Our last day: Food & Back to Connections

It has become a trip custom to wear our latest Pearlington shirts and pose at the Welcome to Pearlington sign. Here we are--all 20 of us and then various combinations are shown below.





Today was our last day in Pearlington. It was really cold and we were anxious to get to work quickly. A large contingent headed to the swamp to work on the foundation for Captain Jack. They had tried putting in pilings in one location and had to switch to another part of the property due to the water filling in the holes. The boat above is the one some of you will remember from our first trip--it's the one that ended up on top of a house. We found out today that two people (with only 1 life vest) actually were on the boat during the hurricane--they live on it. The guys had built the boxes and were able to fill them with concrete but were not able to get the heavy equipment to place them so some of the guys returned to their original work sites.

Miss Anna had fixed lunch (unbeknownst to us) but we had left to go to the church for lunch and then to the sign for our picture. She served us an afternoon snack at 3PM--cabbage and sausage, black eyed peas, warm rolls, potato salad, etc. It was a traditional New Year's Day meal.
We were very close to finishing the first coat of paint but just couldn't get it done. Scaffolding will be needed for the upper peaks--but we got lots further than we had anticipated. It turns out that she only wanted us to do the garage because she felt there were others that needed us more. It was through her however that we found Maria and Mr. Lee's families both needing help.
Maria and her sister Alicia fixed a special dinner for those of us that had worked on her house. They had set up tables and chairs in their new home even though the power isn't hooked up and they aren't in yet.
We also had lunch at the church again--black eyed peas, turkey, dressing, corn, green beans, cornbread, cake, etc. Today was filled with Pearlington folks expressing their appreciation by serving us wonderful food.

During this entire trip, the word "connection" has resonated with me. It was through our connection with Sam that we found Miss Caroline (the cat lady) and it was through Miss Anna that we found Maria and then through her that we found Mr. Lee. It has also been about connections with our own group of 20 and our work with Sue's group of 7.

We have strengthened connections with those we knew prior to the trip, made new connections with other workers, and most importantly, we have made new connections and new friends here in Pearlington. We already are talking about when we come back ..... Pearlington is in our hearts and we will keep coming back as long as there are people that have this heartbreaking need for help.

That this lack of help can exist in our country is truly appalling. It is so hard to leave tomorrow knowing that if we could stay we could ensure that Maria gets in to her home by the deadline for removal of her Katrina cottage. If we stayed we could give more hope and assistance to Mr. Lee and just might be able to pull off getting him ready to meet his deadline. If we stayed we might be able to help Sam and Lyn....the list is heartbreakingly endless!!

We have established connections that won't be broken and we have provided some hope and some help and for now that has to be enough. Once again we take away the feeling that we got more from the people here than we were able to give. We have seen the elephant and we can only hope that as we return home we can make the people that have the power to effect real change, see the elephant as well. Good night and happy new year from Pearlington, Mississippi.