock my boat for a long time. But, there sure is one good thing about being so far east in a time zone. The sky was bright at 6:00 am. The sun was up over the yard arm way before 7, and when I was on the road at 7:30 the dew had dried off the windshield. First stop, McDonalds. I have been Jonesing for a bacon/egg/cheese/English muffin for a long time now, and it sure went down good. Funny story, but not so funny, but funny anyway. I ran out of tissues this morning, and rather than use the skinny toilet paper you have to use in RVs, I figured I would appropriate a large ... read more

What a rewarding day. I worked today with my friend and host Lou Rizzardi on his yard. Doesn't sound like much, but it really made both of us feel better. He claims that this "saved his life" but that is overly dramatic. He really meant that removing the visual burden of coming home everyday and seeing the amount of work that still needs to happen on his yard was incredibly helpful to his psyche. Here are my observations for the day: 1. Volunteers need help, too. From working with Lou, I could tell how exhausted he was, but how much he needed to take care of himself and his family, and have a day off from helping others. I hope that the community can honor the local volunteers as well as as the non-community volunteers. I ... read more

Today was quite a display of contrasts: outdoors building a fence to indoors taking appointments; outdoors shooting wildlife photos to indoors at a smokey bowling alley. I loved it. 1. Volunteers Rock! Today, I had the privilege of hanging out at the nearby bowling alley in Diamondhead with the AmeriCorps staff. They meet there every Thursday night to chill and have fun. I was shocked to see some of these 40 twenty-something people walking around with bowling bags! Well, at the bowling alley, I spoke with several people who were so proud of the corp and the young people (high school and college kids) for coming to town and truly providing the type of assistance that residents really need to start to get their lives back on track through volunteer hours mucking houses, picking up trash, ... read more

My second day here was less strenuous, but very intriguing since I met many of the people benefiting from donations. No photos, but a good work day. See below for our thoughts from the group. Debby Observations from Debby 1. Volunteers on a mission. Many people I met today came through either a religious group or were serving on a mission. Leslie is a young woman living in Los Angeles with a missionary group; Marilyn came for the week with her christian group to help in anyway she can; Gabriel is from Los Angeles with another missionary group; and another Leslie was told by god to quit her job and drive from Michigan to Pass C with her husband in her camper. A missionary group held singing and dancing to christian rock, and it looked like ... read more

i love pass christian! ... read more