My Relief Trip™ Reflections: Part 1

Pre mud-out, bedroom

Pre mud-out, facing kitchen

Post mud-out, facing kitchen

Post mud-out, outside

I’m back from Mississippi a little more tired, a lot more aware, and tons more blessed than when I left. I am going to try and post something about the trip everyday this week. It’s too hard to try and put it all together in one, so you guys will get sputterings of my post-trip thoughts in the form of stories, lists, and pictures. Here’s my first, non-commital, non-deep entry. I realized about halfway through the week that a new vocabulary set had now become commonplace in my everyday speech. Here’s my dedication to key words and phrases I used/heard more this week than I ever have in my life… and some for the very first time ever.

Katrina cough (common side effect of all the dust and mold on both residents and volunteers to the area)
Mud-out (see above; complete cleaning out of a house including all debris, drywall, flooring, duct work, nails… all the way down to the studs, leaving it ready to be rebuilt)
Muck-out (which is it anyways?)
Where’s my crowbar? (I quite possibly have never asked this question before in my life.)
Insulation (swam in it on Monday)
Fiberglass (all over my person after said “swim,” including my eyelids. Ouch.)
Devastation (everywhere)
Destruction (less popular alternative to “devastation”)
Ew, water! (the smallest amount of polluted water found in any house was a cause for announcement... just don’t spill it.)
I hate gnats (they swarmed and ate us alive)
Immaculate (our goal)
Flexibility (our theme)
FEMA (people either love ‘em or hate ‘em… mostly depends on if you have your trailer yet or not)
Triad (in this case, a group of 3 white 15-passenger vans travelling together; we had 3 triads. ours was also known as the "Troy-ad" due to the inclusion of our fearless leader, Mark Troyer)
Blessing, Hope, Thank You (words spoken many times over by the residents we served)