Just a typical week in the capital city

I’m almost positive that if asked, every one of my team mates would agree that the best thing about living and working in Baton Rouge is the variety of things we get to do. Sure, we love going to the Mardi Gras parades, running around the lakes and seeing live music but we also love the work variety that HFH GBR (Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge) provides for us. Our week this past week looked like this:

Monday- Off! We work a Tuesday-Saturday work week here in the capital! We spent Monday grocery shopping and getting ready for our first full week with HFH GBR.

Tuesday- Our supervisor Ryan asked the girls on my team to help get the Women’s Build house moving along, Women’s build volunteers come on Wednesdays and Saturdays but they had us to some jobs that would help the house get ready for the next stages of building. Three of us were assigned to hang dead wood, which are pieces of wood that are nailed on top of the top plates on all of the walls running parallel to the roof trusses. This wood hangs off by just an inch or so to allow the drywall hangers to have something to screw the ceiling drywall into.

Wednesday- Women’s build! Although it was a frigid morning (say.. mid 30’s.. brrr…) there were about a dozen local women that came out to help install siding on the home they’ve been responsible for since it’s beginning. My female team mates and myself jumped right in to help siding, a skill we practiced many a times in Bay St. Louis.

Thursday- We spent Thursday in Rosewood, which I think I mentioned before—it is the Habitat neighborhood in which we’re helping HFH GBR prepare to blitz 5 more homes in March. In Bay St. Louis all the houses we built were on stilts due to their proximity to the Gulf here, however, the Habitat homes are all built on concrete slabs. We worked all day staking out where the ground needs to be cleared and leveled before the concrete can be poured. It was quite mathematical and we learned a lot about building lines and how far (due to city regulations) the houses have to be from the curb, power lines, water lines etc.

Friday- Whew. What a day. Many Habitat affiliates have a store in which they sell used and donated building materials at a low cost to the public as a way to help the community but also to fund some projects. The Restore became our work site this past Friday and will, theoretically, continue to be our work site every Friday until the end of March. I spent the day, along with 3 team mates, sorting windows by width and type. My goodness. We moved, measured, sorted and priced approximately 500 windows. It was an incredibly exhausting and tiring day but, it was incredibly rewarding at the end of the day to be able to look at how much better the area we were working in looked. I'm excited to get to do more organizing for the Restore staff, they have SO much stuff in the store and I think ten of us working can accomplish a whole lot for them.

Saturday- Normally, Saturdays are Women's Build days however, this past Saturday two of our team members were asked to accompany Erin, a HFH GBR staff member who works with family services, on home visits. We got to visit three prospective home owners who applied for a Habitat home and passed their financial review (homeowners have to make enough to be able to afford the mortgage paymets on a house but also can't make TOO much to not be eligible for a Habitat home). Once a family passes the financial review Habitat staff visits them at their home to discuss with them the ins and outs of being a Habitat homeowner from sweat equity to mortgage payments. They also do assessments of the family's current living situation to see if a housing need is really there. Maria and I were able to visit three families and to fill out assessments and get to know their stories. It was really great to see such a different side of this organization that we've invested so much time working with. I definately see this side of the orgaization as being something that interests me more than the construction side and I'm really glad that I got the opportunity to see it first hand!

I hope that this gives you all a much better picture of what we're doing here in Baton Rouge and that, in general, our NCCC team is used for quite a variety of tasks here at HFH GBR! We enjoyed some 75 degree weather, complete with Louisiana humidity today, hope you're all doing well,
--Walker

ps.. I have pictures from all sorts of fun things like moving windows and Mardi Gras parades which I'll hopefully post sometime in the next week or so. But in the meantime, I can't believe that I've never given our this link. Our team has a Shutterfly account on which we can post pictures, all the ones on the website are from my team mates as I have been posting most my good pictures here and.. I'm far too lazy to upload them to the website:). But feel free to browse, they're all from Sacramento or Mississippi at this point.

Top 25 things!

Two updates in one week.. what has happened to me?! I thought of something cool to update about, that's what! Every month the Sacramento campus puts out a newsletter called the Common Ground with updates from each team so that we can all keep up to speed on what everyone else is doing even though we're spread from Miami (I know.. jealous..) to Idaho. My team last round made a list of the top 25 pieces of advice that we would give to the team coming to take over our project in Hancock County, MS. I think it gives a nice snapshot of what Green 5 life was like in Mississippi and will also, hopefully, be a supporting piece of evidence to prove that, although I might rave about the fantastic things I get to do in Baton Rouge (like see concerts on Wednesday nights and grocery shop at Whole Foods..) I DID love Mississippi. Note that some pieces of evidence are accompanied by pictures to help emphasize their meaning :)
Top 25 Pieces of Advice for The Next AmeriCorps NCCC team in Pearlington Mississippi:
Get in the shower quickly, or the mosquito swarm will notice you
When it rains, the front yard turns into a lake
Take advantage of Beth's and Larry's kindness. They will become your saviors in no time.
Be prepared to have 2-6 dogs follow you along any run.
Las Palmas restaurant = a diamond in the rough
Complaining about the water won't change it, shower with your mouth closed*
The dock has lovely photo opportunities
Vans get stuck in mud and fresh sod
Rent free movies at the library
Watch for the sand fleas, they burrow in leg hair
Hard hats make good leak catchers
Befriend the directs.. they have cars
Bleach kills mold, FYI
Learn to love scaffolding, splinters, and no-see-ums
Week night staples include: Beth and Larry's house, Clydes on Wednesday nights, and the mocking-bird Cafe on Thursday nights
PT on the beach is absolutely worthwhile
Slidell, LA has more to offer than you might imagine
New Orleans is 40 minutes away, take advantage of that fact
Sunflower seeds are the perfect on-site snack at any time of the day
Tan lines will happen, accept them, love them
Appreciate the relatively young, strangely attractive, and amazing habitat for humanity staff
"What Would Dan Reynold's Do?" may soon become your life motto.**
Gas station pizza... give it a chance
Stephen Scott only causes harm to himself, but remain cautious
In the Americorps Olympic Games, their is only 1 winner.. and 9 losers
Green Five says goodbye to Pearlington Mississippi we will miss you!


*The water in Pearlington was totally safe and completely clean, however, it smelled of something we had all hoped to leave behind in High School science classes.. sulfur. Apparently if you drank it it would help keep the gnats away.. none of us tested that theory..
**Dan Reynolds was one of our construction supervisors in Bay St. Louis and we became his biggest fans. So much so that we made these t-shirts with his likelihood
Also pictured here from Left to Right are Tom (peeking in just barely), Ryan and Ben. In the middle next to the man himself is Stephen. They were the most fantastic staff we could have asked for, and I think we will all continue to miss them for the remainder of our year. Missing here is Chris, one of our staff members who was sick on our last day :(. If you're a fan of the Dan Reynolds t-shirts (which feature the motto "what would Dan Reynolds do?" on the back) you can purchase one online at www.cafepress.com/wwdrd. Check out the website, it's pretty hilarious!


On another note, the concert I attended last night was pretty fantastic! One of the bands that opened for Red Jumpsuit was Tickle Me Pink from Colorado and I would recommend them to anyone looking for some new music. Not only did we enjoy their music but their performance was entertaining to say the least.


On a work related note; we've been preparing sites for a string of blitz builds coming up in March. Today we staked out the perimeter of where the concrete slab will be poured. The area we're building in is called Rosewood and is land that was donated to Habitat because it was no longer able to be farmed for sugar cane. The entire subdivision is made up of Habitat homes and we'll be building on 5 empty lots. Today while eating lunch one of my team mates looked over the sites and remarked about how strange it is that in just a few months these empty patches of grass will be the site of a family's home. It was one of those moments that made me realize what we're doing here and made me really appreciate the work that my team has done and will continue to do. Although construction is tiring and we're all going to be ready for a change of pace come our next project in April, it is most certainly one of the more rewarding and visible types of work we could be doing.

Peace, love and no more sulfur water,
Walker

City life at last!

Gaux Tigers! That’s right, greetings from Louisiana State University’s campus! Before arriving in Baton Rouge we had all been told that we were living near LSU but it wasn’t until we got here that we realized that literally, our back yard is LSU frat houses and the LSU library, along with other university buildings, is just a three minute walk! We’re all already enjoying the ease and excitement of city life, we arrived Thursday around lunch time and in just 4 and a half days here’s the exciting list of “Things I’ve done in Baton Rouge I never could have done in Pearlington”!

-explored LSU’s library, all 5 floors of it.

-eaten sushi and gone out for ice cream, all within 3 miles of each other

-WALKED to a pizza place and coffee shop (that sells vegan cookies)

-gone to Chelsea’s, a fantastic bar/restaurant/music venue that books fantastic Indie bands like The Weakerthans

-bought tickets to see Red Jumpsuit Apparatus at The Varsity, which is three blocks from our housing (the show is Wednesday!)

-attended a free lecture on Astronomy at the Baton Rouge Astronomical Society’s observatory

-viewed Orion’s Nebulus, a “stellar nursery” through Baton Rouge’s largest telescope

-been to Louisiana’s largest shopping mall

-run on paths around “the lakes” aka, two beautiful lakes right across the street from our housing

-worked on a Women’s Build house (when completed it will have been constructed solely by female volunteers and staff)

-gotten free coffee from Common Grounds, the coffee shop across the street run by a local church that doesn’t charge anything for coffee!

As you can see, I’ve had quite an eventful time in Baton Rouge so far, and we’re already feeling as though we’re going to run out of time before we can do everything we want! Don’t let the title of my list confuse you though! I loved my time in Mississippi and miss our staff at Habitat BW so much. It is just nice being able to feel as though we have some semblance of real lives, sleeping in real beds and walking to coffee shops rather than sleeping in shacks and walking to the port-a-potties. We arrived at our housing on Thursday after eating lunch at Reginelli’s and getting coffee at The Highland. We met with Mary Michael, the woman in charge of showing us the ins and outs of our housing as well as Patti Snyder, the pastor at the church we’re staying at. We live in dormitory rooms behind the sanctuary at the University Presbyterian Church. During the week the building (which includes our two rooms and two Sunday school rooms as well as a tiny kithen and living area as well as bathrooms and the Sanctuary) is basically ours. We have certain days when we have to stay clear of the large living area and on Sundays we have to be cleared out of the Sunday school rooms but we’re all very excited about being here. The girls have a beautiful yellow room with windows that look out to the lake and all of us have quilts on our beds that were made by a church in North Dakota and donated to this church. During hurricane season UPC is a shelter for women and babies, something we’re reminded of by the large amount of diapers in the pantry and the sign above the kitchen sink proclaiming, “Please only bathe babies in bathroom sinks”.

Our first day with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton rouge was Friday and we were to begin with an orientation presentation at the Habitat officer to get us acclimated to the new affiliate. Everything got off to a great start, we all prepared breakfast in a kitchen the size of one of our bunks, no one was missing any vital uniform pieces, our team leader deftly navigated the strange street names (we live on Dalrymple…) and then all ten of us got to the office and piled into the elevator which was to take us up to the 4^th floor. Note to future teams staying in Baton Rouge: the elevator at the Hancock Bank building where the habitat office is located was “brought over by Christopher Columbus” and does not handle ten NCCC members very well. Once we got the elevator to move from its limbo position between the 3^rd and 4^th floors and take us back to the ground level we split into two groups and successfully made it to our destination. Once in the office we were greeted by Katie, the vegetarian, environmentalist who is the volunteer coordinator at Habitat GBR. She gave us t-shirts and a presentation on our new affiliate.

It is interesting the differences between Habitat Bay-Waveland and Habitat GBR as the affiliate in Mississippi is still classified as a disaster relief affiliate where as the one here in Baton Rouge is combating poverty which isn’t necessarily linked to any of the most recent storms. For example, all Habitat homeowners are required to put in sweat equity hours in which they work in the office or on the construction site for a set number of hours in order to pay for some of their house. In Bay St. Louis a single homeowner was required to do 100 hours and here in Baton Rouge a single homeowner is required to do almost 300! The staff organization is a bit different here too and therefore, the tasks that we’re asked to help out with will be a bit different. It’s been fun picking up differences and learning to do tasks in a new way. People’s stories here are also so different, our construction manager, Frank, told us that during Katrina his home lost power for a grand total of one hour, however, during Gustav last September he lost power for a littler more than a week. In Bay St. Louis one of our supervisors grew up in the Bay and during Katrina he lost everything and his story wasn’t at all unique.

I’m excited for the new experiences we’re going to have here in Louisiana. It’s already looking like our whole time here will be the complete opposite from our time in Mississippi and I’m quite glad for that. I’m also getting, somewhat prematurely, excited for our projects in region, I can’t wait to be back in the Pacific region! We’re here until the end of March, however, so I’ve got a ways to go but I’m sure that it will fly!

With lots of love and free coffee,

--Walker

Packed.

Whew.. these past few weeks have been such a blur! I think I started a new entry here at least 5 times, every time being pulled away by paperwork or some team event happening as we closed up our project in Hancock County. That's right, we're done, out of Mississippi and onto bigger (although better is still to be determined) things. What sorts of things, you might ask? Well... Habitat in Baton Rouge! That's right, we'll be living in Louisiana's capital city, the home of the Louisiana State University Tigers and working, again, with Habitat for Humanity building homes for families living below the poverty line.
Our last week in Hancock County was filled with so many emotions; excitement, sadness, nostalgia and anxiety over what was to come. Monday was Martin Luther King day, a day which is encouraged to be "a day on-- not a day off" meaning instead of just lounging around enjoying a day off of school/work American citizens should embrace King's message and serve their communities. AmeriCorps, being a service organization, connects its members with different organized events so, even though Habitat, our sponsor, was closed, we spent the day working. Our team went to a MLK day event sponsored by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and the group that I was a part of worked with Loaves and Fishes, a shelter which provides meals 6 days a week and church services on Sundays for homeless in the Gulfport-Biloxi community. It was a really great day of service led by a college student and we got to mingle with volunteers from the community including some other AmeriCorps teams. My group worked on painting the dining/service area of Loaves and Fishes but, luckily, we got to take a nice break to watch the MLK Day parade going down the street! This picture is of me and teammates Maria and Bailey after collecting some beads! We thought this parade was great.. we can't wait until Mardi Gras!! After the parade was over we ate lunch and our hosting MGCCC student held a reflection activity in which we discussed why we were serving (either that day or for our term of service in general) and also how we feel about MLK Day being a day "on" not a day off. It was really great to get to hear from locals about their view on service, so many of them talked about how volunteers have done so much in their communities that they feel it is their duty to give back. One girl thanked us so much, said that she wouldn't have a house if it hadn't been for AmeriCorps volunteers and told us that, even though it has been 3 years, everyone loves seeing people come down to help, it gives them hope and reminds them that people still remember this area even though other events might be taking precedence in the media. Aside from the discussion we had with the local volunteers my favorite part of the reflection activity was when a Team Leader from another team serving with us referred to our Ameriyear as a "year on, not a year off". I think that too many people assume that since we're not working "real" jobs or attending school that we're putting our lives on hold or avoiding doing some sort of assigned task. In reality, we're serving our country just like someone in the military or a government official might be.. we're just doing it in the way we see most befitting to us. I think with the close of my first project I'm getting a bit Amerisappy.. but I can honestly say that through this program I have met the most incredible, selfless people and have really discovered how much good there is when people come together to help strangers.
After Monday we went back to working with Habitat for the rest of our final week. We were helping prepare for a blitz build the next week as well as just getting to say good bye to our fantastic staff. Friday was our last day and quite a fantastic one at that. We worked until lunch at which point Habitat grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and veggie burgers for us and we all ate and talked for an hour or so. Our team decided that since our staff and done so many construction Olympic events for us and made us do ridiculous tasks that we would do the same for them. We created two events, the first of which was a physical challenge and the second was a written exam in which we quizzed them about NCCC policy such as how much money is each corps member allotted for food per day ($4.50) as well as questions about our team specifically like, which green 5 team members don't knit (Sam, Abe and Sarah). The end of the day held the Closing Ceremonies for the Construction Olympics. The culminating event of the Olympics was the birdhouse building competition. My partner Bailey and I built a "Birdstone"-- our birdhouse version of a Brownstone-- and we placed second out of 5! I ended up placing third overall and being awarded the Bronze metal which I will forever brag about :).

Saturday night we went out with out housing sponsors Beth and Larry (you might remember me talking about how incredible they were and how much I loved baking in Beth's oven). They took us out for dinner and told us that we'll always have a home in Pearlington. I can't imagine how they manage to stay sane having so many teams come and go through their home. We will miss their hospitality immensely as we move on in our year. The picture of us by the Pearlington sign was taken the night that we went to dinner which was, actually, the first time we had been somewhere dressed up out of uniform, as a team, since the beginning of our project! We all couldn't stop remarking about how GOOD we all looked!!
Sunday morning and promptly (more or less..) 10:30 am we left the Pearlington Recovery Center for good and headed to Camp Hope in New Orleans. In between all projects in AmeriCorps NCCC all teams get together for a few day for a period of time we refer to as Transition. During this period we have debriefs in which we talk about our project and present to our Unit Leader and some other NCCC staff members. We also have a briefing in which we talk about the project we are about to begin to the same NCCC staff members. Transition began this yesterday morning and we'll leave Thursday morning to arrive at our housing in Baton Rouge in the afternoon. We had our debrief at 10:30 this morning and along with the staff we were watched by Green 1, the team which is about to take over the project we left in Hancock County which was really great because we were able to help them understand more about what their project will be like as well as answer any questions they might have.
Whew. Like I said, the past few weeks have been a blur... but a fun blur! I can't believe that our 4th month in this program has flown by so fast and that we've already completed our first project but I can't wait to see what the rest of this year brings. Take care and stay tuned soon for more information on Green 5's second project in Baton Rouge!
love,
--Walker

Back in the Bayou

Greetings all :) I am, as of Sunday evening, back in Pearlington, Mississippi! Vacation was fantastic and it was great to get to spend time at home, see (or at least hear from) most of my family and friends. Sunday morning, however, I woke up ready to be back in the Ameriworld. I was excited to see my team, excited to get back to work and excited to get on with the rest of my 7 months of servince. Don't get me wrong, I loved being home, loved showering in a real bathroom, loved eating food not bought on $4.50 a day and loved being surrounded by people who know and love me. But, in all honesty, I never once wished I could stay for longer than my two weeks. I'm absolutely enjoying myself in AmeriCorps and I missed my team, I missed the immersion into this world that is unlike any other.

My team is awaiting the reveal of our next project and project location quite anxiously.. Ben, our team leader, claims he knows no details of where we'll be staying but our friends in other units already know their second round SPIKEs(remember-- my term of service is comprised, typically, of 5 parts; one month of training and 4, 6-9 week long project "rounds" and SPIKE is another term for project). We're pretty sure that we'll be here, in the gulf until third round but... anything is possible, really.

We're working on some new houses with Habitat this week as well as finishing up the one we helped Blitz the week before our vacation. Today we spent the afternoon framing the walls at a new house location. Framing walls seems almost like putting together puzzles, before we begin there is a "pre-build" in which partitions, trimmer-studs, cripples, headers and other pieces that make up a wall are cut to the right sizes and put together. Then, once we begin framing we align the top plate and bottom plate of the walls which are marked with letters signaling where different pieces need to be secured (S for stud, C for cripple etc.) We then fetch the pieces and nail them into the top and bottom plates and the walls are then secured to the floor. Raising walls is pretty fun and we took some pictures of us doing it today which hopefully I'll be able to track down.

Speaking of pictures, my camera is broken so for the next few posts, I'll be relying on the kindness of my team mates for pictures :)

with new years and new beginnings,
--Walker

Vacation!

Hey all, I'm writing right now from snoy, cold New Hampshire because, that's right, I'm home for the holidays! To tide you guys over through the new year I'll give a quick update about what the next few weeks will have in store for me and then leave you with some pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

I'm home until the 4th of January at which point I'll head back down south and continue work in Hancock County until January 22nd at which point my unit (the Green unit) and the Silver unit will all meet up in Mississippi for Transition Week. During this week we'll do all sorts of fun things like project debriefs (on the projects we've been completing the past months) as well as project briefings (for the projects we're about to begin). My team hasn't been informed of our next project yet, however, we will hopefully find out before the end of our first week back in Pearlington! We do know, however, that we will be staying in the gulf for our second round and then sometime in March be returning to Sacramento and the Pacific Region.

And now for some pictures!






This picture was taken from outside a restaurant in New Orleans on Thanksgiving morning, the band walked down the street and stopped right out side of the cafe.







From far left to right, Sarah, Abe, Katie and myself at our Americorps NCCC Class 15 Pacific Region induction ceremony.













A San Diego sunset.











Downtown Bay St. Louis is covered with signs like this exclaiming the promise that vacant lots and buildings hold.










This is our dear Gov-y, the Government issue 15-passenger van that belongs to Green 5 :). We take her everywhere!












And, finally, an oldie but a goodie. A snapshot from times past, Green 5 grabbing dinner at a restaurant somewhere in Texas on our road trip from Sacrameto, CA to Hancock County, MS.









take care and happy holidays,
--Walker

Crazy green 5 and the construction olympics!

Welcome to December, everyone! I realized at the end of my post last week that I haven't officially introduced my team yet and what better way to do it than with this fantastic picture I stole from teammate Nancy? We're all dressed to the nines on the morning of our induction in what is referred to lovingly as the "Ameritux". And, without further ado, we have (from Left to Right starting in the back); Nicole from Kingston, NY, Katie from the suburbs of Chicago, Abe from the great city of Minneapolis, Nancy from St. Louis, Sam from Wisconsin, in green is Ben, our fearless leader from Ohio, currently residing in Austin, Sarah a graduate from Coe Brown Academy in New Hampshire, Maria from Connecticut, myself and finally Bailey from Indiana. Such a good looking crew :)
In all seriousness though, my team is really incredible. We all have our moments, of course, and to be realistic, we don't all love every single other person every moment of every day, but we do get along really well and watch out for each other at all times. Our living situation involves all seven girls in one cabin which allows us to become pretty close and spend a lot of time together which is awesome. Nicole spent her day today cutting all of our hair and helping Nancy dye hers. Most nights we spend together watching a movie, reading or even knitting, a hobby I've gotten 6 out of 7 girls hooked on completely. I spent Thanksgiving weekend in New Orleans with other Americorps friends and felt so lonely without my team around me, 24/7!

My team, as I mentioned, is working with the Bay-Waveland affiliate of Habitat for Humanity in Mississippi. We spent the first week on the job doing a blitz build. "Blitz" is Habitat terminology for a build which has a huge concentration of workers on one house for one week working long hours. We got to see two houses go from a floor system and foundation to completely done with the exception of contractor work (putting in tiled floors, carpeting, landscaping etc) in only 5 days. We worked long hours and got to picture the results of our hard work constantly, as the two home owners were around the site for most of the week. We really got to know both Deanna and Lalie and got to hear their surviving the storm stories, got to know their families and really came to care about them and their new homes. The beginning of the week found us working on Lincoln Street at Deanna's house with a fantastic group of volunteers from Michigan and we were thrilled to be able to end the week back on Lincoln St. for the dedication of Deanna's home. It was incredible to get to see the house we had worked so hard on handed over to such a kind, loving and compassionate family. She thanked us profusely, saying how incredible it was for so many young people to leave their homes to help build hers. Heartwarming doesn't even begin to describe how her thanks affected us.
Up above is a picture of myself and Bailey working on building the roof for a shed at a different house this past week. Since the blitz week we've been doing all sorts of odd jobs touching up the 6 or 7 houses that Habitat has going at the moment. We've been painting trim and railings, caulking windows, staining cabinets, hanging insulation and so many other things.


Aside from all this hard work, however, we've been able to get some play time in as well by participating in the second ever NCCC Construction Olympics hosted by Dan Reynolds, one of our construction supervisors. The Olympics consist of several events, the first of which involved guessing the lengths of an assortment of pieces of wood. The second event, pictured below on the left was entitled "Perfect Circle" and involved us each cutting, free hand, a 6" diameter circle with a jigsaw. I am proud to say that I placed third in both events :). Dan Reynolds is pictured on the left drawing us a crazy diagram of an x-ray of a wall. Wise words from Dan, "In the construction Olympics there will be only one winner. This means there will be 9 losers, so at least you'll have company."

Hope you all now have a better understanding of what kinds of work my team is doing down in Hancock County! And as a side note, if anyone is looking for a good Christmas gift or wants to see more about the community we're serving in, the local TV station WLOX put out a DVD entitled 'Katrina- South Mississippi's Story' that is really, really powerful. It shows news footage of the area before the storm, during the storm and after the storm. There are also lots of interviews with Hancock County survivors and some personal footage donated by locals. We watched it as a team and what I enjoyed most about it, and, really, what I think I'm taking away from this experience in Mississippi in general, was the profound sense of hope that it finished with. This area is resilient, every time I see a bumper sticker that reads, "Love the Coast-- Here to stay!" it makes me realize that what we're doing here is worthwhile. We're not building homes, these people have a home, they call it the Bay. We're building houses so that they never have to leave their home.

with hope,
--Walker