Weekend excursions

This past weekend we drove to Mississippi for National and Global Youth Service Day. Friday we arrived in Biloxi early afternoon and joined atleast 300 other corps members from my campus and the other two campus's (Denver and Perry Point MD). All of the teams that are currently serving in the gulf were supposed to be there. It was great to see everyone, even though it was just for one evening. Unfortunatly my roommate and a couple other people wern't there because of prior commitments or being quarantined in their housing, but it was nice to be around some familiar faces, none the less.
We had a pannel discussion meeting that afternoon, with 4 people representing the Corporation for National and Community Service (Americorps is under this), Habitat for Humanity International, Biloxi State Gov't, and i don't remember who the other guy was. It was a nice 3 hour meeting, but some parts of it were interesting. Such as, the discussion about whether a year of service should be mandatory for all 12-25 yr olds, since the selective service is still for guys. I think most of us who are in this program because we have a passion for service felt that making it manditory would take away from why we do it. Personally I feel like that will create a situation similar to what my team dynamics are right now, where people don't wanna be here and that is very frustrating. Corps members were also allowed to get up and voice their opinions or ask questions about what was going on in Congress w/ issues regarding Americorps, funding, etc. Once the meeting was over we were given tickets to the Crawfish festival that was going on outside of the convention center. This was a pretty pitiful festival if you ask me, but we went for like 10 minutes since it was free then walked across the street to the beach for a little bit. I had hoped we could drive down farther on I90 to where I had been last April but that didn't happen. I am hoping to get there sometime over the next 5 months though!
My team stayed in Kiln Mississippi (about 40 min west of Biloxi), at Camp Coastal, which is another volunteer camp. (Fun Fact: Kiln MS is the home to Brett Farve, Green Bay Packers QB). One of the teams from my campus is currently staying there, and atleast 6 other teams stayed as well. I met a guy who went to UNCG and is from Greensboro, he's on a team from the Denver campus! That was pretty cool, apparently he recognizes me. Must be CVS, or maybe because he was a film major and knows my old roommate and good friend Katherine. Anyhow, it was nice to talk to a fellow North Carolinian for a bit.
The first night a few of us girls camped out, and the second night we had a bed in one of the bunks. On Saturday each team participated in different service projects in N.O, and MS. My team was with 2 other teams cleaning out a campsite that was on a river/canal that had been hit really bad by Katrina. We had a big bonfire on the small beachy area to burn the wood we were choping down. (yes, i got to use an Axe!)It was a lot of fun, especially since we havn't done an environmental project yet. I enjoyed working with people who wanted to be there too, and didn't complain about working hard! I even got to ride in a cool air boat! The rest of the weekend we relaxed at the camp, since it was in the middle of nowhere. I enjoyed the downtime.
Sunday we drove back to Lafayette, but we took a detour and drove to New Orleans and through a little of the 9th Ward. I originally was gonna take pictures, but decided once I got there that there is no way pictures could capture what I saw. We wern't even in the worst part, and it was still unbelievable. Most of the houses had absolutly nothing in them, and looked like they had been sitting there since the hurricane. You could see on the fronts of them the X mark with the date it was checked, and how many people were found, dead or alive. It was a chilling site. My team had mixed feelings about going and driving through the area. Personally I feel like people would want others to come see so they go tell others and more volunteers come down to help. However, I do see and understand the other side, where people are probably tired of seeing lookers drive by and stare at their destroyed homes.
My team leader thinks our next project will probably be in New Orleans, since most other teams have been there already, so I am sure i'll see plenty more of it over the next few months. I have actually aplied for a summer camp project there that will be in July, so maybe i'll get that and then i'll definitly be in N.O for 6 weeks!

Last week my team finished the sheetrock for Mrs. Lucy's house. We got to meet her one day last week too, not for very long, but it was cool. She's kinda a crazy old lady, who is pretty much legally blind, so we didn't really get to talk to her a whole lot. We started puddying the walls, and ceiling, but that is a task in itself, since there are gaps w/ the cookedness and dips in the house. I think we have another full day of puddying/scraping left. Today (and tomorrow) we are working on another house that Rebuilding Together (the organization with United Way that we are working for) has been working on here in Lafayette, trying to finish it up. We scraped and painted the outside today and are going to do the second coat tomorrow.

I guess that about sums up what's been going on with me! Thanks for the comments/cards/emails/etc from all of ya'll! It is great hearing from everyone! I know i have been promising pictures for a few weeks now, but getting them on a computer is kind of a pain. The computers here in the library don't let me upload pictures from my card reader to facebook. Hopefully i'll get some more New Orleans break pictures from people this week and i'll try to get pictures my team has taken up too, so you will have PLENTY to look at!

Have a wonderful week!!