M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

I'm off to my new assignment: disaster reconstruction project manager in Mississippi and Louisiana for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. I'll be managing 8 "volunteer villages", where people (Christian and non-Christian) come from all over the country as volunteer laborers on homebuilding sites. The volunteers live in semi-permanent tents while they're down there, but I'll be living in a trailer!

Before you start with the "trailer trash" jokes, let me just say that I prefer the term "retro bourgeois" :)

The volunteer village has a communal kitchen, washer and dryer, and wireless internet, and in my trailer I've got all the A/C, heat and indoor plumbing I need (with hot water, unlike Indonesia...). I'll be driving a truck around to the different construction sites and visiting local city officials, churches, FEMA reps, displaced families, etc., to set up our partnerships and figure out where we'll build houses.

I'll have one trailer as a home-base in Mississippi, near Biloxi, and another one in Louisiana just south of New Orleans where I can stay when I'm working over there. I'm pretty excited about my new job, especially because I can hang out in New Orleans and listen to some great music and eat fantastic food on the weekends. Y'all better start checking flights so you can come visit me down there!! It's an open-ended contract, so I'll be there for as long as I'm there - we'll see...

My new boss is great, and the Presbyterian Church is very laid-back and down with the Mexi-Jews. I'll put my new postal address on my blog when I know where I can receive mail.

Ciao for now,
C