Qatar and BGC

We have a short break and I'm sitting in the only room with Internet connection. Sitting next to me is my co-team leader Cody, and he is singing along to Gary Allan, while a few of us catch up on blogging and e-mails.










Participants arrived throughout the day yesterday and we spend the evening and today learning about the community we will call home for the next week.

Last night we heard personal stories from area young professionals and how their lives were affected by Katrina and their perspectives on recovery. One of the YP's, works for the Sheriff's Department, so he had a very interesting story to tell, as his experience related to what it was during and after the storm in relation to emergency management and law enforcement. He has been in the military, he's been shot at, and he has taken another person's life, but he said the worst experience of his life was taking 911 calls during Katrina, because there was nothing they could do to help the people that called.

We went on a community tour today, and rode from bridge to bridge learning about the area. We stopped to have lunch at the Pass Christian Boys and Girls Club, which is a brand new Club, that one of our groups will be working on to help reopen for summer programming by June 1. All six of the Gulfcoast BGC's were destroyed in Katrina, and currently they are running out of elementary schools and FEMA trailers. The Pass Christian Club, has been made possible by a $5 million dollar donation from the Country of Qatar, and it is absolutely beautiful. The Drake girls, are pictured inside of the new Club, and I've also included a picture of the note made about the donation.

I've included quite a few pictures of the "slabs" of homes that have been left as a result of people being unable to rebuild. A large problem is many people had mortgages to pay on their homes, and they are still paying a mortgage on that slab that remains from their foundation, and they don't have enough money to pay, because insurance didn't pay and/or they may not have received FEMA money if it was a home that was passed down within the family, meaning there were no papers verifying who owned the home.
We start our project tomorrow morning so check back to hear what we are working on! Check here to see what others are saying on the national UW ASB blog.