Documenting Curry and the Indescribable
Curry wafts from the kitchen here, or at least it did tonight. And everyone at Hands On seems to own at least one musical instrument, an excellent pairing with the repetoire of early 90s pop song lyrics everyone seems to know. The facilities and people at Hands On smack of a nuevo Hippie commune to me. And sitting through the nightly 'All Hands' debriefing that follows dinner makes even the days work completed and the following days work to be done seem not only do-able, but incredibly rewarding.
I find that as I try to think about my first full day in Biloxi, I can only capture logisitics or describe the festival of sorts that is Hands On USA. The underlying significance of it all is so hard to delve into. Just trying to assess how I was affected by the crumpled McDonald's sign, or (to get to the crux of it all...) the woman who described putting her "babies" (6 children under the age of 10) on top of dressers as the water level rose in their two story apartment, leaves me so emotionally drained and overwhelmed that I become almost desensitized. The buckled over trees, devastated houses and wiped away bridges leave me in awe of the power of nature. But did I really come all the way here to realize "Geeze, winds and storm surge sure can cause a lot of damage"? Signs point to No. What really affects me is the true optomism that the people here have in the face of such unimaginable circumstances. A man and his dog passed us as we got into our van to head to lunch. The two had ridden out the storm together, swimming out of a flooding one story house and climbing into its attic for the terrifying duration. Today the man chuckles, after mentioning his unemployment, his dilapidated home and his essentially condemed community in passing, he tells us that Midnight is a Hurricane hound. "A beast who just loves taking rubble pile walks in this post Katrina ghost land".
It is this dogged optomism that affirms the trip, makes the curry, runs the nightly meetings and just inspires everyone to keep plugging away. So heres to Dartmouth's hand in the plugging...
-Annie Rittgers '09
I find that as I try to think about my first full day in Biloxi, I can only capture logisitics or describe the festival of sorts that is Hands On USA. The underlying significance of it all is so hard to delve into. Just trying to assess how I was affected by the crumpled McDonald's sign, or (to get to the crux of it all...) the woman who described putting her "babies" (6 children under the age of 10) on top of dressers as the water level rose in their two story apartment, leaves me so emotionally drained and overwhelmed that I become almost desensitized. The buckled over trees, devastated houses and wiped away bridges leave me in awe of the power of nature. But did I really come all the way here to realize "Geeze, winds and storm surge sure can cause a lot of damage"? Signs point to No. What really affects me is the true optomism that the people here have in the face of such unimaginable circumstances. A man and his dog passed us as we got into our van to head to lunch. The two had ridden out the storm together, swimming out of a flooding one story house and climbing into its attic for the terrifying duration. Today the man chuckles, after mentioning his unemployment, his dilapidated home and his essentially condemed community in passing, he tells us that Midnight is a Hurricane hound. "A beast who just loves taking rubble pile walks in this post Katrina ghost land".
It is this dogged optomism that affirms the trip, makes the curry, runs the nightly meetings and just inspires everyone to keep plugging away. So heres to Dartmouth's hand in the plugging...
-Annie Rittgers '09
posted by Dartmouth in Biloxi at 8:07 PM
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