January 8, 2014
Today,
we started our day with a breakfast for kings. We had fresh chocolate chip
pancakes (with a liberal sprinkling of chocolate chips, obviously), waffles,
and fresh sausage. It was good we had such a hearty meal, because today we did
a lot of work.
In the gym, there was scaffolding set up to facilitate working on the drop ceiling that was being constructed there. There were a couple of us, a “band of misfits” (as Dan wrote in the communal journal), consisting of me, Diana, Dan, and Marta, that worked on breaking down the scaffolding on the main floor and began constructing scaffolding in the bleachers, to continue the drop ceiling. Others were working in other places, too.
In the gym, there was scaffolding set up to facilitate working on the drop ceiling that was being constructed there. There were a couple of us, a “band of misfits” (as Dan wrote in the communal journal), consisting of me, Diana, Dan, and Marta, that worked on breaking down the scaffolding on the main floor and began constructing scaffolding in the bleachers, to continue the drop ceiling. Others were working in other places, too.
A
quick lunch of deli sandwiches and PBJ’s provided us with more energy for the
second half of the day – reorganizing the basement. This proved to be probably
the most physically trying task of the entire trip. The basement had an enormous amount of stuff, and we were assigned with cleaning out one area
by hauling everything to another storage area. By "everything," I mean 30lb buckets
and 50lb boxes of nails.
And by “another storage area,” I mean a dark big shelf-like room elevated in a wall that had zero lights and used to be a coal storage area, so was coated in a nice thick layer of dust. The effort was truly a team building experience, as we were all working super hard. ALSO, we literally NAILED IT as we hauled at least 2 tons (1 ton = 2000 lbs) of nails ... We were “nailing it” for hours.
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| The only little window for that area |
And by “another storage area,” I mean a dark big shelf-like room elevated in a wall that had zero lights and used to be a coal storage area, so was coated in a nice thick layer of dust. The effort was truly a team building experience, as we were all working super hard. ALSO, we literally NAILED IT as we hauled at least 2 tons (1 ton = 2000 lbs) of nails ... We were “nailing it” for hours.
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| The person on the bottom left with the mask is 17-yr old Austin! |
The
dinner theme was “finger foods” – pizza pockets, tator tots, nugs, and wings.
Reflection later that evening was particularly thoughtful. The day, despite
being filled with satisfyingly hard work, had a slight string of unfortunate
moments that affected us all. Those thoughts lay heavily on our minds, and we tried
to respond to them maturely and in an understanding manner. Service is not only
working for a cause selflessly (gotta stay away from words like “helping”), it
is a lifelong journey of achieving understanding for others and their
situations. Although this is a midway point in the trip, I am surprised (in a
great way) by how comfortably our group gets along. The fact that we could end
the night, regardless of all the misfortunes of the day, eating just-baked
brownies and still joking is wonderful.
Nikita
summed up our main purpose well yesterday in the communal journal:
“Whenever
I come to the south, whether it is New Orleans or West Virginia, the people
quickly remind you how important taking care of your community is … Vickie,
Sharon, Ralph, Terry, John, J.P., Jon-Jon, Holly, Austin, and everyone else
here have already shown me that they understand all of the obstacles this area
has and with or without our help, they will work hard for their community and
the future generations! Our group has taken the initiative in every task given
and I feel the younger participants [after only three days] have grown
drastically.”
Yatee
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