Monday, March 13th

When I woke up on this morning I took some time to spend with God. He reminded me of the chapter us girls had just read from a book. That our circumstances are not an excuse for our attitudes - that our attitude and our feelings are not the same thing. No matter what's going on in my life, it doesn't excuse how I treat other people. I was pretty grateful to be taught this early in the week because I didn't want to go into this week with a baditude.

This day Maren, Rachel and I stayed back to help out around the church. Whoo boy. We worked in the kitchen mostly with Miss Minda. If we weren't doing that we were sitting all tired and hot, or sweeping or mopping. Rachel burned herself on the oven, I burned my hand on it too, but not nearly as bad as poor Rachel. Poor Rachel. Her arm has like a welt on it. Pobre de Rachel.

We talked to a woman who was volunteering in the kitchen with us about how Katrina had affected her. She told us of all the places she'd evacuated to and that she'd just come back to Slidell a month and a half or so ago. Later Will got the opportunity to interview her and her mother for his documentary and apparently there's far more to the story than I'd even imagined. I can't wait to see that video.

Okay, back to the day at hand. During our lunch break we re-set up the girls' room, made all the beds. Put jolly ranchers and heart pretzels on the pillows. That was fun. Also, we were trying to mop the bathrooms when this little boy comes in clearly having to...go. Maren said "uh oh" and he said he could wait, but Maren told him to just go ahead. While he was going another little boy came in and went. No joke, he was in that stall for more than 20 minutes. Just sitting.

"I didn't know what I was getting into with that last one" - Maren, as we stood outside waiting and waiting for him to come out while Rachel mopped up the girls room (where girls filed in and out in no time)

Eventually we had to ask him if we could just mop for a second while he was in there. He said "okay." So we did, and he was still in there when we left. Our theory was that he was dipping out of class for the last half hour of school, we figured this was how he got out of school at the end of every day.

Cooking in the kitchen was kind of a trip. It's weird cooking for hundreds of people. It's different than cooking for yourself. We browned meat, we made hamburgers, etc. etc. We saw how noodles were cooked, but I don't think I'm going to retain that knowledge because the noodles turned out with the consistency of mashed potatoes, except without taste.

The day went on and after showering and all that, we ate dinner and played cards (3 to 13) and had a team meeting. We got to sing and pray as a group, and to hear how everyone elses' days had gone out gutting houses.

And then? We slept. I shared Maren's air mattress. She's married, but her husband was in the boys' room.