WEDNESDAY

As I write this tonight, the moon overhead is in eclipse. Oh, the wonder of it all!

This morning we were sent to another site in Diamondhead. Wow, we thought....Hawaii? No, just a nearby community with a couple of mostly finished Habitat houses. An exterior paint job was needed as well as some inside touch up to walls and trim. We naturally did a terrific job. Painted the complete exterior by lunchtime with the help of an Iowa crew who were also here for the week.

In the afternoon, our Paterson Habitat team were able to get assigned to do a blitz wallboard installation on a building here at Lagniappe in Bay St. Louis. When finished it will become a counseling center. Good job, as we hoisted the 12' boards and fastened them to wall studs. There were a few Americorps young people in the building also, and we enjoyed working with them.

On the way to that new worksite in Diamondhead today, we spotted the 3 signs above. They tell a sad story of the after effects of the hurricane. The residents obviously survived as told by the third sign, but the regulations and restrictions following the storm did them in. Their house still stands, a silent memento of the sorry aftermath.

So what do you do after a day like this? Go to a jazz show of course. We discovered that legendary jazz clarinetist, Pete Fountain was playing with his 8-piece band here in town. Pete used to have a jazz club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, has been on the Johnny Carson show more than 60 times, played for four of our presidents and now lives in Bay St. Louis. He was devastated when Katrina washed away his home on the beach road, but music has sustained him and he is back on the stage again. It was a great evening, a nice break from our workweek.

Posted by N. DeVries