"Until I Have No More To Give, I Will Give No Less"

The photo above is home sweet home, the 'tern bunkhouse. The title of the blog is from a song that was being played and sung by a group of students behind me, by the way.

For More Photos check out my Photo Album online here:

Lagniappe Redux

Good things come to those who wait^^

Hey y'all,
sorry for the wait, things have been busy the past few days, and I have been recovering from a rather nasty sunburn that has left me unwilling to sit with my back against a chair for very long.
It's hard for me to believe that I've already been here for 8 days now. I'll try to make blog postings more regular, otherwise i just wont get to it. Wednesday and Sunday nights are probably the best. Except for the weekend where we did pretty much nothing except lay on the beach in 87 degree weather and hear people talk about how cool it was and contemplate why we came here this summer, we have been working on insulating and drywalling a house out near Bayou Lacroix. We have had an excellent teacher, Dick Wynz, who not only taught us what we were doing, but has shared with us a wealth of information and interesting stories from his past, not just in construction, but in world travel, in his work as a teacher in a correctional facility in Wisconsin. Most importantly though, he has gotten us ready to lead our own teams in the drywalling process. We are also very lucky and have had a friendly relationship with the home-owner, who graciously allowed us to use the restroom in his trailer, surprised us with a case of cold soda the other day, and is having us over for a crawfish boil on saturday before Dick heads home.
(Insert noise of a very long passing train here)
Trains go through Bay St. Louis 4-5 times a day, blaring their horns at every intersection, as per Mississippi law. While this may seem annoying and inconvenient, the train is actually a great symbol of restoration for Bay St. Louis, as the railroad bridge and the Highway 90 bridge over the Bay of St. Louis were both destroyed in Katrina. The fact that train is going through reminds people that the town is coming back together, that it has come a long was since that fateful day.
Yesterday I started chauffeuring a group from England over to their work site (as they had no vehicle, duh^^) That's been fun, although it took a while for them to warm up to me. It was one of those situations where I would ask a question, get a one-word response and then they would instantly go back to talking to each other. Well, some of the other interns have found my hiding spot here on the porch of the Mockingbird Cafe, so I am going to go be social. Look forward to another post by Sunday at the latest, (and if I don't post send me angry e-mails so I feel bad about it^^)

Time flies...

Wow, So I've already been here for two whole days, and my how the time has flown. It might sound cliche, but I am 100% convinced that we will look back on this time, of still being in what Jean calls "chamber of commerce mode", just taking it in, only really focused on the positive, and we will miss it. When everything isn't fresh and new and exciting, it will be more of a challenge. Anyway, as far as the last two days are concerned, both of our mornings mainly consisted of going to meetings and getting an idea of the way things run here for staff, from the way we check-in teams, to how we go about participating in the restoration, not only of the Gulf Coast, but of ourselves, each other and the teams and homeowners with whom we interact. We've had some free time to go to WalMart and get those forgotten supplies, or to head down to the beach for a quick swim, or deplete the value of our Mockingbird Cafe gift cards. The interns have really bonded already as a group, which is good because we are going to soon be split up into out various departments and will be starting with job-specific training, and we will be thankful for the time we got to spend and the friendships we forged with those with whom we won't be working all day.
Enough about all this talk of the future, we did some real work today! In the midst of re-arranging the Lagniappe apparel stockpiles, we cleaned out all of the stuff stored away on top of the offices and the lounge. After uncovering Jean's half rat-eaten library of books, a few mounted deer heads and stuffed turkey, we were sweaty and covered in dust and rat poo, and we took some time off for beach, naps, or fixing bicycles... wondering which one I chose, eh? Well, I actually did end up at the beach for a little while with one of the volunteers, Wolfgang, who is actually from Bavaria, and we had a nice chat about all manner of things,in German, of course^^ It was nice to speak some German again in a non-academic environment. He shared with me that he had come to faith through the writings of Francis Schaeffer, which is compelling me to read some of his stuff, though I don't know when I will get to it. It made me think a lot about the power of words, and the way the expression of truth and conviction in writing can affect people in the deepest ways. That's not something I am hoping for this blog, just something to ponder.

25 hours of pure bliss....

So, I'm here, finally, in Bay St. Louis. It took a grand total of 28hours from the time I left my house, to the time I pulled into Lagniappe. Good ol' Greyhound actually stayed pretty much on schedule, though there were moments that were less than enjoyable, (e.g. trying to fall asleep with a wannabe gangsta rapper taking up 75% of the seat we were sharing, while listening to this other guy regale his crew with tales of nefarious deeds done by his gang (for anyone who cares who, they fly a blue flag)) All in all a good trip, met some interesting folk, got a few hours of fitful sleep, etc. When I got into Lagniappe, I grabbed some chow, and actually put together my bike as the first order of business. I am now the proud owner of functioning, fixed-gear street machine, which needs only a few slight tweaks to be a really great ride. i'll post a picture later both here and on fixedgeargallery.com. Well I have to be ready to go at 7:30 tomorrow, so I'm going to sign off.

Here goes nothin'

Well, it's been a long long time since I have added my thoughts to the "blagosphere"; something like 73 weeks since the last time I updated my LiveJournal... anyway, this should be a new start for me, as any people have asked to be kept in the know about this summer, with keeping some account of my life available for perusal. So I'm heading to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi on Saturday, using a veritable old US institution: Geryhound, 80$ and 25 hours later, I should be...well 20 miles from my destination. It should be an interesting trip, but before I embark on this journey, I should probably get prepared so it's back to the grind of unpacking, cleaning, and repacking for me.