Welcome to Pearlington

27 March 2006

We arrived in Pearlington on Sunday after dark. Even under the canopy of the darkness, we could still see the downed trees. It was an eerie picture, but the cover of darkness hid a lot of the devastation. Finding the Pearl*Mart was easy – the gymnasium of the elementary school. Ben and Sue Taylor were waiting for us. We talked for several minutes and then Laurie showed us to the Pearlington Hilton – which was the room where the library had been housed before Katrina.

Our room was large and housed between 50-60 people, mostly high school students on spring break. There were rows of cots for all of us to sleep on and in the middle of one wall was the “changing room” complete with shower curtain door and tarp walls. There was a nice white picket fence on the inside. It was very nice after spending parts of the past 3 days in a car. There was also a nice large soccer field in front, aka parking lot, which was used nightly by the kids. There were exactly 9 beds easily accessible and divided nicely – 3 in one area for the girls and 6 in another for the boys. God is indeed good.

The bathroom and shower were not far away. Both could be walked too within several seconds. The Bathroom was a nice blue color – you have seen them in other locations and you generally call them Port-a-Pottys! The shower was a FEMA trailer divided in half – one side for the men and the other for the women. Each contained 3 showers – with hot water!!! We had all of the comforts of home.

As we began to settle in, we were inundated with the high school students from Indiana and Chicago. They were loud and Giovanna did not like them at first. There was a group from Culver Indiana – a boarding school for 9th-12th grade and about 15 of their students came, along with 4 chaperones. The other group from Chicago numbered about 30.

The most challenging aspect of this set up was to determine the time for lights out. The Ayers/Schmitter kids were used to lights out around 9 – the high schoolers much later. Most nights we were able to compromise and get the lights out by 10:15.

The wake up call came every morning at 7:15 sharp. John Lyle from Culver undertook this task. He was always very chipper and happy to do this jobJ. The Pearlington Hilton has a nice continental breakfast served on the patio out front. The kids were never late for breakfast, especially Giovanna.

As one walks the grounds of the Pearlington Hilton Complex, you come to the ball field. The once green field that I sure was always filled with the sounds of children playing is now hard packed dirt with the sounds of construction. The Seabees are building sleeping barracks. When we left at the end of the week, 5 of the 6 had the construction completed and several were being painted. One or two were actually housing people already. There are tents at one end housing some long-term volunteers like the Americore folks. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship also has a tent at one end. I would much rather see this ball field filled with children playing.

Monday morning we drove through the town. While much has been accomplished in the 7 months since the hurricane, there is still much to get done. Some homes are almost done; some are in various stages of reconstruction. There are some lots that have been bulldozed and setting empty and others look like they have not been touched in 7 months.

The post office is 2 rows of mailboxes that set outside. The building structure is gone.

All that is left of the bank is the ATM.

All that is left of the grocery store:

There is work being done this week on 3 of the 4 black churches in the community. The little white and blue church of Pastor Rawls has their fellowship hall complete and they feed up to 300 volunteers a hot lunch – daily!!! There are 4 other churches in the area – the Catholic Church will not be rebuilt. The Methodist church’s future is uncertain. The Baptist church is doing some reconstruction and I forget what the other church is doing.

The Community before Katrina was about 2,500. Only about 1700 have returned. The future of the other 7-800 people is uncertain. Of the 120 plus kids that were attending the elementary school last year, only 60 plus are enrolled from Pearlington this year and are attending a school in Kiln. The school days are long for these kids. They board a bus at 6:20 AM and return to Pearlington around 3 in the afternoon.

Spring has definitely arrived in Pearlington. The trees (what is left of them) are leafing out, the grass is green and it is a welcome sight to eyes of one who left Minnesota with snow on the ground and where the snow was gone, the pre brown drab of grass trying to decide if it will green up when the sun hits sometime. God was good in the weather department – it was pleasant and warm. We could wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts, that is until later in the day when the gnats came out. Then long sleeves were recommended to avoid getting lots of bites.

All in all this is a nice town. The people are friendly and upbeat. There is lots of work to be done and we are ready to dig in.