Tuesday, March 20, 2007

3/20 It's SPRING!

I hope that means warm weather for my relatives and friends back in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. And I'm still hoping for snow for Beata in NC. :)

What a day I had. First of all I found out that the Director of Case Management and the casemanagers/caseworkers read this blog. At first I laughed, and then I got scared. Had I said anything nasty about anyone? Had I been negative at all about this job? I don't think so, because I tend to not write negative things, but also because I haven't felt negative about this job--except for the great amount of work we need to do. I could work 24 hours a day and still not be finished. That's something I need to watch out for. People in disaster work tend to overwork and to not count the cost. Our staff is so wonderful that I want to make sure they're here for a long, long time. So get out of that office and go home.

At some time I'll explain what the caseworkers do and how they relate to whether we rebuild a home or not. It's pretty interesting.

Let me tell you about the rest of the day. I didn't get much office work done. As soon as I'm finished with this, I'll make dinner, then sign off my personal computer and sign back on to the work one. (Yep, it's a laptop too, and I can connect to work via a VPN--a virtual private network.)

Even though I didn't get much regular work done, it was a superb day. Ken, the PR guy from our corporate office, visited from Austin. It was so much fun listening as people told their stories. An elderly couple came to the office. They both carried themselves so proudly, even though they are in their 80s and lost everything for the second time in their 59 year marriage. Ken interviewed them and their caseworker joined us. It was so cool hearing about how she is their "guardian angel." Their house, in Pass Christian was picked up and moved into their neighbor's yard. It was a house they built 51 years ago. Poignant, but with a happy ending. Their caseworker is getting another religious building group to put down the foundation and do the framing. Then we will come in and do everything else.


Then we took Ken on a grand tour. Several of us went and it was well-worth the time. I met some homeowners where our volunteers were working. Oh my--it was the coolest thing ever to see folks working hard, most on their spring break from college. Following that we went to two brand new homes that we'd built. The owners, a father and daughter, gave us tours of their homes. They were both fantastic, and were well-furnished and obviously well-loved homes. The dad had a shrimp boil for the volunteers last year, and he said he's going to have another one this year and I'm invited. Well, I found out that you don't have to have seafood to love a shrimp boil. I can have corn and other vegetables boiled in that good tasting sauce. I'm looking forward to it.

This is already so long. There's so much other news but I guess it'll wait for tomorrow.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw a lot of Pass Christian after the hurricane on Good Morning America. Robin Roberts is from there and went several times to see the town and the house her Mom lived in.
Sounds like you really like your job. I can see it would be very rewarding.

Jerilyn Dufresne, author said...

Yeah, I just heard about that yesterday at the meeting. You're right though. I've only been here 2 1/2 weeks and I can tell it's going to be rewarding. Love you sis.

Anonymous said...

What a great post, mom. It sounds like you're having a wonderful time. I like that.

Jerilyn Dufresne, author said...

Yes, I love it here, hon. But there's so much work to be done. Luckily there are many wonderful people willing to do it. Love you, Mom

Anonymous said...

Some of the things I treasure most about working for our organization include the type of work we do and the relationship I have with my co-workers. Though adjusting to the various personalities can be "tough" at times, I welcome the lessons I'm learning from everyone. I understand that we have different views because of life experiences however, we all have a few things in common: (1) we just so happen to all be human and (2) we all believe we are here because we are suppose to be. Welcome to Biloxi, Mississippi and our family!

Well Met said...

Yes!

Welcome to Biloxi.

We are an insane group. It keeps us from going crazy.

Jerilyn Dufresne, author said...

Des, don't you ever sleep?

Markeda and Desarae, so good to see you both here. Thanks for the welcomes. I'm taking a quick lunch break and checking in. I love working here and hope to be with LSSDR for a long time.