Christine's Pre-Christmas reports from Biloxi

December 23, 2005--Christine Francis reporting from Biloxi

Hey,
Just wanted to drop you a quick line. Another good day in Biloxi for me. We painted two houses today. It's something new with the interior process. Now after they gut the house out inside, a mold crew goes in and scrapes and vacuums every square inch of the house and gets rid of all of the mold. Then they leave the houses overnight and they go back in the next day and use what is called "kill" to paint the walls and all of the studs in the house. I did the painting today with Owen, Nate, and Andrew. It went really well.

Crews are small because alot of people left for the holidays, but we still managed to do two houses and return to base fairly early. We used paint sprayers, so yep, I was COVERED in paint when we returned to base, even tho we wore those TYVEK suit things. But, luckily I only have some white spots left here and there on my face and arms. Not too bad.

Tomorrow I am going to go out with the Christmas decorating crew...they go around and decorate people's trailors with decorations for Christmas. I am excited to do that. I'm getting into the Christmas spirit.

I will call when I find the time. It's been really hectic with just getting here and trying to meet everyone and find out who is still here from when we were down last. But, lights went out about five minutes ago, so I am going to get in bed and read until I fall asleep. Painting really did wear me out today, and my arm hurts from holding the paint sprayer...haha. I'll talk to you soon!
Merry X-mas!

Christine

And then slightly later (in response to my question on whether Handson would be able to use our volunteers in March):

"...Hands On is definitely staying for up to another year, of course with
the name Hands On Network. I don't know where they will be stationed, but I have
talked to Mark, who is the other leader other than Darius, and they are coming
to get started on the fifth of January I believe. So I will still be here and
will be able to talk to the leaders of it and try to set some things up so a
group from Bonaventure will be able to stay here with them, and I imagine a
large group will be able to, because I guess their plan is to have more...300
volunteers at a time. Sounds good!!

I am going to hang Christmas decorations on FEMA trailors now. Can't wait to get to talk to some people and see how they are doing during the Christmas season!"