The Landfill that was a Paradise

Ana got in to Pass Christian, MS, (near Biloxi) yesterday (Thursday, 10/06) and is planning on living in an "ocean front property" (tent) for the next couple of months. As you can see demonstrated in the picture, what once was considered a paradise of the Gulf is now little more than a landfill. She said that there are absolutely no houses standing, not even partially, not even framing/cross-beams. She hears that it is worse farther inside the city.

There is a strong military presence there. She says that she had to go through checkpoints to get there, and that it feels like a warzone with all of the destruction and soldiers with guns. They have set a curfew, which is a little bothersome, because as soon as they are done working for the day, they have only enough time for dinner before they are confined by the curfew. Which means, no showers (awkward). She says (a) that she is going to skip the gov't provided meal one day and take a shower, and (b) that she is thinking about taking scissors to her already shortened hair so that she has less reason to worry about [not] showering. It is very intense (a word she used no less than four times over our ten minute conversation).

Her current work bring her back to the world of distribution, where she is now taking packages (some of which she labeled back in Jackson) and distributing them locally to the people who need them. They can't get them out fast enough. Two other jobs loom in the near future. The hurricane winds blew the road away, as well as the street signs and... anything that was above ground (side note: the camp she is staying in is placed where it is because it is by the only landmark left in the town, a sign for a Family Dollar/Dollar General/something like that). So, one job will be working with the city to replace signs in order to allow for navigation. Secondly, they are going to start sending out work crews to help salvage people houses. Many people have decided that it isn't worth it to rebuild, but for those who want to return, they are stripping the property of the wreckage, filling dump trucks (she says that there are constantly dump trucks taking wreckage somewhere) and looking for anything salvageable in the ruins.

One fun fact is that Pass Christian was the town "adopted" by Good Morning America, and so has received both lots of donations and PR attention. She says she'll let us know if she's going to be on the tele'.

She's being well taken care of, considering the circumstances. She's lodging next to the medical center, and is provided by the gov't with an Air Conditioned tent full of hot food when she gets off of work.

She's glad to be in a new place. It was getting tiring at the Jackson distribution center, doing work for people that she had no connection with. She is now in a place where she is directly helping real, tangible people. As she left, she had a couple of cool experiences, affirmations of what she's doing and where she's going. One of her Americorps friends in Jackson is struggling with knowing what to do after he is done working with Americorps. He doesn't know when he will finish, and that dictates which vocational choice he will have to pursue. This has been troubling him, but he told Ana that because she up and left without knowing where she was going or what she was doing, he now has faith that God will lead him where he needs to be. The second was that a guy told her, before she knew that she was leaving, that she needed to make sure to tell the people in the next place that she went that God was the reason that she is down there. He said that it had really made an important impact on himself and others in Jackson. Ana felt very blessed to be able to receive Godly encouragement from someone who was face-to-face, she hasn't found much sine she left our company. Praise be to God for providing her with such wonderful mates along her journey.

These last couple of bits are from Nikki's turn at the conversation, so they'll probably be shorter and less accurate. Hang in there with me, we're almost through with this update. Firstly, she says that if you're trying to call her, don't stop trying. Even though you'll probably receive a message that the connection cannot be made, you just have to keep trying and eventually you'll reach at least the voicemail. Secondly, she said that she had to turn the music off in the car as she entered the town because the destruction was so intense that she had difficulty just taking it all in. She said that to get someplace you just walk where there used to be houses, because now there is absolutely nothing. She says that it is awesome, in that it inspires awe. She said that people are "troopers" and that they are all just struggling to regain a sense of normalcy. She said that they all get excited when they get normal things like kleenex and toilet paper, because everything else is just in such disarray.

We ask, as always, that you pray.