I left Louisiana this past Friday around noon, drove the five hours to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, just in time to arrive at my friend Brandon's new house and help him unload his 26 foot moving truck full of all his family's wordly possesions. Surprise! Slept well that night. I felt bad for Grandpa Jim (Brandon's father-in-law) who is 69 years young and pitched in and help also. Brandon and his wife Susan have four beautiful kids- Isaac, India (only girl), Asher and Aiden. They met each other while in Americorp. Brandon came here about 5 weeks ago by himself and last week drove out to Washington state and back to bring his family here. They snagged a beautiful home, eight hours on the market, with lots of interesting colors in the rooms, but really a great find. The four kids are in three schools now. Although we havent worked out the details quite yet, my intention is to become part of the paid staff for Habitat Tuscaloosa. Brandon and I worked together for different organizations in Biloxi, Ms. for a few years in 06 thru 08. I , for now am camped out in their basement. Planning to be here for a year at least and will be looking around for a little fixer upper myself to keep me out of trouble. You know, something with it's roof missing or something. The tornado that hit here on April 27th of this years made a few nasty 1/2 mile wide swaths thru the town, destroying approximately 5,500 homes and buildings. We worked on the site Saturday with a group that had come down from Nashville that all work for some sort of talent booking agency. Not quite sure what all they did. Lots of serious country music legend name dropping and all, Keith Urban, etc. They were all a great help even just for the one day. Sunday, I drove around getting acclimated to T-Town as the natives call it. This affiliate has two homes started, with the two exteriors nearly complete and we are hoping to have them ready for dedication on Sept.3 which is the date of the first U of A (go Crimson Tide) football team. The coach, Nick Saban, has given a substantial donation to get these homes under way. It will be a stretch to complete by that time, but as you may have heard me say before, Steady pressure and don't panic and you can accomplish anything. So, Brandon takes the day off today and leaves me and Laird another regular volunteer in charge. the night before, Brandon gets a call that a group from Ohio is coming Monday morning with a tractor trailer full of wood for one house and its being delivered to a warehouse that is new and we nieed to find a forklift to unload it. So this morning, no forklift but we got something better- wait for it. . . .. an NCCC Americorp team. . . Yessss! I love those guys! So they hand unloaded it- turned out it was all packed in a closed box truck anyway that FEDEX had donated for the move. For volunteers at the site, first 8 from New York (upstate) then 5 from South Carolina, then 5 army guys and then some locals, then two lead guys from the U of A cheerleaders squad who announced that the squad would be coming out for the rest of the week. Rah, rah, rah. But the high point of the day came in a telephone call from Mr. Larry Winger from the famous Kairos Carpenters from Lafayette, Indiana. He said that their groups planned trip to Joplin Mo. had been cancelled and wanted to know if he could bring them to Tuscaloosa instead on Labor Day week. Larry has been a good friend for many years and has brought his group to work with us 8 or ten weeks over the years. Great bunch of folks. I think they have four couples who come with them whom have been married over 50 years. Don and Shirley, Curtis and Rene Schultze among them. I have beeen phone scrambling around today to find lodging for them. It will be great to see them again over here. On an extremely sad note, I heard from his wife today that Mr. Glen Barton, a longtime supporter of both Habitat and Fuller Center had passed away today.   Don't know any of the details, but I'm sure Brenda and family could use your prayers today. That's all for now- I'll keep you posted.   Peter
a