More on Ike

It is day seven, and still no power. I think I might understand why people in the olden days didn't bathe real often. It's too dang cold! I came home last night from another day of packing up people's wet moldy houses, covered in God knows what, and just couldn't bear the thought of that cold shower. I knew I needed it. But I just couldn't do it. So at 9:48 p.m. I told Mike that I didn't care how long the drive was, we were going to his sister's house to shower. And that is just what we did.

I wish I had my camera with me right now so I could download some pics for you guys, but I'll do that later. Maybe I'll teach myself how to do a slideshow on my blog and post several for you to see.

Yesterday my church went down into a fairly poor neighborhood (though by the world's standards, these people would be considered rich). This is a neighborhood that floods every single time we get a bad rain. When we get REALLY bad rains, it floods anywhere from 6 feet into their houses all the way up to the roofs of their houses. Very sad. Anyway, yesterday my church was able to secure about 500 bags of ice and MRE's and we drove through the neighborhood passing them out. You would have thought we were giving away bags of money! Later that afternoon, my dad drove all the way from Louisiana carrying 500 hot dogs (we can't get meat here yet) and all the stuff to go with them. We put together a little impromptu barbque and mini-carnival for the kids. A guy we know loaned us a generator and a moonwalk too! It was so much fun. When you are living without the basic necessities for days on end, you need an emotional break.

I feel weak and a little depressed. Not with my circumstances. I can stand to lose the weight, and my dry skin and hair have loved the "every other day" shower thing. Plus I have heard cold water is better for your skin and hair anyway. I have thought a lot the last few days about people who never have clean water or most of the other things we consider basic necessities. It makes me have that much more respect for my friends Matt and Tracey Shepperd who live daily on faith to try to change the injustices in the world http://www.iamchange.com/ By the way, their house was wiped out by Ike. If you would like to help them in any way, would you please contact me?

All that to say, I have too much to say in this one blog, so perhaps I will tell you more the next time I drive to Deb's for a shower and a touch of normalcy.