Joplin

This past weekend my bff, Julie and I went to Joplin for a wedding. Our friend from college, Lola, was getting married come hell, highwater or tornado. Literally, she and her now husband survived a tornado that destroyed the house he was in and the car she was in just two weeks prior. Julie and I flew into Tulsa and rented a car and drove into Joplin. When we got to the church here is what we saw...

The church was being used as a relief center for the tornado victims and so the outside had like ten thousand gallons of water and barbeque pits cooking hotdogs and hamburgers and signs everywhere directing people to showers, household items, grief counseling and a very small sign for a wedding. Inside the sanctuary it literally looked like a flea market...

The pastor of the church was moved to tears at the beginning of the ceremony telling us, the wedding witnesses, that in talking with Lola about the wedding after the aftermath of the tornado she was given the choice to either share the sanctuary with relief supplies or reschedule. He said Lola never gave it a second thought, OF COURSE she would share it and he said he never heard a complaint or saw as much as a grimace at any point. That is the kind of person Lola is.

After the ceremony Julie and I went in to downtown Joplin to see the damage for ourselves. I can not explain to you the "damage" we saw. Complete decimation. I did take pictures, A LOT, but I decided not to post them because actually I felt bad being a tourist through people's shattered lives and the pictures don't do it justice anyways. There is a feeling in the air of hopelessness. At one point in a pile of indistinguishable rubble (which you saw everywhere) there was a perfectly good looking cabbage patch doll and I could have just lost it right there.

Anyway, after the wedding Julie and I drove back to Tulsa and then to the Hard Rock Casino there and stayed up until 2:00 am losing all of our money at the roulette table and in general having way too much fun, most of which was probably legal. All in all a very interesting weekend. Thanks Jewels!