Welcome to Slidell, Louisiana

I made it! I'm at the Operation Blessing headquarters in Slidell, LA. It took us five days to drive here and let me tell you...the parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas that we drove thru were some of the most boring landscapes I've ever seen. Nothing but brown, flat yuckiness that is the southwest. I'm sure other parts of those states are beautiful, but they've done nothing for me so far.

We drove for approximatly eight hours a day and there were few highlights. It got to a point where I forgot where we were going and what we were doing...all we would ever be doing is driving in a van forever. On our first day, one of the teams we were driving with's van broke down on the Los Angeles freeway and that set us back about four hours before getting to Palm Springs. On Thursday we stopped in San Antonio, TX and I saw the Alamo. Big letdown. There was no basement (Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, watch it). At least I can say that I've been to the Alamo and I remember the Alamo.

After dropping off some gear to the teams in Lake Charles and dropping off one team in Lafyette, we arrived in Slidell on Friday. We met up with the Green 4 team who got here a week before us and they helped show us around. They had saved the girls some beds in the back of the women's sleeping quarters, which is two rows of bunk beds. There were no overhead lights there, but I grew to love "the cave" as I dubbed it.

Saturday, Green 4 invited us to do an ISP with them. So what did I do? I pick up trash from the streets again. It wasn't terrible. I was working with my TL Katie and Liz from Green 4. I couldn't even tell you how many cigarettes butts I picked up! At 4 in the afternoon we did PT. Oh my gosh, I wanted to die! It was hot and humid and I felt gross two seconds after I started to jog. After that I went to dinner with most of my team and then a trip to WallyWorld (that's Walmart).

This morning I was getting ready to go to church and was informed that we had to move out of "the cave" and move to a different women's quarters because the men were going be moving in there from outside where they were all in a tent. Ugh, I had just gotten all of my crap arranged how I liked it and then I had to move! I didn't go to church because then I had to relocate and then get settled in again.

Later, after I finally got my place to be cozy, most of the team went driving around the town of Slidell. We went over to Lake Pontchartrain and I saw my first glimpses of the destruction that the hurricanes caused. Some of the houses have been rebuilt and they are big and beautiful. These have to be the people that could have afforded the lakefront property in the first place. But the other houses, or even, the lack of houses, were ridiculous. You could see the posts sticking out of the water where docks used to be, the stilts where houses used to be, and the debris of former houses. I was shocked and awed, and I know that I haven't seen the worst of it. I couldn't imagine what it was like when the hurricanes first hit. What would I have done? What would I have felt? I don't know what I'll be doing while I'm here at Operation Blessing, but I know that I want to help this community.

Tomorrow is orientation. I think I'll have a whole lot more anwsers about what I'm doing here. I'll see how tired I am tomorrow and try to post something tomorrow. If ya'll want to get ahold of me, I'm in the central time zone now, so I am two hours ahead of the west coast. Just an FYI. Take care all!