A Few Frequent Questions
This is only a small post, not going into details (I hope) about what I did during my time with the American Red Cross (ARC) in Mississippi.
I worked on an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV). My main goal was to feed anyone that came up to the window asking for food or drinks (or snacks). Usually it amounted to me feeding lots of people that did not need it, but that is another story.
I was stationed at a kitchen at the Pass Road Baptist Church in Gulfport, MS. The Baptist church sent kitchen workers who would cook food and deliver it to us to place on the ERV so we could have something hot to serve to the residents ( and contractors, Mexican laborers, guardsmen, et. al.).
Although at training they told me I would be sleeping on a concrete floor, that was not the case. I was sleeping in a warehouse (hangar?) on the Naval Construction Battalian Center with close to 1400 people at it's peak. That's a little misleading. There was 4 seperate rooms to this warehouse, each about 60 yds. by 60 yds. I slept in Div. C with about 800 Red Cross volunteers. The other 600 were seperated amongst the other 3 remaining rooms. They included a Fire Response Kitchen team, an Incident Management team, Corps of Engineers, Church of Scientology members, Forest Service members, FEMA, FEMA firefighters, PRC and a few other groups. ARC was by far the largest represented group there. By far.
Also at training they told me to be prepared to eat MREs for all three meals every day. Lets see, 21 days, times 3, thats 63 MREs. I ate exactly 0 MREs while I was down there. They had a Fire Response Team come in and serve food from a mobile kitchen. These people are used to feeding firefighters battleing forest fires in remote areas of the west. They serve 5000 calories a day. I didn't go hungry. That and working at a kitchen. The food wasn't that bad. Almost like college. Well, the forest group had good food, the church kitchen had college food. Did you know Salisbury Steak and Meatloaf look very similar? Almost the same.
And I met a lot of people. If I planned to travel across the country, I could stay at people's houses for free and make it to almost every state. Although I met a lot of people from Maryland, so that would be quite a few day trips. But I could make it from San Diego to Maine and not have to pay a cent in lodging costs. I'd pay an arm and a leg in gas, but I wouldn't have to pay for a room. And I'm sure they would offer some meals to me, so there goes the food bill. So someone get me a large map, I'm planning a trip.
And those are just a few of the answers to some of the questions I have been asked. Granted most of the people that would care have already heard it directly from me, but I thought I would write it down anyway.
Oh, and I loved it. As soon as I landed at BWI I wanted to go back down. Or go to Florida. It is something I will do again and again.
I worked on an Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV). My main goal was to feed anyone that came up to the window asking for food or drinks (or snacks). Usually it amounted to me feeding lots of people that did not need it, but that is another story.
I was stationed at a kitchen at the Pass Road Baptist Church in Gulfport, MS. The Baptist church sent kitchen workers who would cook food and deliver it to us to place on the ERV so we could have something hot to serve to the residents ( and contractors, Mexican laborers, guardsmen, et. al.).
Although at training they told me I would be sleeping on a concrete floor, that was not the case. I was sleeping in a warehouse (hangar?) on the Naval Construction Battalian Center with close to 1400 people at it's peak. That's a little misleading. There was 4 seperate rooms to this warehouse, each about 60 yds. by 60 yds. I slept in Div. C with about 800 Red Cross volunteers. The other 600 were seperated amongst the other 3 remaining rooms. They included a Fire Response Kitchen team, an Incident Management team, Corps of Engineers, Church of Scientology members, Forest Service members, FEMA, FEMA firefighters, PRC and a few other groups. ARC was by far the largest represented group there. By far.
Also at training they told me to be prepared to eat MREs for all three meals every day. Lets see, 21 days, times 3, thats 63 MREs. I ate exactly 0 MREs while I was down there. They had a Fire Response Team come in and serve food from a mobile kitchen. These people are used to feeding firefighters battleing forest fires in remote areas of the west. They serve 5000 calories a day. I didn't go hungry. That and working at a kitchen. The food wasn't that bad. Almost like college. Well, the forest group had good food, the church kitchen had college food. Did you know Salisbury Steak and Meatloaf look very similar? Almost the same.
And I met a lot of people. If I planned to travel across the country, I could stay at people's houses for free and make it to almost every state. Although I met a lot of people from Maryland, so that would be quite a few day trips. But I could make it from San Diego to Maine and not have to pay a cent in lodging costs. I'd pay an arm and a leg in gas, but I wouldn't have to pay for a room. And I'm sure they would offer some meals to me, so there goes the food bill. So someone get me a large map, I'm planning a trip.
And those are just a few of the answers to some of the questions I have been asked. Granted most of the people that would care have already heard it directly from me, but I thought I would write it down anyway.
Oh, and I loved it. As soon as I landed at BWI I wanted to go back down. Or go to Florida. It is something I will do again and again.
posted by Timchula at 09:39
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home