Moving to Orange, TX still on disaster

I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog and keeping updated on my crazy adventures! We are leaving the Baptist church today in Beaumont and heading to another Baptist church in Orange, TX this morning. The man in charge still has not returned Ben's phone calls so I really have no idea what it will be like there, but I know for a fact that it is another kitchen. We will only be about 20 or 30 minutes away form Beaumont.

For fun last night we went bowling and I kind of got to watch the Bears game..not really, but they beat Philly! Go White Sox and Cubs!

Once we got back to the church there were all these little scooter thing for about an hour until I got a horrible headache. After I slept for about 1 hr 1/2, Jelly woke me up and 1 am to pull our prank we've been so carefully planning for the last 2 weeks...see we found this bear/chipmunk...costume..who knows..all I know it it was pretty funny looking. Jelly put it on and we were planning on scaring the crap out of Ben, snuck in the room, turned the lights on, then Jelly proceeded to do this rawwing dance at Ben and everyone in the room. Andrea woke up and started laughing, Ben rolled over thinking it was just a weird dream, and Jerry started saying "What the....get that out of here..." all baffled disoriented, thinking that he had some kind of bad dream this morning...it was quite funny because I was the one video taping it on my camera, trying to keep myself from laughing in the corner....oh gotta love our crazy team.

click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_XmFI586M

Jerry was on the aviation news during our Habitat project a long time ago, I didn't realize this until just now. Check out the link. Our house supervisor Aaron Fruman is in it as well.

Today was quite a day. Red Cross and the Baptists did something very nice for us today, they recognized each one of us during their morning meeting and we received pins. Reporters from the Red Cross also came, took our pictures, and interviewed us for the local news. Julia, Jess, and Andrea were then taken to the studio and were on Texas's local news channel 4 KBTV!

Puppies.....and more

Chocolate female lab!
7 day old puppy dachsunds, NO JOKE! Three out of the four of them, they're eyes weren't even open, I held them today.
Puppies with their mama dachshund
Another lab puppy!
Male puppies

Cute girl puppy!
Three boy lab puppies out of a litter of six


Fuzzy!

Arni, me, Jelly, Ben's nasty hair he never washes, and Jay..Arni wasn't really ready for this photo, but he is our favorite (younger) Baptist here that runs the yard (where all the trucks and pallets are)
Getting more snacks out of the trucks
The ERVs
The animal shelter!!! Three of many Dachsunds

Jerry at the Red Cross headquarters
Map of the disaster sites
Driving to Beaumont
We have so many pallets of stuff

Headquarters
Driving down to Beaumont, some of the devastation we saw on the way to the Baptist church

Our room in the Baptist church, yes we get our own room as a team...it did not stay clean for long
The outdoor kitchen where we cook all the food that gets sent out on the ERVs

Working with Red Cross and the Baptists in Beaumont, TX

Where to start where to start..well we finally have Internet so I am able to jot this down! We have been busy busy down here in Texas! Last Monday we flew out of Chattanooga to Dallas. Spent two nights at a staff shelter there, commuted to the headquarters, helped whatever they needed help with there, which was pretty boring in fact, finally got our assignment last Wednesday and then drove the 6 hrs down here to Beaumont. PHEW...Once we arrived there were a bunch of "cambros" that needed to be washed (red big tubs where we store the food in for our mass feeding assignment) and then we were assigned our own team room. This Baptist church we are at is quite big and nice. There are Baptists from Texas and Michigan here as well as many Red Cross volunteers from all over. Obviously, we are the YOUNGEST people here and we are called "kids." So it's kind of funny, having to listen to all the old people's jokes all the time, etc. But we all like them so far. We had four people in charge, but two have left and two are about to leave and be replaced. Our Kitchen manager, Ray, or known as "Lieutenant Dan" (he calls himself that because he lost one of his legs in an accident and now walks on a fake one) will probably be leaving soon or be replaced by this new man, Jim, because he is too stressed out and can't take it anymore. Our ERV coordinator (Emergency Response Vehicle) has lost his voice and has become sick, so Red Cross is sending him back home, unless he gets better and they let him back. His name was Jason, also known as "Erv." So at this mass feeding preparing shelter, we all basically hall huge pallets of stuff out and in of trucks, make the food in huge pots in the outdoor kitchen in the parking lot, clean everything, run around like crazy, cook breakfast in the indoor kitchen, clean the bathrooms, etc, etc, etc. Anything that they need basically, my team is on it. I can't tell you the number of thanks we have gotten over and over again. We have only been here since Wednesday, and it is Monday...I think my highest number of hours worked in one day has been 14.5, with the lowest being 10.5. Today I got up and cooked breakfast, I am known as the pancake queen because I add extra ingredients to the bland pancake batter...fun times....give me my batter, my flipper and some music and I will zone out...especially since I'm not much of a morning person to begin with...This morning I felt like I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off because I couldn't find a stupid dust pan. No one has cleaned out the top of the stove where we make pancakes, etc, and it caught on fire this morning and two people were tossing flour on it like it was nothing...so I had tons of flour to clean up later. I got to go out on my first ERV two days ago. An ERV is a Red Cross truck with a window where we put everything we make into clam-shell trays and serve it to the hungry people. Some ERVs are moving ERVs, and go from community to community, but some remain in one place. I served 127 people dinner one night while I was on the ERV...chili, crackers, a fruit cup, and cookies. The mass food we make here isn't very good, I'm not going to lie, but Red Cross has also given us debit cards where we can spend up to $33 a day, which is only for food, laundry, and gas. Let's see what am I forgetting..oh ya I've been taking food to the staff that work at an animal shelter almost everyday. There are just hundreds of dogs and some cats/kittens that have been found and are staying there. I'm assuming most of them were found, not so sure how many have been claimed yet, but its sad and fun at the same time. Yesterday I took out a puppy black lab, which was the size of half my four arm...so cute. Oh ya, The food that we make and serve in the cambro's have to remain above 140 degrees, so it is cooked at 160 and the temperature must be taken frequently. ERV people are also not allowed to serve or open the back of their truck, in case of an attack or emergency. Last week on the second day of going out on the ERVs a truck of women were attacked by a person who jumped in through the back of the vehicle and had a six inch blade on him. But most of the neighborhoods we've been taking the food to aren't as bad as that. As for the community, power is in some places and not in others. The day before we arrived there was no hot water..so things have been picking up, and I'm not too sure on other statistics or communities, but I know that the other day we fed 1600 meals, and the meals are increasing. It's also frustrating because everything we use is thrown out, nothing is recycled! We have boxes and boxes of stuff, tons of clam-shell trays, tons of plastic silver wear and napkins, tons of water bottles that all end up in the dumpster. Apparently they're not very GREEN here in Texas, who knows..That is my update so far. We are suppose to be here until Oct. 7, but that could always change. Hopefully we will get to go back to TN and enjoy the fall like we planned on.

CALLED ON DISASTER-HURRICANE IKE

For the last week I have been living and working in Chattanooga, TN. I have been working with the Cumberland Trail Conference with our sponsor Tony and a former NCCC member, Alex. They are great and the project has been a lot of fun. So far we have been doing trail reconstruction and this Monday we were suppose to start building fiber glass bridges, HOWEVER, my team just got called on disaster relief because of Hurricane Ike and the huge damage in Texas. SO the last couple hours have been stressful because I just flew out last night into to Chicago and drove to Munci, IN this morning with Drew to make it to his brother's wedding, which isn't even until tomorrow afternoon because it is a Jewish wedding! Sundays! AHH So I am just walking into his brother's fiance's home to meet all the family and I get the call from Ben basically saying I need to get back to TN asap! Ahh so flights really wont work otherwise my family would have to spend a lot to fly me back tomorrow, missing the whole wedding. So Drew and I have opted to leave the wedding early tomorrow night and drive the 8 hrs all the way down to TN! So here is the beginning of the sleepless days. I have the feeling I might be working long hours at a shelter anyways.....things are definitely heated now...and we are flying into Dallas sometime Monday morning, I have yet to find what time. All I can say is AHHH! I need a cock tail because the last week has almost driven me crazy...not to mention both my flights yesterday into Chicago were delayed. However I did sit next to a 12 year old kid on the plane who was from Ocean Springs, where I lived first round! I know I need to keep reminding myself, this is what I signed up for, it's not about me. I am excited to go and help on disaster, I just hope I am put to good use unlike some other disaster teams I've heard of....I am bummed about leaving TN because it will be absolutely gorgeous there once the leaves start changing and I was really excited about the project! But whatever I can do to help! I hope we can get a lot done in a short amount of time in hope that we can be sent back to TN....Wow this was really scattered all over the place, but that is how my brain in functioning right now. I am just going to try to enjoy tonight's rehearsal dinner and get good sleep so I am up and atom tomorrow!

Until then..who knows when I'll be able to write again....

Pictures from past projects......

Wag bag station

Passing rocks

A bunch of celebrating the beginning of the Jimmy Carter Project
Julie and I on our last day of work in the Sangres
A Rock Carrying Device...the tools we would use to lift heavy rocks..200 lbs and up to 500 lbs sometimes
Our hike to the Devil's Playground on Pike's Peak

Chattanooga, Tennessee

View of the river
The name of where we stayed

The river just below our house that we swam in every day
Where we stayed for our first week

Jerry in the river