Disaster Relief (Part Two)

Saturday started much like Friday. We headed out to Maytown - mostly the same group of people, but with a few new faces. When we arrived we split up to work different jobs. I was assigned to assist Dan, so Katie (an eastside volunteer) and I walked around the neighborhood with him to check on some different families. After a while we headed back to the community center. The sidewalks were still covered with muck (inches of it in some places), so we spent the rest of the morning shoveling it off.

After lunch, Katie and I left the community center to join Dana and Allen, who were helping an elderly woman toss out things that had been ruined by the flood. Once we finished there we checked in with the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team; they had previously mentioned to the guys that they might have a few jobs they could use our help on. We ended up driving around for a while until we found the right road, but we eventually made it. We cleaned out a basement and then moved on to help clean out an elderly woman's house next door.

Cleaning out Barbara's house was hard. From what I could gather, she is pretty much on her own. She has one neighbor (her tenant actually) who checks in on her, but other than that her family has pretty much abandoned her. What complicated matters more is that Barbara is a pack-rat. She has saved almost everything - including trash.

As we sorted through the damage, we found many things that had to be tossed - basically everything that was on the floor needed to be thrown away. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be a victim of a flood (or any natural disaster), but, on top of that, to have to sit and watch as strangers came through your house and just threw all of your stuff away...it must be awful. Anything and everything that was salvageable she wanted saved - even if it really wasn't worth saving.

To look at her you could tell that she was on the edge between having hope and feeling hopeless. Pain and fear were written on her face and in her body language. All she could do was stroke the kitten that she and her neighbor had rescued from the flood.

There was a part of me that wanted to talk to her - to hear her stories and to ask her how she was doing. But I just couldn't. Meeting people has never been my strongsuit, but it was more than that; I think I was scared of the answers. Scared of getting drawn into a life that I knew I would, likely, never see again. As I have talked with other volunteers, especially those that work with distressed populations more often, I have been told there are two possibilities: either you go crazy trying to take on the pain of the world, or you learn to disconnect yourself somehow. I guess I can see the truth in that, but isn't there someway to find a balance for it all?

Disaster Relief (Part One)

This weekend I headed east to assist with the flood cleanup taking place in Floyd County, Kentucky. CAP's disaster relief team was, more or less, assigned Floyd County, so, starting last Thursday, CAP employees and volunteers joined together in the effort to help victims of the flood.

Thursday night Kim, Paul, and I drove out to the east side to join the crews for Friday and Saturday. To be honest, I am not really sure I knew what to expect. This weekend was supposed to be our volunteer retreat, but it was cancelled so we could go help with the flood cleanup. In a way, our retreat still happened - a large group of us were present, and even though we weren't necessarily focusing on ourselves all the time, we were able to join together in work that directly and practically served the needs of the people. And we had plenty of fun together both on and off the job site.

Friday morning we split up into different work groups. The majority of us headed to Maytown, a small community that was hit hard with floodwaters. By the time we arrived, the majority of the waters had receded, but there was plenty of damage left in its wake. There were many flooded basements and many yards that had turned into ponds. Most of the homes were built off of the ground in some manner - many of the homes had ground level basements and most of the trailers were raised off the ground at least four to five feet - because of building codes influenced by past floods. Despite these precautions, however, many homes were still flooded on their main levels.

Our contact in Maytown was a man named Dan. He and his wife are former CAP volunteers who now run the Maytown Center (a faith-based community center). Both their home and the community center were flooded, although, thankfully, only their basement was flooded in their home and in parts of the community center the water rose to the top of the steps and stopped there. Anyway, Dan helped us find most of our projects; he would walk around the community asking who needed help, then give us their information so we could send a crew.

My first project Friday morning was working on a chouse (a church basement turned into a home for the pastor and his family: church + house = chouse). The basement had flooded, so we were trying to get the last part of the water out the door, while also going through each room and sterilizing it with bleach water.

My job was to help squeegee the floors. The work wasn't hard and luckily I had ended up with a really good squeegee, so I could get a lot of work done. Unfortunately, however, not all of the other squeegees worked as well, so one of the other volunteers kept asking to borrow it. Now this really should not have been a big deal - it wasn't my squeegee anyway, and we were all working toward the same goal. But for some reason it really bothered me. I wanted to get a lot of work done and to feel useful. Using the other squeegee, I couldn't accomplish either of those two goals. I am ashamed to admit that it was quite the struggle at first for me to have a good attitude about this. Here I was, trying to help others, and all I could think about was how much work I was doing. How pathetic is that? I started praying that I would have an attitude change, and thankfully, as the work continued I was able to let go of my desire to prove myself (I think a large part of this was just wanting to feel useful - the day before we had had two students come to the center and I felt like I had wasted my entire day; so the idea of actually working was very appealing).

I ended up switching jobs after lunch though. There really were too many people at our site and one of the other crews needed another person. So I spent the afternoon with eastside volunteers Sam and Ellen, along with Dana and Allen. It was fun working with them all. And oddly enough, I really enjoyed the work (and had a much better attitude). We were working on a trailer that had been flooded, so all of the underpinning and insulation needed to be taken off before it molded. The woman we were working for had eight cats and a pet opossum. Now, as some of you may know, I hate cats. I am allergic and I, frankly, think they are evil little creatures. The ground underneath the trailer was basically a litter box for the cats. Dana and Allen did the majority of the crawling around underneath the trailer, and both were decently covered in cat feces. At first, all I was doing was piling the insulation, but then someone tossed me a knife, and I crawled under and cleared the majority of one corner. Needless to say, a shower that night was wonderful.

Despite the somewhat disgusting nature of the work, it felt great to know that I had done something to help this woman. It didn't really matter that I was dirty, sweaty, and covered in crap - all in all it was a good day.

As I mentioned earlier, it wasn't all work - there was some time for play. We had the evenings off, so after dinner we found fun things to do. Friday night we went to the movies. It was amusing because we split up into three groups: one group of girls went to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," another group went to see "Wolverine," and another group went to see "Star Trek." The only group satisfied with their movie choice was the "Star Trek" group - which I was, happily, a part of. And it was awesome. Perhaps more on that later...

There is still a large group of volunteers working through this week in Floyd County. If you can, please continue to pray for their safety. Some of the working conditions are toxic (we were required to wear masks at almost all times) and humidity has been up. I'm sure they could also use prayers for continued strength. Please keep the victims of the floods in your prayers too. Many of them have lost everything and feel hopeless. Please pray that hope can infiltrate these communities and unite them.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers through this weekend (and always).

Blessings.

(By the way, the pictures are all from the Floyd County Times; if you click the title of this post you can read an article about the flood).

A Quick Hello to Seattle, Portland, and the I-5 Corridor

The last week has been very eventful. Most importantly, I was able to fly back home for the weekend! Minus a few setbacks, the weekend was great, and I am so thankful it worked out for me to visit the Northwest again (how I have missed it!).

Before I go any further, I just have to give a shout out to a couple of people. First to Alyssa (even though she rarely reads my blog) for picking me up from SeaTac late Thursday night, for letting me stay with you, for making me breakfast, for driving me around all day Friday, and for taking the time off work to spend time with me. It was amazing! Secondly, I need to thank my parents, who spent a total of, at least, twelve hours in the car shuttling me to and from Portland. You both are amazing and I love you both so much!!!

Basically I flew in to Seattle late Thursday night and flew back out of Seattle early Monday morning. I tried to cram seeing as many people as possible into my day on Friday - which was probably too many and not enough at the same time. But it was great to see everyone! Saturday morning my parents and I headed down to Portland, where we had dinner with my cousin and his fiancee. On Sunday my mom and I had breakfast before meeting up with my dad again and basically hitting the road once more to make it up to Seattle. And Sunday night I was able to hang out with my friend Susannah (who was also really wonderful and drove me to the airport at 4:30am). By 6:30am, I was on a plane once more and headed back to Kentucky.

A few highlights:

• Going to Cedars for lunch with four wonderful friends and enjoying some amazing Indian cuisine


• Seeing real mountains (the Appalachians aren't really mountains - they are just big hills)


• Making pies with my mom


• Standing under our blooming lilac tree and breathing in my favorite scent


• Cutting the aforesaid lilacs and packing them back to Kentucky to show a few people what lilacs are


• Kind of forgetting it was Mother's Day, and not wishing my mom a happy day until after my friend April did


• Seeing friends and family


• Flying over Mount Rainier, as it rose above a layer of clouds, as I left Seattle

It was especially nice to come out and visit, since I will probably not be in the Northwest again until September, for Jimmy and Annette's wedding.

I think I am mostly recovered from jetlag at this point, which is good, since tomorrow after dinner I am heading out to the eastside to work with CAP's Disaster Relief program as they provide services to all those who have been affected by last week's floods. For those of you not following the news, there are currently thousands of Kentuckians who are either displaced or suffering from grave water damage. In nearby Madison County, there are others who have been affected by an F-3 tornado. If you can, please keep Kentucky in your prayers right now. There has been a lot of damage and many people have lost everything. I will be out east Thursday night to Saturday night. Please pray, too, for the safety of our crews (Disaster Relief is, for now, working this Thursday through next Saturday).

Peace.

Derby Day

What is the one thing that (almost) everyone associates with the state of Kentucky? The Kentucky Derby, of course!

Well, yesterday was Derby Day, and it was quite an experience. To preface my stories from the day, I should make mention of the fact that this is the one event that I have been pretty set on attending since I moved to Kentucky. I was not about to spend a year here and not attend the biggest, and most famous, event the state has to offer. That would just be crazy! And not only did I plan to attend the Derby, but I planned to do the Derby right. This meant a hat and a dress.

Anyway, yesterday morning I woke up to rain and a forecast for rain all day. Not exactly the forecast I was hoping for, since the Derby is an uncovered, outdoor event. We ended up having a little powwow in our house because a few people were concerned about the weather. Despite my love for the Northwest, I do not enjoy spending a day outside in the soaking rain, but I also was not about to miss the Derby because of the rain - especially since we all know that weathermen are never 100% accurate in their forecasts. Thankfully, we eventually got everyone on board for attending the Derby and Kim, Jenny, Jenna, Sam, Dana, Allen, and I set out for Louisville.

My Hat:

On Thursday Jenny, Jenna, and I headed up to Lexington in search of Derby hats, and were successful in finding hats that were not too expensive. My hat was plain, but I knew that I would jazz it up a bit - which I did. After the powwow yesterday morning, I made a mad dash to the local 5&10 store to pick up some ribbon to trim my hat (a creative venture, I might add, I have never had to undertake before). When I returned to my house, I quickly tied my bow and got the ribbons arranged on my hat how I wanted them - all in probably less than five minutes (feel free to be really impressed with my amazing skill).

Onward to the Derby:

As we made the drive toward Louisville, we were slowly leaving the pouring rain behind us - which was quite the blessing, since we didn't really see the rain again for the rest of the day. When we neared Churchill Downs we started looking around for parking. Most of the people in the neighborhood we offering up their yards and driveways for paid parking, making the streets crowded with people waving their cardboard "Parking" signs. The more humorous of these signs were the ones that said "Safe Parking" - let's just say there was nothing about those signs that inspired visions of safety. Oddly enough, when we turned off the main street by one block, there was plenty of available free street parking, and it was only a few blocks walk to the gate.

Bring Cash:

After watching half of our group walk through the gates after only ten minutes in line, I resolved that I will bring cash to all major events that I attend from now on. Sam, Jenna, and I spent five minutes in the credit card line before walking down the block to a bank, where we stood in an ATM line for about forty minutes (this line was shorter though). Eventually, however, we had cash in our hands and were able to walk through the gates of the infield: we had officially made it to the Derby!

Mint Juleps:

For those unfamiliar with the Kentucky Derby, the traditional Derby drink is a mint julep. A mint julep is basically a glass filled with crushed ice, bourbon, and a sprig of mint. If you don't like the taste of alcohol, you would not like this drink. And even if you do like the taste of alcohol, you may not like this drink; only three of us, out of our group of seven, liked them. But, hey, it was all part of the experience. And our drinks came in official Derby glasses, which we all kept.

My First Bet:

Since Derby Day, for me, was all about the experience, I wanted to go all out. This included placing a bet on a horse - which actually was my first time ever gambling on anything. I put $5 on horse #9, Zambezi Sun, in the tenth race. Unfortunately, he lost. But it was still pretty fun cheering him on. I had a quasi-My Fair Lady moment during the race, and was very sad that I could not find a horse that had "Dover" as part of the name, so I could not shout out "Come on Dover, move your blooming arse!" Sigh.

The Actual Derby:

After waiting for hours, the actual Derby race finally arrived. We had a position on the side of the track (I believe we were at turn #2) so we could watch as they rushed past us. This race turned out to be quite the upset. For starters, the favored horse scratched earlier that day. The horse that won, Mine that Bird, had odds of 50-1 - not exactly the numbers that scream "Here's a winner!" His odds were the second worst of all winning horses in 135 years of Derby history (the worst odds being 94.5-1 in 1913). Not only did this horse win, but he won with 6 3/4 lengths between him and the next horse. Needless to say, all of us wished that we had bet on him: a $10 bet would have earned $500!

Exiting:

Probably the worst part of the whole day for me was trying to exit the infield. I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but the infield has a very odd mix of patrons. You have a portion of people there who are there because it is a social event, and then you have a whole other crowd of people who are there to get really smashed (some newscasters were comparing it to Mardi Gras). Regardless of your reason for attending, however, everyone in the infield has to exit through one tunnel. After the Derby race was over, thousands of people started rushing for the tunnel, so we spent the better part of an hour being crushed in the middle of a sea of people trying to get out. It's a good thing I am not claustrophobic; although I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the time we finally made it out of there.

All in all,the experience was a very positive and fun one. The rain held off all day and the temperature hovered around sixty degrees, so we never got too cold. The people watching in itself was entertainment enough for the day, although we never saw any of the celebrities who were there. There were definitely hats galore - hats of all shapes, colors, and sizes - worn by both women and men.

Today we had a sort of Derby "after party." Jenny made "Hot Browns" (a kind of open-faced turkey sandwich) and "Derby Pie" (similar to pecan pie) for lunch. Apparently these are the traditional Derby foods, but since we were actually at the Derby yesterday (and too poor to buy food there) we had to wait to have our Derby foods.

Now if only I can think of more excuses to wear my hat...

Sam and I were the only brave ones in our group to wear dresses and hats!

Kim took a picture of the rest of us with our Mint Juleps. Too bad only Sam, Allen, and I liked them.

See that little yellow spot? That is a jockey on a horse...although I'm not sure which horse.