Burnt Cinnamon

In case you've ever thought about it, you should NOT try to make the pre-made pillsbury cinnamon rolls in a microwave. It does not work. You get overdone croutons and a trailer that smells like burnt cinnamon. Not appealing.

This morning started out pretty slow for me. I cleaned out the last of the files in the office, did some laundry, and had lunch. An air conditioning guy came to fix the air conditioner in trailer 4. The new Houma managers got here today. (Houma is another village in Louisiana.) They will be staying here at Orange Grove for a couple weeks until Houma is habitable. So I made sure their trailer was clean (washed the sheets, made the bed, put away the dishes that had been left in the sink, take out the trash). Henry made a copy of the office key, so now Buddy and I don't have to share one.

We had chicken and stir fry and salad for dinner. There was bread pudding for desert. Chris got a puzzle from Kmart for us to do tonight. The only spider-man puzzle they had was only 24 pieces, so he got a disney villains one instead. We're going to go puzzle shopping at Wal-mart tomorrow to look for a spider-man one and one other of my choice. We're only halfway through the disney one. Jessie (one of the volunteers) worked on it with us.

I had never had a klondike bar before coming here, but now I eat them fairly often. They are delicious. Like ice cream sandwiches - there's not that much to them, but they are irresistibly alluring. I think Chris and I are the only ones eating them. Which is fine by me. All the more for us! : )

Here is the completed apple puzzle.

Day Thirteen

This morning I went shopping for tonight's dinner. The checker lady looked at me kind of funny when I put everything on the conveyor belt. I had 10 lbs. of red potatoes, 5 lbs. of sweet onions, and 30 ears of corn. The volunteers bought shrimp on the way home and they threw everything together in a pot and cooked it. Very good.
This afternoon we got a huge shipment of paper plates, cups, and bowls. We think they are for all the villages, but let's just say we won't run out anytime in the near future. There were three wooden palates stacked with them. They arrived in a UPS 18 wheeler. Anyway, we had to fit them all into the storage trailer, which was a little bit of an adventure. Especially considering the trailer does not have a fan. So we were sweating to death and being eaten alive by mosquitos while carrying huge boxes of biodegradable paper ware.
I bought a puzzle this afternoon and Chris and I spent this evening putting it together. It is not quite finished, but we should be able to finish it pretty easily. Chris said he would buy another one for us to do tomorrow. "Something cool, like Spider-Man or Superman."
Here is the puzzle so far.

Day Twelve

I slept in a little, then got ready for church. Buddy picked me up. It was a bit like Triennium or Montreat, but less structured. The music wasn't bad, but I didn't know any of it, so I couldn't really sing. They sang for 30-45 minutes or so and everyone was standing and clapping and jumping and waving their hands in the air and shouting "Amen!" and "Praise Jesus!" and that sort of thing. Then everyone sat down and the pastor did his sermon. It was alright, but I think I might go church hopping to see if I can find a more traditional service with a congregation bigger than 10. Anyway, Keith (the pastor) and Tanya (the pastor's wife) invited Buddy and I over to their house for lunch. They had pot roast, mac and cheese, peas, beans, and rolls. It was very good. They are very nice people.
This afternoon I took a nap. Star took one with me. It was much needed. Frank made chicken and vegetable stir fry for dinner. After dinner I went and knocked on Chris' door to see how he was doing, since I hadn't seen him today. He spent the whole day in bed watching tv and taking cough medicine. His cold is not really any better. He lent me the movie Balls of Fury.
Buddy went back to his pastor's house for a class of some sort and Keith and Tanya sent home mac and cheese and ribs for me. Which was really sweet.

Day Eleven

Well today has been a very lazy day. I slept in until 8. (It's very sad that I now think 8 is late. ) Buddy, Chris, and I sat on logs in the mini field between the trailers and pods and chatted and threw a ball for Joe. (Joe is Frank's dog.) I wrote a letter to cjs and downloaded some music. Then I did nothing for a couple hours. I took a nap around 5ish. I will probably go in search of food soon. I'll be going to church with Buddy tomorrow and he said his pastor and pastor's wife invited the two of us to lunch at their house after church, so I'll be doing that.

Frank made shrimp for dinner. It was delicious! Searching for food has never been so easy or rewarding. : )

Day Ten

I got up at 6:30 today (blech!) and Buddy and I left for the landfill at 7:00. This time we had 640 pounds of trash. So it was only marginally lighter than yesterday. We got back to the village about the time the volunteers were ready to head out for the worksite. We loaded up some tools and met them over there. I had to insist that Buddy let me help him mow the lawn (ah, the irony!) So I mowed the lawn and he went around with the weed wacker. It took us an hour to do the front and back. The front wasn't bad, but the back yard was hard. The grass was really tall and thick and slightly damp. Not good for mowing. But we got it done and some of the volunteers raked up and bagged the cut grass. They got the laundry room completely finished and a new door put in. We left the worksite around 11:30 and came back to the village. The volunteers packed up and left. I showered and had lunch. I did a little bit of paper work and took the rest of the afternoon easy. This evening Buddy went out with a friend, so Chris and I raided the fridge. There wasn't much, so we boiled some pasta for spaghetti. We had some (a lot!) of fun throwing pasta on the wall and watching it stick. Then (after we cleaned the kitchen) we had a "tailgate party." We sat on my tailgate and watched the stars and chatted. He's feeling better which is good. I'm hoping to sleep in a little tomorrow, but I really have no idea what will be happening. Chris said he will probably be going to Pearlington again. I don't know if I'll be going with him or if Buddy will have stuff for me to do here. I guess I'll see.

And I just realized that I've been spelling Chris' name wrong. I thought Kres was the Canadian way to spell Chris, but Kres was actually some guy who worked here before I did.

Day Nine

The whole volunteer team was at the same worksite today. Half of them worked on painting the laundry room and the other half tore out the bathroom because it was rotting. We loaded up the bed of my truck with all the trash and I took it to the landfill around 2:00. There was 740 pounds of bush clippings, tile, molding, and a steel bathtub. I was the only one, so I had to unload it by myself. Luckily there was a guy with a backhoe that saw me shoving that tub out and he came over to help. So we got it emptied and I went back to the worksite and we loaded the truck again. I'll have to take that load in the morning, but it should be easier (and lighter) since it's mostly drywall. The volunteers are leaving around lunchtime. We have another group coming in Sunday, but they are actually working at Pearlington. Pearlington isn't ready to house volunteers yet, so they are sleeping and eating here at Orange Grove and working at Pearlington. So we won't really be dealing with the volunteers next week.
Chris has a cold, so I gave him the remainder of my cold medicine and his dad brought him some soup. I hope he feels better soon. I really feel bad for giving him my cold. But he says he gets one about this time every year because he had pneumonia and bronchitis at the same time when he was little.
Mum said dad would be home soon and would call me then, so I'm waiting for him to call and then I'm going to bed because I have to get up early (er) tomorrow so I can take that stuff to the landfill and still bring the volunteers the tools they need at the worksite.

Day Eight

After I took the group to the worksite, I went to Home Depot to pick up some doors for the house. I came back to the village and helped Chris and Mary (Chris' stepmom) fix pod doors. Chris and his dad packed up and headed over to Olive Tree to help take out the shower trailer because they're getting a new one tomorrow. I had some lunch and then took a nice nap. We had chicken parmesian with leftover pasta for dinner. It was delicious, but I am stuffed! Star (Chris' cat) is hanging out in my trailer again. This is Star.

Day Seven

I have now been here a full week!
Today was pretty lazy. I slept a little late (7:10), had breakfast, and drove the group to the worksite. I came back to the village and helped Chris straighten the PDA sign by the road and put a post back in the ground. Then he and his dad took off for Pearlington and I went to the office. I cleaned out the files, got rid of all the papers we didn't need and organized and labeled the ones we did. I had a couple hours this afternoon to chill. After dinner Chris showed me a video of KT Tunstall. She's a "one man band", but it was really cool. Then we watched a couple comedians. And Chris found out today that he will not be leaving for Olive Tree. He will be staying here as Assistant Logistics Manager. The volunteers are all in the main tent watching Dancing With The Stars.

Day Six

The volunteers are veterans. This is their fifth trip down here, so they know what they're doing. Which is nice, since Buddy and I are just learning. They made french toast and bacon for breakfast this morning. They had a short devotional right after breakfast and Henry and I dug the tools they would need out of the tool trailer. We loaded everything in my truck and set off for the worksite. I (of course) got lost, but they found it just fine. It worked out okay though, because I had to run back to the village to get hammers and crow bars so they could take the plywood off the windows. That needed to be done first so they could see what they were sanding and painting. We unloaded everything and I made sure they didn't need anything else. Then Buddy and I went shopping for food for the week. we split the list in half and by the time I had finished my half, he'd gotten about 5 of the things on his half. So I helped him find the rest of the stuff. He said he would never go shopping without me. We put all the food away and then had a couple hours to relax before I had to go pick up the volunteers. I finally got the password for the wi-fi, so I can get online on my computer. The village computer is still broken, but we might have gotten a new one today.

Day Five

Today feel soooooo long. I don't even know why. Chris' cat (Star) came and visited me several times last night and spent most of the night curled up next to me. When I told Chris this morning, he said I should take it as a compliment because I was only the second person whose trailer she would go into. I didn't mind at all. I liked having her around. Anyway, I went to church this morning and there were nine people there including me. And two of the other eight were also volunteers. Henry thinks this church will close in a year. It was a very informal service. There was a bible study instead of a sermon. I took a quick nap and then Henry asked if I wanted to go with him to a client's house in Pascagoula, which is a 45 min. drive. So we did that. The house is in need of a fair amount of work. The bathroom needs to be completely redone. There is some plywood temporarily stapled to the floor joists and that is the only thing in there. There are also a couple rooms that need sanded and painted. Half of our group is going to go there with Henry tomorrow and half are going to go with me to the house we looked at yesterday. The volunteers got here earlier than expected, but they went and had a late lunch at the Lookout 49. They are going to order pizza for dinner. Buddy is going to go get the things they need for breakfast tonight and then get everything else from Samm's Club tomorrow.

Day Four

Today was a relatively slow day. Henry and I sorted and organized the office a little bit. It still needs work, but at least it is usable now. Then I helped him organize the tool shed. It wasn't as messy as he thought, so it only took us a few minutes. While we were doing that, Buddy cleaned the kitchen and dining tent. We decided to have a lunch break and Buddy cooked burgers on the grill. (They were the frozen kind, but they were pretty good.) There were no buns, so we used garlic bread, which turned out well. After that I went back to the office and cleaned it. There was so much dust in there! I used fantastic on all the desk/table tops, appliances, shelves, mail slots, chairs, window sills. Basically, if it wasn't moving, I cleaned it. I also straightened up as I cleaned so it looks more spacious and organized. After I finished all of that (this is for you grandma) I used windex to clean the floor. Then I showered and took my laundry over to the fellowship hall to wash it. It is still in the dryer because it was raining and I didn't want to walk through the rain with it.
Buddy said I already have the reputation of a hard worker. Apparently Henry said so too. Which is nice, though I'm not entirely sure I've earned it. Not that I'm not working, it's just that a lot of the time I feel like everyone else is working so much harder than I am. But it doesn't really matter. I do what I can and do my best to do it well.

Day Three

Today was a lot easier for me than yesterday. I stayed at Orange Grove and cleaned. I threw away all the food that had gone bad and washed the mold out of the unused freezer. Then I helped Roberta clean the fellowship hall for the memorial service tomorrow. I mopped the floors and dusted the fans and everything and wiped down the counters. Then Henry took me to the one of the houses the group is going to work on. There are two bedrooms and a laundry room that need painted and a bathroom that needs all new fixtures. The group coming in Sunday is going to do the painting.

Day Two

Colleen and Jane left for Olive Tree this morning. Chris is staying for a week or so. Chris and I went to Pearlington again today. I learned how to use a pressure washer and Lisa and I used them to clean the tent walls. Then we hung the walls. Then rehung the walls because we'd put them in the wrong place to begin with. The tent still needs to be bolted down. (Hopefully this will be done correctly the first time, unlike the rest of the tent.) After doing the tent, I helped Chris dig a trench. He used the jackhammer to break up the concrete and I used a shovel (and my hands) to pull the pieces out. It was really hot outside! By the time it was finished, it was about 3:30, so we discussed who will be where tomorrow and what they will do. Buddy, Chris, and I will be staying in Orange Grove. Buddy and Chris are going to mow the grass (though Chris just told me he already did part of it) and I will help a woman clean out the fellowship hall of the church. There's going to be some sort of memorial service on Saturday, so we need to store all of our stuff (cases of water bottles, m&m's, MREs, boxes of PDA T-shirts) in the back room. Then we need to sweep/mop and wipe down counters and such. Buddy and I will likely be doing some grocery shopping since we don't have food for the group coming in on Sunday. I still don't have internet here, but I have figured out how to access it on my blackberry, so I can check my email, which is nice. This evening Chris came over again to ask if I would put lotion on his back. (He got pretty badly sunburned yesterday and today.) So I did and then we talked about what music I had. (He approved of most of it, which made me happy) He also recommended some songs and bands. He brought his ipod so he could charge it (He has lost his charger cord.) and we talked about his music too. I also showed him how to do sudoku. He had the general idea before, but now it's better. We solved a couple together. Actually we only solved one but we did three puzzles. We kept messing up, but couldn't figure out where. It was fun though. He's cool and I'm glad he'll be here at least a couple more days.

Day One

Today has been a full day. I got up at 6:45 and it was surprisingly cold despite the fact that I had turned the air conditioning off before going to bed. I had cheerios with yogurt for breakfast (there was no milk). Then Colleen (the other newby) and Buddy and I went to the office for some orientation. They told us how to greet volunteer groups, divvy up chores, grocery shopping, etc. There was a quick lesson on how to use the blackberries. (I'm still not really sure how to use mine. I will need to look at the manual...) Then we headed out to another village - Pearlington. The project for the day was to put up the dining tent. The top of the tent was on the ground and the poles to hold it up were in a pile by the kitchen. One part of the tent was not the right part, so we had to take off old velcro and put on new velcro so that it could be attached to the other pieces. Then we had to lace the pieces together with rope (which gave me some lovely blisters). We finally got it all put together and got the poles on and straightened it out. Then we realized there were some huge wrinkles in the top and we couldn't fix it as it was because we (I) had accidentally laced the tent around the tent pole. So we had to take it back down, unlace half of it, straighten the tent, and put it back up. Very exhausting.
At that point we called it a day and got into our various trucks to return to our delightful trailers. Colleen and I stopped at Smoothie King (very yummy!) on the way back to Orange Grove. We raided the kitchen for dinner. (Henry had made chicken parmesian recently and there were leftovers!) We showered and then Buddy, Colleen, Chris, and I hung out on Chris' "porch" (plywood on the ground) and talked for a couple hours. Colleen and Chris will be leaving for their village (Olive Grove) tomorrow and I will be heading back to Pearlington to help out.
I have not been able to get on the internet yet because someone password protected the Orange Grove computer, but no one knows who. So none of the programs on the computer can be opened and no one can access the internet without the password. Except no one has the password. So we'll see what happens with that...
Anyway, today has been a good day and I am ready to call it quits and get some sleep. Tomorrow should be another busy day.

Arrival

I have arrived at Orange Grove Village which is in Gulfport, MS. I have mostly unpacked and am settling into my new trailer. I've met a bunch of cool people. Kathy took Colleen and me to dinner. It was pretty good. Then Colleen and I hung out on Chris' porch (he's from Canada) with Buddy and chatted. It was nice except for the mosquitos. My trailer is pretty nice. It has a freezer, fridge, microwave, small oven and stove. There are a few cooking things (a couple bowls, some pans, a wisk, and measuring spoons i think) and glasses, thermoses, plates and silverware. There was hot chocolate, chai tea, and some other kind of tea in the cabinet. Leslie gave me a couple waters and vitamin waters to put in the fridge. Now I think I will try to sleep since I have to get up at 7 so we can leave at 8. We (Buddy, Colleen, and I) are going to begin orientation tomorrow, so after that I should have a clearer idea of what I'm supposed to do. I do know our first group of volunteers gets here Sunday. They're a small group (10) but after that we will have bigger groups. Below is a video of the inside of my trailer and pictures of Orange Grove Village.