We're Here.... (well most of us......)

Yesterday (Sunday) was quite a day! The first US group landed at 11:30 am and quickly found our two Canadian friends. Our Canadian friends had luggage lost by the airlines. (One of our goals for the week is to learn the Canadian National Anthem!!) We got to the rental car location and (after some delays) got our 3 mini-vans and headed to Bay St. Louis. (Our UK / Dublin friends came in Saturday. They ventured around the area and met the later US flights.) Our trip was interesting. In some areas the devastation was quite evident. We saw furniture in trees, demolished houses and crushed cars. The stretch of road we were on, for many miles, was sobering.

We arrived in Bay St. Louis in the early afternoon. Our first stop was WAL-MART!!!! Many of us grabbed a bite to eat and then we did some shopping for the group. We needed workday snacks, bug-spray (we've been warned a dozen times that the bugs are out of control right now), Advil (for the evenings), a first-aid kits and a couple more sleeping bags. We headed straight to the church from there.

Picture in your head a warehouse in a fenced in area - sort of like a lumber yard. The warehouse / church is very humble but quite functional. They have wireless internet (ala me blogging you), a TV, a few games, seats for up to 300 volunteers (more common for them to have that level of volunteers in the summer) and a kitchen to the front of the room. The bunkhouses (there are 6 or 7) are also humble but functional. The men's bunk-house is a rectangle filled with 15 metal bunk-beds. All 17 men are here along with another group of guys. There are only one or two empty beds. The women's bunk-house is the same concept only shaped a little different.

When we got here we heard that dinner the previous night was incredible - steak, seafood, awesome local side dishes. We were getting excited!! It turns out that Sunday evening is a more casual dinner. We had roast beef sandwiches, Doritos and pudding. However, more important to us was the fellowship and opportunities get to know each other. We did that in a few ways - Sunday afternoon / night football, Scattergories, and a few side conversations.

The other US groups and the UK / Dublin folks got here between 9 pm - 10:30 pm. We're still missing one of our members - but she will arrive later today. We're going to do better introductions with the entire group this morning. This morning will be the first time that many of our group were able to meet our UK / Dublin folks.

Last night was an interesting sleeping experience. Those of us that are up right now generally slept minimally. Our hope is that we'll be soooo tired tonight that regardless of noisy matresses, cold breezes from the door, squeeky matresses and a number of other challenges we'll sleep better. I'm hearing now that there were a few folks that slept in the minivans and in the church. Lest you think that we had luxurious accomodations. We'll find out how the next few days progress in this regard.......

I'm impressed that the UK folks are going for a morning jog this morning. Keep in mind that they had a very big time zone change - which makes their eagerness extra impressive.

We heard last night that we will likely be working on two projects on Monday - a house blitzing (a house raising) in partnership with a group from South Carolina and another project. All of our projects are very local - within 10 minutes of the church.

Hancock Bank (a SEI banking client) is hosting a dinner for us this evening at a local community center. They saw the press release a month or so back and called me to arrange it. We're really looking forward to it!!!

Well - it's almost breakfast time - so I'll sign off after sharing a few more funny things....

We're thinking about adopting nicknames for everyone. Somehow I got the nick name Pedro. (Pedro for President - for those that remember that movie..... smile)

A certain lady within our group is extra funny. She isn't fond of a cat (Pagey the cat - she came with the name) on the grounds and is the only one to hang up her clothes. Any guesses on who it is?? :)

Check in often. We'll be blogging again soon!!