Thursday, March 31, 2005
Tonight was the forum at the WF on our Eastern Shore trip during spring break. I came late to the Foundation tonight because I was rehearsing with u-singers for the Meredith Monk concert this saturday. Upon entering with my screwed up digestive system (which the doctors still can't tell me what's going on), I listened to the other members of the group talk about the trip, and we had a slide show of all the pictures I took. That being said, I never made a blog post about the trip so I guess I'll write about it now.
Our trip began the Sunday morning of spring break, where the gang from the WF went to First UMC to receive best wishes from the congregation there. We set off, a smaller group than we normally had ... traveling in our own vehicles (yay for not flying anywhere/renting vans!), and listened to Alex's broken down radio on the way to the shore :-P going across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/tunnel which I had never been through before... trying to hold your breath in one of those tunnels... bad idea!
We stayed at a campsite called Camp Occohannock. Sarah Reynolds, a former member of the SCC at the WF, had been a counselor at the camp during the summer, this is how we found out about the place. When we arrived, we met Jerry, the leader/organizer of the camp site. The guy used to be, as he described himself, a "thick-headed truck driver" and now he works with kids during the summer months. He was also a huge joker, always playin' some kind of practical joke on us. The very first night we were there, the lock to our cabin broke and we got locked out w/o a key... we called up Jerry to bring a key to let us back in, and the key didn't work! He ended up taking a crowbar to force the door open. It's pretty funny getting heckled by a guy when he says you're the smartest people to ever come to the camp and you can't figure out how to get in your own room!
In addition, a sweet old lady by the name of Miss Emily was our cook for the week at the campsite. She's such a doll, it seems like whenever any one of us would even mention what foods we liked, she'd go ahead and whip it up for us. She fed us well the whole week, with very hearty and very fattening meals. Jerry says it's the only place you can work your butt off and still gain weight!
Speaking of Miss Emily, one of our first mission projects was to paint her home... when we arrived on the site the house looked in pretty bad shape, really worn out. Jerry showed us how to scrape dead paint off and an appropriate way to paint, and we did our best not to screw up too much! J/K, I think we did a pretty good job. So many memories of climbing up on a ladder to get the high areas of the house, and watching others like Jimbo, Patrick, and Geoff up there with masks on, trying not to inhale paint debris.
Another major project we tackled during the week took place at a Clothes Closet, a great way for people who are not well off in the region to be able to obtain clothing and other goods. Chris Gibson, a 3rd year but a newbie to the WF spring break tradition, went there the first day and was astounded by how much of a mess it was. He and Chelsey were saying that they had no idea how to tackle how to reorganize the place. Over the course of the week, various subgroups of our group went to the clothes closet to help reorganize everything for Carmen. In addition, we also did some minor construction (and when I say we, I mean predominantly Ernie) while we were there, building some steps so people would have an easier time entering/exiting (it was a giant step where you had to step on a cinderblock before). Carmen's also a real sweetheart, she invited us into her home and made soup for us one day. It was really sweet of her on a day when the weather was not so cooperative. The weather was so weird the whole week.. you'd have a sunny mild day one day, then a winter storm and coastal flooding the next day!
Chris said that he had an incredible experience during the trip... he and Chelsey were in charge of putting together a series of activities for some migrant children we visited while we were on the shore. The migrant families lived in very close quarters to one another, probably having about half as much personal space (if that) as a typical college student. It's surprising how well the kids know English growing up in Spanish families; some of the kids complained, "You guys need to learn Spanish!" But we had a great time with them; Alex and I brought our guitars and played some songs for the kids, and Chris and Chelsey had a lot of games and activities lined up for them like Duck Duck Goose, doubles tag, and mask making. The theme of "don't you wish you could do this for a living" came up a lot that day, I think a lot of people in our group would agree with that statement.
In addition, we did a little bit of construction on the campground, clearing an area and digging fence posts. You'd never believe what you dig up 6 inches below the ground. While attempting to clear the area, we discovered endless amounts of wire fencing, loads of trash, several old wooden doors(?), and an old bed frame! This was just trying to clear the area to dig some fence posts! Jimbo broke out the ol' mathematical skill, using the Pythagorean theorem to ensure that we were making an approximate right angle when we did our measurements. I guess math is good for something.
On Friday, we left the camp and went to Ernie's house at Chincoteague. He took us out to the beach briefly (although we just walked around, way too cold to swim), we went to visit an old lighthouse in the area, and he took us out on his speedboat. It was a lot of fun, except that I'd had a really weak stomach, so any time the boat would bounce up and down over the waves, that really got um... things churning around. Also, the sea breeze was so frigid that many of us turned purple while we were out there! And Alex's hat flew right off of his head! We turned around to go pick it up, but it was one of the most hilarious moments of the day.
On Saturday, on our way back, we briefly stopped in Baltimore, but most of the guys including myself just went to ESPNzone, a restaurant/arcade, watching some basketball tournaments (Louisville pulling out a nail biter) and playing games.
That's all I can think of at the moment, hopefully I'll write more about this another time. Maybe when my stomach finally heals (it's been almost a month since spring break and no one has any idea why my system's so screwed up!).
Our trip began the Sunday morning of spring break, where the gang from the WF went to First UMC to receive best wishes from the congregation there. We set off, a smaller group than we normally had ... traveling in our own vehicles (yay for not flying anywhere/renting vans!), and listened to Alex's broken down radio on the way to the shore :-P going across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/tunnel which I had never been through before... trying to hold your breath in one of those tunnels... bad idea!
We stayed at a campsite called Camp Occohannock. Sarah Reynolds, a former member of the SCC at the WF, had been a counselor at the camp during the summer, this is how we found out about the place. When we arrived, we met Jerry, the leader/organizer of the camp site. The guy used to be, as he described himself, a "thick-headed truck driver" and now he works with kids during the summer months. He was also a huge joker, always playin' some kind of practical joke on us. The very first night we were there, the lock to our cabin broke and we got locked out w/o a key... we called up Jerry to bring a key to let us back in, and the key didn't work! He ended up taking a crowbar to force the door open. It's pretty funny getting heckled by a guy when he says you're the smartest people to ever come to the camp and you can't figure out how to get in your own room!
In addition, a sweet old lady by the name of Miss Emily was our cook for the week at the campsite. She's such a doll, it seems like whenever any one of us would even mention what foods we liked, she'd go ahead and whip it up for us. She fed us well the whole week, with very hearty and very fattening meals. Jerry says it's the only place you can work your butt off and still gain weight!
Speaking of Miss Emily, one of our first mission projects was to paint her home... when we arrived on the site the house looked in pretty bad shape, really worn out. Jerry showed us how to scrape dead paint off and an appropriate way to paint, and we did our best not to screw up too much! J/K, I think we did a pretty good job. So many memories of climbing up on a ladder to get the high areas of the house, and watching others like Jimbo, Patrick, and Geoff up there with masks on, trying not to inhale paint debris.
Another major project we tackled during the week took place at a Clothes Closet, a great way for people who are not well off in the region to be able to obtain clothing and other goods. Chris Gibson, a 3rd year but a newbie to the WF spring break tradition, went there the first day and was astounded by how much of a mess it was. He and Chelsey were saying that they had no idea how to tackle how to reorganize the place. Over the course of the week, various subgroups of our group went to the clothes closet to help reorganize everything for Carmen. In addition, we also did some minor construction (and when I say we, I mean predominantly Ernie) while we were there, building some steps so people would have an easier time entering/exiting (it was a giant step where you had to step on a cinderblock before). Carmen's also a real sweetheart, she invited us into her home and made soup for us one day. It was really sweet of her on a day when the weather was not so cooperative. The weather was so weird the whole week.. you'd have a sunny mild day one day, then a winter storm and coastal flooding the next day!
Chris said that he had an incredible experience during the trip... he and Chelsey were in charge of putting together a series of activities for some migrant children we visited while we were on the shore. The migrant families lived in very close quarters to one another, probably having about half as much personal space (if that) as a typical college student. It's surprising how well the kids know English growing up in Spanish families; some of the kids complained, "You guys need to learn Spanish!" But we had a great time with them; Alex and I brought our guitars and played some songs for the kids, and Chris and Chelsey had a lot of games and activities lined up for them like Duck Duck Goose, doubles tag, and mask making. The theme of "don't you wish you could do this for a living" came up a lot that day, I think a lot of people in our group would agree with that statement.
In addition, we did a little bit of construction on the campground, clearing an area and digging fence posts. You'd never believe what you dig up 6 inches below the ground. While attempting to clear the area, we discovered endless amounts of wire fencing, loads of trash, several old wooden doors(?), and an old bed frame! This was just trying to clear the area to dig some fence posts! Jimbo broke out the ol' mathematical skill, using the Pythagorean theorem to ensure that we were making an approximate right angle when we did our measurements. I guess math is good for something.
On Friday, we left the camp and went to Ernie's house at Chincoteague. He took us out to the beach briefly (although we just walked around, way too cold to swim), we went to visit an old lighthouse in the area, and he took us out on his speedboat. It was a lot of fun, except that I'd had a really weak stomach, so any time the boat would bounce up and down over the waves, that really got um... things churning around. Also, the sea breeze was so frigid that many of us turned purple while we were out there! And Alex's hat flew right off of his head! We turned around to go pick it up, but it was one of the most hilarious moments of the day.
On Saturday, on our way back, we briefly stopped in Baltimore, but most of the guys including myself just went to ESPNzone, a restaurant/arcade, watching some basketball tournaments (Louisville pulling out a nail biter) and playing games.
That's all I can think of at the moment, hopefully I'll write more about this another time. Maybe when my stomach finally heals (it's been almost a month since spring break and no one has any idea why my system's so screwed up!).
Thursday, March 24, 2005
i apologize to all those blog readers out there who are waiting for my summary of spring break... it'll come soon... right now i'm just really busy with several upcoming tests, races, performances, and oh yeah, trying to fight (and losing) against what appears to be acid reflux.... yuck! Check back again soon!
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Brian Lee has departed for Haiti. Brian, I wish you all the luck in the world, man. May God be with you.
Friday, March 04, 2005
