Today was tough. Time is running out on the deadline for our after-school program and we have no kids committed to either being in the program or volunteering to be mentors. Sigh. Worse, I feel like the community is just not really supportive. I feel like several locals have taken some small pleasure in the fact that I'm failing. Like when they ask and I have to admit no one's signed up, they say, "yeah I'm not surprised" as if I am asking kids to do something horrendous. I have made so many unreturned phone calls and written so many unresponsive to e-mails. Shouldn't they want to take agency in the rebuilding of their neighborhoods? Sigh. If high school teachers don't respond to e-mails or calls how else do I get to them?

On the plus side, we have multiple thousands of dollars and beautiful advertising materials (courtesy of Nickel Artistic!), as well as a bounce house and cotton candy machine reserved for our kick-off fair. These two things will make my day with or without kids especially since we have the bounce house from Saturday morning until Monday morning- yup definitely camping out in it.

But back to the negative. I have a hard time with common sense mistakes. For instance, when I contacted the Sun Herald today to find out why our ad hadn't been posted, they said they didn't know the date. When I referred back to my original e-mail (pasted below) I realized this was not the case.

Please post the following under the October 15 Free section.
Thanks!


Andy's Club Kick-Off Fair! Andy's Club, a new, free, arts and academic after-school program for 1st-5th graders is having a free Kick-Off Fair to learn about the program. Bring the whole family to enjoy the games, food, and fun! 3 to 5 pm at Handsboro Presbyterian Church 1304 E. Pass Road Gulfport. Sponsored by the Presbytery of Mississippi and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Contact Brenna at 228-604-2424 for more information.

Also, why didn't she contact me when she didn't know the date? I mean if your whole job is doing the Gulfport What's Happening section, maybe you could make a bigger effort to know what's happening.

The worst sadness of the day came when I was canvassing the area churches to drop off informational post-cards. Although we are in the Bible belt and trip over a church every time we go outside, I only talked to two real live people in all the churches I stopped at. Here, at least is some good news. The one woman I talked to has a daughter that works at the local Christian radio station and says she bets they would give me an interview. While this will make me extremely uncomfortable as both a Presbyterian and Ms. Socially awkward, I will do it for the program and I guess make my Mama proud in the process.

Again, back to the negative. I couldn't believe how difficult it was to even find offices at most of the places. I don't understand how in an area so wrought with tragedy and devastation that a church wouldn't have someone there at all times. I was relieved for a second at the Catholic Church when I saw a chapel that was open all the time, theoretically. But you needed to know the code for the keypad to get in. I don't think Jesus should have a code and I don't think church should be a certain time. Are they afraid of people stealing if they kept the churches open? That idea then reminds me of the priest from Les Mis that catches Jean Val Jean (spelling?) stealing from him and basically says wait you missed the good stuff. With the rising homeless population here, aren't we called as people of faith to always be available and to share whatever we have? But I digress.

So I am now becoming a professional stalker. In the next two weekends I am attending a Gulfport High Football Game, High School Marching Band competition, High School play and a carwash. I'm also calling every youth group in the area tomorrow in the attempts to find volunteers. AND pounding the pavement putting postcards in every mailbox nearby. God will make this work...I think.

Now a funny story, if you have made it this far. I was searching out local community theaters after my roommate, Linda mentioned that she saw something about the Gulfport Little Theater. I did some researching and stumbled across the Gulfport Community Players. They had a great exciting website and so I e-mailed them right away offering to do whatever they needed, just because I felt like I was lacking that creative outlet and strangely missing a theatre community. I got an e-mail back right away saying yeah come by to rehearsal this week, we can use all the help we can get as it is about to get extremely busy what with tourist season and all. The "tourist" thing struck me as a little odd since everything touristy is knocked down here, but I guess there are some casinos and what not. In any case I made plans to attend rehearsal last night. We got back from a trip to Hattiesburg (sprung on us at the last minute) right at the time rehearsal was supposed to start.

I quickly tried to find directions and got very frustrated when mapquest wasn't working. I then looked at the map on their website and everything seemed fine- numbered streets really close to the ocean- so I started to pull back on the map looking for some familiar roads. When I pulled back far enough, the coast-line was not straight like that of Mississippi, but quite curved, like that of say, Florida. So yes I was invited to attend rehearsals nine hours away in Gulfport, FL. Sigh. I am not quite sure yet how I e-mail my new found friends back to tell them I'm an idiot. The good news is there IS a Gulfport Little Theatre, but it has a much less snazzy website. I'll call them tomorrow.

For my musical theatre friends out there, I'm currently listening to alot of Caroline or Change. My heart is singing its soundtrack.

Goodnight y'all! Say prayers that the children for my program will find me and that I will find them.