Friday - Pearlington

Up at 6:30 for breakfast. The funny thing about breakfast was that they had breakfast burritos. We thought were back in Mexico!. They have a well stocked pantry that is open 24/7 if you get hungry.

After breakfast, we got our work assignment for the day, which was hanging sheetrock. We got this job because we are 'skilled' laborers. At least that is what we told the camp director. Anyway, this is a much better job than 'mucking out' a house which is the process of removing all the moldy, smelly sheetrock or other wall covering and insulation and in general cleaning up. It is hard to believe (unless you have been here) that 8 months after the storm there are still homes that need to have this done. Although many houses have been done and reconstruction has started on some, there are still those where almost nothing has been done. Of course, some of the houses are so badly damaged that they cannot be salvaged and are just waiting to be demolished.

We are working for a family that lives about two miles from the camp. Wheb the storm hit, they had just celebrated their one year anniversary of owning their home.



They have FEMA trailer to live in while the house is being repaired and while the trailer is nice enough, it is pretty cramped for long term living.

We started hanging sheetrock in the kitchen. From this picture you can see that the water level got to the second level of their home (notice where the sheetrock has been removed on the upper wall).



They have done a lot to repair their home so far, but like many people here they have limited resources. We are the first outside help that they have had. Fortunately, between our tools, those of the PDA camp and the homeowner and their neighbors, we had everything we needed for sheetrock work. They even had borrowed a device to lift and hold up the sheetrock. Makes it much easier to do the ceiling!

We knocked off at 11:30 for lunch at the First Missionary Baptist Church.



This is their pastor, Reverend Rawls and Brian.



These fine Christian brothers and sisters are feeding lunch to 100-300 people Monday through Friday using voluntary contributions of food, money and cooking.



Here are the two ladies who prepare the food.



What a wonderful example of Christian service! And when we say lunch, we are not talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a glass of milk. Here is a picture of one of our plates.



They had fruit salad, potato salad, biscuits, fried catfish, boiled crawfish, red beans and rice, pork and beans and peach cobbler. Talk about Southern hospitality.

Here is a picture of the inside of their church.



As you can see, it needs a lot of work. They are raising money to rebuild, but it is not a large congregation. If you can, please send them a contribution to help with rebuilding their church. First Missionary Baptist Church, Pearlington, MS 39572 should be enough address (Pearlington is not very big).

After lunch, we continued hanging sheetrock and made good progress. We will go back on Saturday and should be able to complete a significant portion of the downstairs.

Before dinner, we rode over to Waveland, MS. Along the beach, there was complete destruction. Check out the October entries in this blog to see some pictures. Just like in Pearlington, not much has changed since October. Some houses are being rebuilt, but most are not. Christ Episcopal church now has a quonset hut type structure to worship in.

Here is the link to another blog about the work in Pearlington

http://www.pearlington.blogspot.com

Tomorrow (Saturday) is our last day here at Pearlington, and then we will be headed home.