I have quite a bit of news and a request for input from everybody. We have a preliminary revised cost estimate as well as some better idea of what we'd be doing. I was able to speak today to Alan Buchanan, the Missions Director at Highlands Fellowship, who has been working in the Gulfport/Biloxi area for quite some time. One comment really struck me. He related, "When you get down there and see the devistation, you'll be surprised that its been the better part of a year since the hurricane came through!" There is still a LOT of work to do.
Revised Cost Estimate:Our original cost estimate was probably
really high. Here goes version 2, with a breakdown:
+ Airfare: $300 (Likely United - they fly direct to New Orleans from Dulles, 60 to 90 minute drive from there)
+ Ground Transportation: $66 (car) + $20 (gas)
+ Food & Lodging (suggested donation): $100+ Incidentals: $40 (up to you)
===========================================================
Total:: $550 per person (yes, I know it doesn't add up, but includes some slack)
A little bit less than the orginal estimate. But this one could go up (probably not down). Note that the food and lodging will be provided to us at absolutely no cost. I feel led, however, to be able to leave without consuming resources that could be used elsewhere. Note that I'm preliminarily choosing cars (4 to a car) rather than minivans because the rental companies price vans at almost 70% higher than cars. So even though you could get 6 people to a minivan - its actually more expensive than a car. Also, see below, we will probably be "deployed" on a daily basis in teams of roughly four.
Revised Housing View:We will likely be in pretty rustic accomodations. You should plan on bringing a sleeping bag, pillow and air mattress (or buying when you get down there). No guarantees on hot showers every night, but should be able to ensure toilets :)
Revised Work Estimate:We will be doing whatever needs to be done. So the first note is to plan on being flexible and not having your heart set on hanging drywall or pulling up carpets. Those are two things that we could likely be doing, but there are also needs for:
- Food distribution
- Roofing
- Carpentry
- Food preparation
- Debris clean-up
As we understand better exactly where we are going, we will get a better sense of what tools we should plan on bringing. Clearly we will be limited some by the fact that we are flying, but we should try to bring most of our own tools (as feasible).
Most likely we will have daily work assignments and go out in small groups (3 to 4 people). Assignments can and will vary even from day to day, but will look to taking advantage of skills of the people on the trip. To that end,
Information I Need from You:
- Specific skills (carpentry, dry wall, carpet, roofing, other stuff)
- Willingness to rent a car (cost estimate above based on 4 to a car - roughly the size of groups we will be deploying in every morning)
- Likelihood of you coming on the trip (in %). We are not limited to the number we can bring - but we need to reserve airline tickets ASAP (that may end up being a limiting factor).
Next week, I'll cover more on the "raising funds" portion.
