Tuesday From Camp Costal

Our group is Matthew Najarian, Rosine Hekmat Afshar, Steve Zieselman, Bill Mullen, Alexa Golembeski, Garrett Pavlicek, Graham Strang, and me. We left Boston on Monday at 5:30 AM to spend the week in Kiln Mississippi.

We made our flights without problem, and arrived in New Orleans around 10AM. We have 2 6-passenger vans, so we've got plenty of room. We arrived at Camp Coastal just before noon. Dave, the facilities manager, and Jackie, the volunteer coordinator gave us our orientation, reviewed the Camp rules, and promised to have us on the job in the morning.

Since we weren't assigned any work for Monday afternoon, we drove around a bit, did some shopping, and went to the beach in Waveland for a swim. The beach was nice and clean, not crowded at all. The water was not as refreshing as expected, so the swimmers in the group reported to me. I guess they wanted something more like Nantasket - brisk. That part of the coast is still showing signs of the storm damage, while further inland there seemed to be much more recovery, which was great to see.

Today we were assigned work in Camp Coastal. We converted the old mess tent into an al fresco dining and relaxation area (Steve's idea), which we renamed “Cafe Blue Hills”. Graham and Garrett made the sign, which replaced the old “Dining Tent” sign. We also cleaned out a storage tent, and spruced up “The Showroom”, a tent near the highway that sells surplus supplies to raise funds (sheets, blankets, foldaway cots, bunk beds, and mattresses). It hit 95 today. It felt cool after working in the storage tent.

There's a few other groups here this week. One from Michigan, another from Iowa. We heard about the extent of the flooding in Iowa from one of the men in that group. There always seem to be plenty of disasters to go around.

Tomorrow we're finishing up a punch list at a house near hwy 90, and will probably do a few odds and ends like delivering insulation to another site. I'll have more details tomorrow.

Andy