So, my friend Jen has been making a couple of trips a year for the past two years to D'Iberville, Mississippi, since shortly after Hurricane Katrina. She has been asking me for the past year and a half at least to go with her on one of her 1/2 week of full-week trips. I promised her in 2006 I'd go, but the timing didn't work out until now.I flew from SF to Dallas on Wednesday, Oct 31. From Dallas I was to get onto a small regional jet and fly to Gulfport, Mississippi. The nearest city of any size is Biloxi, known for its beaches and casinos. The Economic pillars of this area are:
- Tourism
- Fishing
- Shipbuilding
- Military
While in Dallas I figured out what I had forgotten at home: my camera. Hence, all pics and videos on this blog are from my Treo.
The rest of my Boston group arrived at Dallas the same time I did. I was thrilled to see my friends Jen, Charlie, Dean and Lisa.
I also met Chris, who knows Jen and was also recruited to rebuild houses in D'Iberville. We had lunch, killing time waiting for the American Eagle flight connection, making guesses about how small the plane would be.
Wednesday afternoon we all arrive at the brand-new Gulfport airport. From the air we can see some ruined structures, but mostly re-build commercial buildings. Buildings are either in ruins or they are gleaming-new 'post-Katrina' construction.
Jen has a new item to add to our agenda. We were diverting to a Boys and Girls club and will volunteer our support to running some kind of halloween festival. Te were told to go hang out with these kids and do various things, like read books to them or art projects. I was sent into the gym to coach basketball drills.
The rest of their night was going to be devoted to 'Trunk'r'Treating' Because many of the residents didn't have houses for kids to go trick'r'treating around town post-katrina, they started a tradition where the parents show up in the school parking lot, each with boxes of candy in the trunks of their cars. The kids now walk around the parking lot in costume going from car to car. This is the third year they've done it & it may continue even after everyone is in proper housing again.
Jen wanted up to see a nearby town that doesn't have a volunteer group, 'Waveland' where whole neighborhoods were completely wiped off the land and little reconstruction has taken place. We were looking at things forensically. "That used to be a gas station...that used to be a retail store...that was a residential street..." ...just by looking at the foundations that were left behind. The residents were gone & not coming back.
We had a little time to kill waiting for 'Pipes' to arrive at the airport and we were hungry, so we stopped at the ultimate 'southern' eating establishment: 'Waffle House' All I could think of was that 'Bloodhound Gang' song and smile while I had some covered, smothered waffle house hash browns.
Thursday: Maria Ralph's house - Roofing
Thursday night: "Red letter night" Biloxi re-opened a major bridge that was destroyed by Katrina. We saw fireworks & After Katherine was carded at teh Casino, we took off & had beers in Ocean Springs. We were completely beat by 9PM and called it a night.
I gradually figured out that D'Iberville has no city center to speak of. Its a rather quiet place, a suburb of a resort town and an Air Force Base. The schools and town offices half-occupy their old buildings and the rest are in temporary structures. The commercial areas are new-construction strip-malls. The only civic life I felt was the mayors gas station/restaurant/convenience store at the end of the street where some of the reconstruction projects were.
Friday:
Met Rusty, the Mayor of D'Iberville
- Friday Night:
- Interview with Ella.
- 'Devotional' meeting with Honors for Jen.
- Cheap drinks and apps at Beef O'Bradys. This is a sports bar & hey has the NBA opening night games on: we watched the Celts playing Wizards, lots of Boston fans in the bar.
Saturday: Gloria's House, Marie's house in PM.
Visited patty's finished house across town.
Saturday night: Packed up, drove to New Orleans. Went to Frenchmans area, hit the DBA Bar, then Bourbon Street until 4 AM.
Sunday: Toured New Orleans. This city agrees with me: It's all about eating well, drinking well and having fun.
Sunday night: On the flight back to California, I was sitting next to a woman from Dallas & we started chatting about things & asked if I was from Dallas or San Francisco. I told her about the D'Iberville trip & she was very interested in learning all about it while I bought a $5 Heineken for myself from the stewardess. I settled into a nap later while the woman next to me started chatting with the stewardess. When she learned the stewardess was from Mississippi, they woke me up and said: ''Thank you SO MUCH for that work you were doing in Misiissippi...here, do you want another beer?" She said this as she was already handing Heineken #2 to me with the tone of 'I'm giving you this beer, mister.' and a minute later she handed back to me the $5 I paid for the first beer. That wasn't enough, of course: She pulled out sandwiches & snacks & then, spotting an empty beer cup, said "We're out of Heineken, would you like a Bud or a Miller lite?" ...as she's already handing me beer #3, no payment required or asked for.
Karma...
Sunday night, 11PM. As I in my comfortable San Francisco apartment overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge & the bay, I'm still trying to process all of this. The 'how' and 'why' of this situation on the Gulf Coast is rather complex & I haven't sorted it all out yet. I can say that I cannot have any real dialog about this with others until you have gone there, picked up a hammer or a nailgun or paint brush and have actively worked to solve this yourself. I can't talk to someone about this who themselves is not going to do anything, but only ready to just talk about it.
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