Author Archives: dianakate525

Wrapping Up

So many times we’ve been thwarted by rain on the last day and gone home a little frustrated at being unable to finish the construction work. But this year was different: it didn’t rain at all today, and the crew was able to finish the Dixie Avenue house. The siding is up and all that remains is to paint the exterior.

Liz reported that Juanita, one of the owners, broke into tears when she tried to convey what this work means to them. It’s so gratifying to meet the homeowners!

We made sloppy Joes for the Micah visitors today. Apparently it’s a very popular offering, as we cooked for 50 and didn’t have leftovers.

After we wrapped up for the day, we met with Craig for a debrief. He shared that BBM is working with some neighborhood leaders who are committed to making the area more attractive and safer, trying to instill pride in the homes there.

It was a very satisfying week for everyone, no matter what role they chose to play. Three building projects, all finished, over 100 meals served at the Micah Center, many loads of laundry done, food pantry organized and open for business, and still having the energy to play Setback in the evenings — what a sense of accomplishment!

More photos to come…..

Hump Day and Beyond

I was too pooped to create a post last night, and now have dozens of images to pore through to catch up. It’s a bit of a mish-mash of the two days.

Each day at 7:30 a.m. we meet with members of the BBM staff. Yesterday Michael and his team of housing consultants briefed us on the triumphs and tragedies of trying to get people housed; and today we heard from Ray-Ray, who runs the Micah Day Center with a firm but loving hand.

Yesterday and today Alan and Daniel made great progress on the new build, and by today, with help from Carol-Lynne, Ginny and Lori, it was pretty well complete. And Jack and John arrived for the photo op! It’s a sweet little bungalow.

Old siding was stripped off Jerome’s house on Dixie Avenue, Tyvek wrapped, and rotted wood replaced. For the first time ever, Jim missed a day of work yesterday, down with fever and a cough. But he was back in fighting form this morning.

Jerome and his sister Juanita, the homeowners, are over the moon about the improvements we’re making to their house. Here’s Jerome with our new friend Liz, who has made a terrific addition to the team. Thanks, Doug!

Back at the Mission, our Wednesday cooking contingent made lunch for Micah guests. We were lucky to receive a donation — from a cruise ship, no less — of chicken and sausage gumbo and rice, so all we had to do was reheat it. The challenge is that the folks over at Micah don’t know from one day to the next how many folks will show up. They were pretty excited about the gumbo!

Micah is closed on Thursday, so we didn’t have to cook. Consequently, everyone went to the two worksites. As so often seems to be the case, rain is predicted for Friday, so they were working at warp speed to get the outside wrapped, as it were.

Last night we treated ourselves to a nice meal at The Half Shell, a decades-long tradition we always look forward to.

One more day and this frenetic week will be history.

Progress!

The group we call the railing crew finished their job this morning, and it looks great.

This afternoon the entire construction crew decamped to a new worksite in Gulfport, since the first site was pretty well wrapped up.

Meanwhile, back at the Mission, Jack coordinated the cooking for the Micah client lunch. We’re supposed to be cooking for 50; yesterday 20 showed up, and today about 35. It was crazy in the kitchen, and I hate that I didn’t get a single image of the process. Maybe tomorrow.

That’s all for tonight!

Crazy Monday!

We arrived in Mississippi on Sunday without incident — for once — and were able to settle in, do the big grocery shopping and meet with Wanda and Paul, our volunteer coordinators for the week.

We learned we have a new responsibility for the week. Last summer, Loaves and Fishes, the soup kitchen that has been serving meals for many years, closed its doors. BBM is picking up the slack, with volunteers prepping lunch in the Mission House and serving it at the Micah Center. We also need to select from their suggested menus, shop for the ingredients, and cook for 50 people! Coordination was a little tricky, but we figured it out.

Meanwhile, we have two worksites, one about five minutes away that involves reconstructing a deck, and a new build in Gulfport. Here are some images of the deck crew.

The other job may only take a couple of days.

Tonight we settled into our usual routine. Ally led us in a thoughtful devotion about the ripple effect of what we do here, and after dinner a frenzied game of Setback ensued. The photo doesn’t reflect the energy and noise level involved.

Back to the Gulf Coast… For the 20th Time

This trip to Back Bay Mission would be number 21 if COVID hadn’t kept us home in 2021. This year we have 19 volunteers ready to roll on January 4 at 7 a.m., and unlike last year we’re not facing an incoming blizzard! The weather looks good all the way from Hartford to Atlanta to Gulfport, with Biloxi temps in the high 60s to low 70s. Visit this page for frequent updates about our activities and our crew at work.

Stranded!

Snow and ice in the southeast (though not here) wreaked havoc on flights Saturday, and ours from Gulfport to Atlanta was cancelled. Despite the best efforts of our travel agent, there wasn’t a seat to be had, so we settled in for another day. The good news is that no other group is coming in behind us, so we have the use of the Mission House till we leave. I had congratulated myself (prematurely, it turns out) on planning our food consumption so there was virtually nothing left in the fridge or pantry. So…another trip to Winn-Dixie for provisions to get us through.

Happily, seven of us who had made their own plane reservations were able to get home in the wee hours Sunday morning.

I still have a boatload of photos to share, so here are more of our many endeavors during the week, including the celebration of TJ’s 30th birthday on Wednesday.

There was an abundance of joy among us.

Send good thoughts our way as we journey home tonight. It looks like the weather will cooperate…..

The Last Day!

Torrential rain was pounding on the roof when we got up this morning, as predicted. Nine of our fellows went to one of the worksites to do what they could inside, like painting and trim work.

Since we have such great organizers among us, we drew the task of cleaning out and rearranging stuff in the basement of the Mission House. Amazing what people found down there!

Another group went to the Homeport unit to set it up for habitation. The painting done by John and Darlene gave the apartment a fresh clean look.

Time for our wrap up meeting with Craig, then dinner, then more football, then cleaning out the pantry and fridge…then an early alarm in the morning. More images later. What a week it has been!

An Awesome Day!

This morning we were visited by the legendary Ray-Ray, who runs the Micah Day Center with an iron hand, but has a bigger heart than you can imagine. In addition to her responsibilities here, she also has a full time job at UPS. She reported that two hundred brand new clients showed up between August 1 and December 31, reflecting the growing need for services in Biloxi.

She sees part of her job as encouraging self-reliance and responsibility among the clients. One way she does this is to coach them about limiting the amount of personal property they keep with them; some of them are reluctant to part with their stuff, but they’re limited by what they can carry.

They’re exploring the possibility of providing breakfast or lunch. Many clients have serious mental health issues that prevent them moving forward.

This morning our folks fanned out to the worksite in Gulfport; back to the food pantry and Micah to continue organizing; and going to clean house for a blind man who lives alone. Darlene and John returned to Homeport to finish painting — a big job requiring several coats since the kitchen was basically black. The big challenge at the worksite was to get as much siding up as possible, since we’re facing rain all day tomorrow.

Yeomen’s work in the pantry:

Piles of clothes now organized at Micah:

Woodward Street:

Last night we enjoyed a fabulous meal at The Half Shell.

As I write this and think about calling it a night, our football fans are glued to the game while the non-fans play a rousing game of Taboo. The fun never ends on the mission trip!

And the Work Goes On

Rebuilding the deck holding the A/C units took longer than originally expected, but the crew wrapped it up this afternoon. Painting at Homeport continues, ably handled by John and Darlene. And a larger crew is now at the worksite in Gulfport.

After the big food giveaway on Monday there remains the huge task of dealing with pounds and pounds of frozen food and other provisions that have to find a home in the food pantry. Several people have made good headway with that.

We’ve sent 3-4 people to the Micah Center each day to help Elizabeth sort and store clothing and provide the usual assistance with laundry and showers.

For those of you who have been here before, note that the Mission House is rocking a new coat of blue paint!

James came back to work yesterday, and we were thrilled that Craig emerged from his bed today. No one had Covid or flu, just, in Craig’s word, the crud. The new intern, Reid, woke in the night with excruciating abdominal pain, so Dr. Ron made a house call and sent him to hospital, where they found stones in both kidneys. So the Back Bay folks have been hard hit in this new year. Fortunately, no one in our group has gotten sick.

To add to the excitement today, we were briefly under a boil water mandate due to a main break, but that was resolved this afternoon.

Last night Ethan gave us a lesson in how to shuffle playing cards…

And Alan showed off his domestic skills doing dishes. Lori, take note!

A Potpourri of Projects

Scaffolding was erected on the backside of the Mission House for the first project, which was rebuilding the deck supporting the air conditioning units.

More sorting and distributing… Over 10,000 pounds of food!

Small projects on a house we worked on last year.

And the traditional jigsaw puzzle —