There were 18 of us that piled into three vans and made the 23 and a half hour drive (in two days with a rest stop in Bowling Green, Kentucky) to Pass Christian, Mississippi. To be honest, I wasn't totally psyched about going to Mississippi instead of Louisiana due to past experiences with Mississippi, but it turned out to be a lovely place. The Gulf was literally across the street from the camp we were staying at which meant we went to the beach every single day and the stars were out and it was so beautiful and peaceful. It really strikes you when you realize that this beautiful peaceful shallow warm water caused all the damage that you're there to clean up...

We did most of our work across the bridge in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (thank God the bridge just got put back up because before it would take 40 minutes to make it to the next city). Bay St. Louis, like the other Gulf Cities has parts that are in desperate need of help, but there are also places (like the houses next to our camp) which have been completely rebuilt into the slave mansions they once were. Most of the coast was wiped clean which was terrible, but also kind of means it was one step ahead of New Orleans to begin with (no gutting!) but the Waffle Houses are back up and running, so that's something I guess :)

On Monday we split into two groups: one group dug a trench for a water line while the other group (my group, and later everyone) was taking down a small chicken coup. To get the full effect: It was raining, there was a picnic basket full of starving baby kittens, mud everywhere, threats of snakes and poisonous spiders later joined by fire ants who apparently were hungry and wasps, but we made it out with only a bunch of fire ant bites (like Jimmy's on his eye) and some barbed wire/brush burn marks (Rich). You should of seen our faces when that final poll was pulled out.

Tuesday was spent in three different groups. One group was using chain saws to take down a tree for an old woman, another group was doing odd jobs for a nice man named Rock who lives on the bayou and my group was doing drywall/insulation for a nice man named Herb who had single handedly rebuilt both his home and his business for the past two years.

That evening we headed into the city, while listening to "Summer girls" by LFO literally 50 consecutive times. We began our evening with a stop in St. Bernard's Parish where we had worked last year. In all my years (two) of Katrina work, I've never actually returned to a site to see it afterwards. We stopped to see Sid and Joe's house and were overjoyed to see that they had finally recieved a FEMA trailer, we only found out later that despite the fact that they had recieved it soon after we had left, it had taken them SIX WEEKS to get the KEYS TO THE FRONT DOOR TO GET INTO THE TRAILER ON THEIR FRONT YARD. Also their HOUSE WAS EXACTLY THE WAY THAT WE HAD LEFT IT A YEAR AGO WHEN WE HAD GUTTED IT. *insert swearing here* Also Joe's FEMA trailer had broken and instead of fixing it like they had promised, FEMA took it away, so they're in pretty much the same situation we had left them in a year ago except they've both been sick and in the hospital recently (PTSD and more) and they're sitting around waiting for more people to come help them. We would have loved to have helped them, but stupid IMPACT ministries no longer has a place to house volunteers in St. Bernard's Parish, just as they are losing their housing in the Pass at the end of the month. *sigh*. It meant a lot to Sid and Joe that we're still thinking about them and praying for them when they're pretty sure everyone had forgotten about them. We got beignets at the Cafe du Monde and had a really good reflection that evening on the steps across from Jackson Square.

Wednesday and Thursday we worked hard. My group took down the walls and the ceiling, put up insulation, put dry wall up and then spackled it, sanded it, and then re-spackled it. It looks fantastic but it's incredible how much work is left. He has to work some more to afford the next step. Floors, kitchen supply, chairs, paint, wallpaper, it's incredible how much work he has to do still. The other two groups began working on Rock's roof on his house which his father had built. We were pretty exhausted after working all day (especially the kids working on the roof) and we had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before so we took a walk around the neighborhood to see the juxtaposition of the destroyed houses and the mansions right in a row. Awkward. Thursday morning we ate breakfast at WAFFLE HOUSE because the Discovery Channel song says "smothered and covered like my Waffle House hash browns" and because we keep seeing them everywhere so that was a good time.

Friday we had decided to pull a half day. Our group finished the second spackle and ran out of seam tape and there was pretty much nothing left to do at Herb's house so we headed over to the bayou to work on the roof. Personally, I was worried that I would be too scared to go work on the roof but with the help of my strong baby brother, I went up to the ladder. It was hot and hard work but I was able to try to hammer my thumb twice. Later I succesfully swept the roof. Luckily there were people much more suited to this work who were working much harder than me and they finished the roof by 2:30 that night. Great work guys, I'm so proud of you all!

We headed into the city and I don't think I've mentioned how much I've missed it. And I can't tell you what bad shape so many parts of it is still in. I wish that we could go there to work, but IMPACT placed us in lovely Mississippi and Catholic Charities won't take under 18 year olds. I'm going to make sure that SU heads to NOLA again this January because I miss it like crazy. We had dinner at the Cafe Maspero (mmm...jumbalaya and muffelatta) and then we shopped for awhile. I even helped convince the other chaperones to head to Bourbon St., which I believe was the highlight of most of the boys' young lives...we also stopped by the river for a short time and made the long trip back to the Pass.

Twenty three and a half hours of driving, a stop in Bowling Green, full of Waffle House waffles and Subway sandwiches, we arrived back in Buffalo happy and fulfilled...and planning to return to the Gulf Coast in another year.

So that's basically it. Amazing trip. There's so much more that can't really be fit into any real essay, but if you took the time to read this then thank you. :)