Disaster Relief in Charleston

Good deed for the day!

Last Wednesday I was asked/told I was needed down in Charleston for the disaster relief. Haitian-Americans were being flown into the Charleston International airport and we were needed. It is made very clear to DSS employees that if there is a disaster (hurricane, tornado, earthquake etc) we are to be available to help, no choice, no excuses. So when I was told about this, I halfway volunteered because I knew that I could stay with Lindsey and they wouldn't have to spring for a hotel. You know we have to make cuts! :)

Wednesday afternoon I had enough time to get in touch with my Junior Woman's Club for donations. I was also able to get some donations from some of the Columbia employees of Gateway. It was very last minute and I was surprised what ended up on my front porch. Everyone was very generous!

Thursday was an early morning. Me and another co-worker, Ebony Thomas met at work at the wee hours and left for Charleston around 4:30am or so. Walking into the station that was set up to receive the Haitian-Americans was strangely over whelming. It was the same feeling I got when I was on the interstate during Katrina and saw SCE&G trucks, one after another going down the highway to help. It makes you proud! I didn't have time to stop and take all of it in, we were quickly escorted to sign in, meet the "guy in charge" and sit down for a debriefing with all the departments. The departments included, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, DHEC, DSS (Several divisions including ours, Child Care Licensing), A Medical Team and I know there were more that I was not able to see. Everyone was ready, waiting for the first flight, "smiles everyone, these people have been through hell and back."

Homeland Security level is 'Orange' right now, which means secrets. We didn't know until 30 minutes before the plane landed if a plane was landing, how many people were on it, number of children, number of military, number of civilians etc. That made things very difficult. We completely understood, but it was still very hard. Thursday's flight did not have any children. We didn't have a chance to do any kind of dry run. It did leave us time to set up or station they way we needed it. We had our make shift changing station. We had porta-cribs set up and a cozy area. We had games and coloring books and markers for the older children. We were ready.

We left the airport at 5:00pm and we were told, "your on-call, next flight is scheduled at 2am." There is always a chance that the flight a) has no children on it, b) is full of military or c) doesn't even come in. Since I had been up early that morning anyway, I tried to go to be early. 1:15am, the phone rings, "ok, I'm on my way." Splash some water on my face and honestly put a little bit of make-up on because I have never seen so many good looking law enforcement and military in one room in all my life. I wasn't going in there looking like death with my natural Lebanese dark circles and bags from so little sleep. With a fresh Mountain Dew in my hand I was ready to work!

A 10 yr old named Patrick was our first child! We were all very excited and may have actually scared him a little. He was great! He spoke both English and Creole. People in Haiti speak both Creole and French. We had interpreters there but as you can imagine they were being pulled in every direction. Patrick came to us around 2:30am. He stayed with us until his flight at 12noon the next day. We had 17 children that day. We had only one child acting out. He was being very aggressive towards the other children as well as towards the staff, mainly me. He bit me twice on the hand, two separate times. It didn’t break the skin; he didn’t have enough time to. Unfortunately with situations like this caregivers/volunteers are very leery of correcting the children. Earthquake or no earthquake, we don’t bite people. And I was the only one who would do this. So I was assigned this child. The funny part of the story is this; he and his mother spoke Creole. She kept calling him Garson’ (imagine with a French accent) so that’s what we called him. Turns out that means “boy” in French. So what she was saying was “BOY, you better stop it” or whatever. So all day long we were calling him boy, poor child. Found out later his name is George. We also found out that they were traveling here to Columbia and he will be in a child care center in Richland County. So I may see him again!

Amazing things from that day: children that didn’t speak a lick of English singing, in English a song that came from a play Backyardagins guitar. Actually one that Lindsey and Tab gave Trevor for his birthday. Sam donated it. You press a button and it sings a song. They were singing it, amazing. The hugs and kisses I got from these 10 year old boys when they left for their flight to Miami. It was a lot harder to say goodbye then I thought it would be. And then Patrick, who I had grown close to, he was my buddy all day! I’d look over at him during the day and see him shaking his head saying, “Haitians?” The minute I was getting a little sad that he was leaving Patrick said with a French accent, “Jennifer, I’ll see you when I’m 21!” He was a hoot!

It was an amazing experience. I was lucky to have Lindsey and Tab there to stay with so I could help all weekend. I got back to Columbia late Sunday night. I have volunteered to go back whenever they need me and I am looking forward to it!!

A New Year on Manor Avenue

Charlie and I celebrated Christmas for the first time at the new house. I was lucky enough to have my Columbia girlfriends come over to my house for our annual gift exchange. I even got some new ornaments for my Christmas tree!

We are in a new year now and it was time to focus on my housewarming. I think I was more excited because I knew it would mean I had to get things put together, it made me pick up the pace a little more. I stayed with the rooster theme in the kitchen, luckily mom has lots to choose from when it comes to roosters. She let me borrow a lot of her stuff! It's exciting to know that generally I am done with things. I still need to hang pictures in the green room and above the kitchen table. But beyond that, I pretty much have things the way I want them. That's exciting. So now I am ready for Spring so I can do what I want in the front and back yard! The pictures below are the latest. I will post master bedroom and green room pictures soon. But right now the bed in the green room is covered in laundry and my bedroom is, well, not put together.

I found the two rooster plates at TJ Maxx with Emmylou, it was a great find! And I actually found the plate rack in my laundry room when I was cleaning up.

Mom moved just a couple of things around and it made such a difference. Like the plant on top of the cabinet. She also added the plant and small roosters in the window. It looked so naked after Christmas with nothing up there.

Mama is really good with "props." She kept using this word before my housewarming party. So one of her "props" was books. Yes, she had to bring over books to fill out my bookshelf. Is that sad? I had a collection of A Light in the Attic, some Chicken Soup for the Soul and a Cocktail diary. So I guess I answered my own question. :) Believe it or not, Charlie is not a prop. That is where he sits nightly!

A good friend gave me a gift card to Target for a housewarming gift and I got my window valence for both windows, the table cloth and the center piece. It's hard to tell but it is pears and cherries. It looks really good. I'm very pleased with it. I'm still working on mom to get a new couch for her house so she can hand down the ones she has now. :)

Next is the latest in both bedrooms and hopefully the small renovation of the bathroom. Sam got me a sink and faucet for Christmas and I am having that installed soon!