The Dish Star: Stories From Bay St. Louis, 2005 (1)
Shelley J Alongi

 



Here in October 2008 I’m working on a project that has been waiting to get done for three years. In December 2005 I traveled with my church to Bay Saint Louis Mississippi to spend a week working in a relief kitchen to feed people rebuilding after Katrina devastated parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. We can all consult the newspapers for the details but you can’t find these stories published in any magazines. These are my own personal recollections beginning with my preparation and ending with my return to California to resume my regularly scheduled life. As I reread my stories and think about other things I have done with my life I see a pattern developing. It seems I am attracted to high energy, ambitious projects, and smiles. Enjoy your read through the many wonderful adventures I had while providing some needed sustenance to those who needed it at the time. 
Cordially,
The Dish Star 

The Beginning 
Here is your first Mississippi update.
I would have never guessed in 1996 as  middle-aged man with a ton of energy and a great laugh and smile met me for the first time and shook my hand
and said "I'm Greg and you're awesome" that I would be on a small team with him as the head hopping into an airplane and traveling across country in 2005
to help people neither of us or anyone else on the team have ever met. You see after years of separation after two very stormy and rewarding years as friends
and musicians, we're working together again, both of us older, perhaps wiser, but quintessentially the same adventurous, free spirited members of God's
ragtag army we've separately been. God has put us once again on the same team and so we're off and running and in a week we're on an airplane going across
country with five other church members to do our part and learn all there is to learn.
Today Greg got us altogether as a team for the first time to talk about the logistics of getting to the airport and to the base where we'll be working and
living for a week. We discovered that I'm the luckiest one of the bunch because I don't have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to be at the airport by 5:30
since I'll be five miles away from the airport. I'll be going out to my friend Olga's house to stay for the weekend and then take the short hop to the
airport. We discussed who was carrying all the sleeping bags and then we discussed money and the trip in general. The youngest person going with us (Amanda)
is 16 years old and the oldest person is probably mid forties so the age range is right there. There are two single women on the team, (Shelley and Georgina)
one married couple, (Ryan and amber), Greg our team leader who's married but his wife isn't going with us, and another married woman (Kim) with a nineteen-month-old
girl. The baby isn't coming with us, of course.
Greg told us that Calvary Chapel is planting a church there and this is a result of helping to organize teams to go to the area and help out.
No one quite knows what we're getting into; one person asked if the devastation there was so bad. A lady who doesn't go to our church that I know from my
Toastmasters involvement told me her husband spent time tearing apart a house with another team while they were there, and this house was torn apart just
a few miles from where we'll be. That was pretty recent and so who knows what we're getting into?
God knows.
I only know this much; each of us on the team feel like we need to go there. There are so many things each of us could do at home, and will once we return,
so many trips we could go on but we all chose to be on this one.
In our time together we prayed for unity, grace, wisdom, and preparation; we asked God to protect the families and also to be our trail blazer. I know since
I've made the decision to go on the trip that I've had the hardest month emotionally but God is in control and has definitely provided for me to go on
the trip. I can't speak for anyone else in that regard; I'm sure everyone has their own story.
I'm hoping to take a writing device with me so I can journal each day of the trip, if I'm not too exhausted. :): One thing I've always done is to keep a
journal on each trip I've been on and so I'm planning to continue that tradition there. I'll be sure and keep you updated on that one.
As you pray through your week please specifically pray for grace, unity, wisdom, and emotional endurance. We were warned that it would be easy to fall into
a state where we felt guilty that we had not been so devastated by the hurricane and also asked to keep an eye out for each other's emotional well being.
I was told by the lady whose husband went to help tear down the house that the trip would be emotionally devastating for days. I've arranged to stay in
Ontario a few days after the trip in order to get to see Kylee my niece. I've done this as a precaution against an anticlimactic, normal return to routine
and the relative emotional stability that entails. I've also done it because I have a chance to and I want to take advantage of each opportunity I get
to see my niece.
One more note. The Pampered Chef is writing our church a check for some of the costs for the team. I don't know what the final total will be but I'll let
you know in the next update before I leave. I hosted an open house today and got one visitor and three people at church who wanted to take catalogs to
help get orders. I have some other orders I'm adding to make the goal and so I'll be working on collecting other orders this week. We're hoping to write
a check to the church for $90.00 which means we'll need to get $600.00 in sales to get that check. The church has covered the costs for some of the team
members, and is hoping to provide the list of items each team needs to bring (not the personal items on the list I sent you.) I don't know what Calvary
Chapel Fullerton will do with the check we write them, they may keep it to reimburse the different ministries who have donated to us, or they may disperse
it amongst the team members once we return. I just wanted to do my part as a Pampered Chef consultant to see that the Pampered Chef writes them a check
from holiday shopping that people will be doing anyway. I'll keep you updated on how it turns out. If you want to place an order let me know and I'll be
happy to ad it to the list of orders being submitted for the team.
For those of you who have given money or items to me specifically for the trip, let me just say thank you very much. Every bit has helped cover the airfare
and the extra money that we're all encouraged to take with us in case of emergency or food that's not provided while we're on the trip. Our transportation
and fee for lodging has been covered by church donations. One of my concerns has been to keep up with the bills during my absence since I've needed to
divert funds from my budget to do this. The donations people have made has helped me stay on top of the bills. god has truly provided and has used all
of you in the provision.
Now, I'm off to finish my evening and will keep you up to date on further Mississippi developments. I never go anywhere without doing my research so I plan
to spend some time online this week looking at newspapers in the area to see how the whole rebuilding issue is being covered. I look forward to writing
you again.
Take care all, have a wonderful day and keep dreaming,
Almost There 

All I can say as I get ready to depart across country on Monday December 5 is that Mississippi is in trouble. Friends who tease me say that hurricane season
isn't really over till I leave, but I think there's another reason why the state might be in more trouble. Our team leader is a man that I had the pleasure
and pain of working with a little more than eight years ago, and I have to say, he is possessed of an extreme dynamism and energy that rivals the most
type A personality profile or energetic person you can think of. He is high strung, a live wire, and has a lot to offer. He'll probably be tearing out
a floor with one hand and have the bible in the other, an explosive combination of practical and spiritual that is bound to get results. What those results
will be I will let you know when I get back.
It is this combination of personalities combined with the other five people on the team most of whose personalities I'm unaware of at present that bodes
for an interesting and affective combination. I just keep thinking of myself and Greg whose approaches hopefully can achieve the same results: he'll be
telling people to get their lives together and I'll be listening wishing I could tell them to get their lives together. We both have the same answer, don't
we? It's a combination of humanness, a divine creation from God, personalities that achieve results because He lets them. Who knows what will happen on
this trip. We have a young married couple two single women, a married woman with a baby, and Greg, the youth pastor whose focus has always been to reach
out to the community with a practical and spiritual hand. All I can say is we're a team so stay tuned for details.
This upcoming trip for me has spawned a lot of trips down memory lane, all of them good. I am fond of attaching importance to things that sometimes seem
inconsequential, but I have to say that after so many years of not working with Greg our current team leader I'm really looking forward to the dynamics
and the interaction. Nine years ago a new college graduate met a brand new Christian with a lot of troubles and baggage, and now nine years later, a married
youth pastor and an aviation enthusiast, aunt, a more confidently skilled public speaker embark once again on a journey that will be ultimately as rewarding
as the last journey we took together. We stayed up late nights working out problems and rehearsing music, and perhaps cementing bonds that will serve us
well as we all head across country. I hope what I've learned about leadership and communication combined with my own personal niche in life achieves a
good result. The trip down memory lane has been great especially in a week that has been absolutely harrowing. All I can say is by the grace of God I made
it.
Well, crew, all I could say about the last month that would be different from what I just told you is that it has been busy and we all know that story,
so I'll leave it here and let you know what happens and wish you the best of holiday seasons.
Happy Holidays from Your Friend and colleague
The Trip 
Part 1 
Ray, Leo, Steve, Scott, Norlita and Gene, Rosamo, Sally and Elmer, Bubba (yep that's his name) (but it's really not his name), Joe, Able, Mike, Amelia,
Seemore, Don and three Johns, Barbara, Nancy, Harry, Bernard, Floyd, and the list goes on, these were some of the colorful characters that sprinkled my
week in Mississippi with great stories and memorable experiences. I know it's going to take much more than one letter to write these all down in so I'm
sure I'll be writing more. I'll be printing these emails, too, as part of my travel journal. Most of the names represented in this list are locals though
some were Calvary Chapel relief camp staff. Notice none of the names were people on my team. I sometimes worked alongside my team members and sometimes
lost track of them as I buried myself in serving food, doing dishes, talking to locals, and generally staying out of trouble, though there had to be at
least one trouble making moment. There was, I'll tell you about it later. It didn't have anything to do with the people in Mississippi, just the TSA at
the airport.
Bakcground Segment 1
Calvary Chapel relief camp is set up in Bay St. Louis Mississippi about 53 miles from new Orleans, and twenty miles from the Louisiana border. Eighty percent
of the town businesses and homes were destroyed in the wake of Katrina and the flooding that occurred along its coast. The camp is situated about four
blocks from the beach and later on we got to tour the devastated areas situated along the bayous of the Jordan River, yep that's where the beach is and
that's where the town is situated and the river really is called the Jordan river. Wonder who named it? I bet I know. It probably came from slaves, but
don’t' quote me; it's a project worth researching.
The camp serves about a thousand meals a day to locals, police officers, relief workers, and city crew, contractors excluded because they are the ones making
money from the work. Many who come to eat at the camp start their day with breakfast and go off to work. There are some what I would term drifters, but
a lot of retired people all of whom seem very healthy and alert. Some have children and are working hard on their houses while others are waiting for insurance
settlements. The big issue seems to be what the insurance companies calls "flood" insurance as it relates to the damage received by a majority of the people
there. The lucky ones replace carpet, sheet rock, walls, and fixtures while the ones who have lost everything are left with the concrete slab and the pilings
the houses were built on before being flooded out. The town at one time experienced up to 42 feet of water and most people I talk to said they had three
to four feet of water in their houses, that is, the ones who didn’t' lose everything. Imagine your child's wading pool in your living room. But then imagine
your child's wading pool floating with sewage, mud, and debris. Along the affected parts of the river you can see parts of houses in trees, and local law
enforcement reports that they are still finding bodies. The week before we got there a baby had been found in a tree and this is about fourteen weeks after
Katrina. Katrina came and stayed for about eight hours on August 29, 2005. It will take years they say before the town is rebuilt.
You may ask why is it that the camp feeds so many? The nearest supermarket is in Diamondhead thirty miles away. Many have limited transportation due to
health or loss of vehicles. The local Wall mart is woefully out of stock on some items sometimes. The fuel used for cooking in FEMA trailers is expensive
if they can cook in them, and a lot of people are working on their houses. Think about when you get to working hard on a project how you like to eat? Find
food at the four restaurants available or go to Diamondhead or go down the street to the Calvary Relief camp and have a hot meal, the choice is yours.
Many choose to come to the camp. The food is good and hardy and is the last of its kind since the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other places feeding community
members are pulling out. The Calvary Chapel relief camp is the last place feeding the city of Bay St. Louis whose population went from about ten thousand
to four thousand after Katrina.
Shelley's Story number one.
The first person on our list is Ray.
"It's Amazing!"
Ray comes as many days as he can; he works on the local fishing boats, shimmers and such and when he has work for boats or other work that people hire
him to do, he is gone, but most times you can find him in the Calvary Chapel relief camp having a meal, "chugging coffee" as he puts it, or playing cards
and talking. One day when it was the coldest it got in Mississippi, probably 45 degrees during the day, I sat in three shirts and a jacket and three pairs
of socks and two pairs of sweat pants in front of a heater and talked to him about things, not always spiritual, but always interesting. We came up with
a joke between us. I told him how people always say it's amazing I do what I do since I'm blind and sometimes that word gets overused and I get tired of
hearing it. I also said that people use the same word to describe the devastation in Mississippi and how the people are recovering. Sometimes peoples use
of the word implies that their expectations of them are lower because they can't imagine being in certain situations like losing sight or losing a house.
Some things happen and you just deal with them. The result of all this was that everything we said and did was "amazing." He would come to me in the serving
line and say it's "amazing!" We had many laughs over that. Sometimes I would talk about somethignand without realizing it would say "amazing." It was our
own personal buzz word. I'll always recognize him anywhere I go because he'll come up to me and say "it's amazing."
Well this is only one of many updates so keep your eyes peeled.
Your friend and colleague,
Shelley
Part 2
More Stories from Mississippi
Background Segment II
Last time I wrote I told you about the town. Now let me share with you a bit about the accommodations for the volunteers. The week I went to Bay St. Louis
there were three other teams, one from san Diego, one from Moreno Valley and one from Modesto. The world is full of interesting, adventurous people and
so if you ever lose faith in humanity I suggest you take a trip there and meet the people who are volunteering to help out in this time of rebuilding.
The volunteers sleep at this date in a large tent city filled with smaller tents that can fit up to four people. Some of them fit less, the one we started
out in could fit four, though I'm the only one who ended up sleeping in it for the entire week. The volunteers sleep in these unheated tents. The weather
in Mississippi is generally mild during the winter, but the week I went there, the night temperature reached as low as 33 and perhaps as high as 45, though
the 45 is a guess. The 33 reading I heard from the country music station kikr108. The locals said it could have gotten as low as 29 or 26. All I know is
that on most nights, snuggling down in the sleeping bag with your head covered was the way to survive the night. The first night I arrived I slept in two
shirts, sweats, a jacket, and two pairs of socks, and had trouble zipping the sleeping bag but managed. The rest of the week I shed most of the clothes
and figured out how to zip the bag so I was fine. The adventure came when I got up at 3:00 in the morning in an unheated tent to make a pit stop and walked
out in sweats and shirt about fifty feet to the outhouses. It was cold, a wet cold they say, and quiet, peaceful in a way, but the only thing I think was
on my mind was getting back into the bag because it was so cold. One night I was so cold I walked out with no shoes because I figured I would be cold with
or without them and the less time I was cold was better. The time I walked out with no shoes happened to be the day it rained ands there were still water
and mud puddles, all of which I walked through to accomplish my task. Walking through the cold and mud and successfully making it back to warmth became,
as did my motto for the week, part of the adventure.
The team had a washer and dryer at its disposal though we were encouraged to use it only in emergencies because too much use would "blow it up" probably
meaning that the circuit couldn't handle everything we had to offer. Laundry was something I avoided there, though some of the teams who mucked out houses
certainly took advantage of it. I didn't hear of any mishaps with the washers and dryers. I don’t' know that it would have mattered since it would have been
cold with or without electrical power.
We served the locals and did most of our kitchen work in two large tents, one the kitchen tent and one the serving tent. The kitchen tent was the place
to be if you wanted to stay warm on those mornings when 5:00 saw me bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to get to work. On the first day we made four
hundred pieces of French toast, I should say me and Shannon did (he was one of the guys who proved to be very colorful and who is staying till February
1), but the others worked just as hard it's just that I got to stay in the cooking trailer witht he secret stash of coffee. Ah yes the secret stash, something
we all drank for warmth whether it was weak or strong. Coffee was in great demand both by locals and volunteers.
What else can I say about accommodations. they were simple, adequate, challenging, and they did the job. We had heated bath and shower but I made few trips
to these locations because I preferred to stay around the kitchen and use the outhouses because it was too cold to walk a hundred yards. Ok so I'm a California
wimp. Believe me, today was a cold day in California and I stood before a propane grill cooking about thirty-five hamburgers on the last day of the semester,
but it wasn't as cold as it was in Mississippi.
The only thing cold about Mississippi was the weather. What the weather lacked in warmth the people made up for in appreciation and heart.
Story Number Two
"Leaving So Soon?"
Steve was a nice guy. He's probably middle aged, and I'm not sure what he does for a living, but he eats at the camp regularly and so it was on the last
day that I learned his name. I probably served him a hundred times but on the last day as the locals lined up for lunch, I got in line to say goodbye.
The rest of the team was busy talking to each other saying goodbye but I knew I would miss the locals more than the teams so I spent as much time with
them as I could. They kept asking me if I was getting in line but I said no I was just standing there to say goodbye.
"You just get to know some of them and they leave," was Steve's comment. It's all I can really say about him. He finished lunch and was off to work and
I finished a slice of blueberry pie that someone brought me and our paths separated. But they crossed once and once in Mississippi at a camp set up for
locals who are getting their lives back together is enough.
More later from the Mississippi Mama,
Shelley
Part 3
Monday December 19, 2005
three Stories: Adventures in the Kitchen with the Dish Star and Crew, The Duct Tape Mask, and Biloxi to the Rescue
Adventures in the Kitchen with The Dish Star and Crew
The term the "dish star" comes on a play of words from Shannon, the French Toast partner of the last tale, who for some reason kept saying "You're a rock
star, Shelley!" I don’t' know if it was because he was amazed that a blind person could cook or pour coffee or if it was just his whole flamboyant, energetic
personality, but it stuck. someone questioned this title and as I was on the way back to the kitchen to do dishes I said something like "more like the
dish star" and hence, the title of this story. Adventures in the kitchen with The Dish Star and Crew.
The dishes never end in a place like this. There is a restaurant around the corner that I've been trying to talk into letting me volunteer at least to do
dishes to get a handle on the food business, but believe me, there's no talking necessary in the
kitchen in Bay St. Louis. The only way to approach the pots and pans and trays required for the serving of a thousand meals a day is just to do it. The
first day I walked into the kitchen and said "Can I help" there was an abundance of work; scrape, wash, rinse, bleach, dry, put away and then an hour later,


 

 

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Copyright © 2009 Shelley J Alongi
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