Survey says

Thursday April 17th a.m. was a continuation of the all day Wednesday affair of cleaning a nearly completed house top to bottom.  Think the house scenes during Extreme Home Makeover Home Edition where the cleaning hordes are cheerfully and thoroughly cleaning the house while at the same time the network employs clever uses of product placement.  This ain't that.  This is three people, me, Ellen, Ginger and Justin, or what amounts to three people cleaning because the last two count as one, on our hands an knees working our fingers to the bone making this house shine!  This ain't not tons of people, folks.  Dis' heer' is juss usses!  Ellen and I are working our bums off and the two halves are working at half our speed.  We like them though, they are fun to be around.  They are really amazing people, just not the most focused or speediest folks around.  And that's okay too.  

Right before lunch I was reminded just how dangerous construction can be.  One of the long term female volunteer nearly cut her finger off today while using a mixing paddle machine.  It was a careless accident that almost cost her her finger.  Needless to say work on the front of the house prepping the ground for a concrete driveway came to a screeching halt.  Me and the rest of the crew continued to work in the house however.  When we left for lunch that place was a sparkling.  No joke, that beotch was luminous.  

I saw the head guy later this evening at Home Base and he raved about how amazing the house looked.  He said that he took down one of the Do Not Enter signed on one of the bedroom doors and put it on the front of the house.  Score!!

Oh, the house was a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom thingy (as my nephew Chance would say).  Oh twice, she didn't lose her finger.  She's fine didn't cut any tendons or anything.  

The afternoon saw us conducting surveys for East Biloxi Redevelopment blah blah blah and blah (otherwise and henceforth known as the Center.)  We were basically doing need assessment to find the status of residents in East Biloxi two years after Katrina (that beotch, seriously you have frakking idea what a beotch she really was.  I know I didn't.)  

We needed to do a visual inspection of the outside of the house to answer some basic questions. Whether the house was a fema trailer home or a mema house.  Whether the property was for sale or not or vacant lot or building etc.   The remaining questions we need to answer by talking to the residents.  I should tell you that East Biloxi is historically a poor area with high crime.  Is it the South Bronx in the 70s, or Marcey Projects in Brooklyn or Cabrini Greens in Chicago in the 70s or 80s with the constant threat of gun fire where you could die at a moments notice.  No.  It's a southern depressed area where the vast majority of residents are poor blacks, whites and vietmanese (sp?).  Most residents had lived in the neighborhood going on about a hundred years when Katrina hit and literally destroyed their home.  

First person we talked to was Miss Lula M Bell.  (This is not a joke, this is her name.)  God fearing elderly southern woman who lived in Biloxi all her life working in a shrimp factory.  This woman loves her some Jesus like there's no tomorrow.  And prior to moving into the house that she was just moving into she lived in a FEMA trailer house for two years with eight people and formaldehyde making them sick.  Eight people in a trailer made for, at max, 3.  One slept in the drivers seat, one in the passenger seat two on the floor and only God knows where the others were.  FOR TWO YEARS!!! But the Lord provided for her and she's thankful.  

I listened to Lula's story and Alonzo's story with his paraplegic wife still living in a FEMA trailer still.  Him sleeping on a couch in the trailer for two years because his wife needs the bed, and I can't be not touch.  All I can do is listen.  And write and take down what they still need to have done around their home.  I listen and I get sad that so many have had to suffer and live in these conditions for so long.  Conditions that you reading right now couldn't even conceive of living in.  And these folks continue to live in these conditions for whatever reason.   

Grown sons living with elderly moms because his house was washed away and he has no where to go. 

Some folks, like the Creels, had the means and the where with all to pay laborers to get there house back to where they needed it to be.  They didn't wait for the government money.  They took out loans and paid it back and are back in their amazing home after being out of it for about 6 months because they had 6 feet of water inside.  6 feet!! I would have drowned.   

Not all the stories are heartbreaking.  There are many success stories out there.  This afternoon, more so than any other on this visit so far, has opened by eyes to what the residents of Biloxi experienced; and after speaking to them they are some much more than what their survey says.  

I don't want to forgot Lula M. Bell (I'm smiling from ear to ear just thinking about her right now) and the Creels and the rest of them that told me their stories and opened their homes and in some cases their hearts.  I know I will but it's okay because today confirmed for me that I made the right decision coming to Biloxi.   

- Wil

p.s.  I apologize if this is a rambling mess.  It's late and I'm really tired.  Late, it's only 1226am, but I'm normally in bed by 1030pm.  Can you believe that?  I still can't.