Starting With A Bang!

So our days started two different ways today.  For the girls, the day began at 5:16 this morning when Grace, fell from her top bunk and hit the floor.  The initial reaction from most of us was thinking that my laptop had fallen.  Then with a delayed reaction, Grace began to wail.  It was a worrying experience for all of us.  Luckily, Grace is ok and has come out of the experience with some minor movement pain, and a few bruises.  She mainly had the wind knocked out of her.  For the boys, who are across the hall form us, the day began around 6:30-7 which was when we had decided to wake up.  After all these dramatics we got on the bus and headed to our work location for the day.

Today we had our last round of service work.  We had the chance to work on a house, today through an organization called Youth Rebuilding New Orleans.  Basically the organization was founded to give younger youth, such as ourselves, a chance to help rebuild the city.  Then the houses they build are sold to teachers at a lower cost so that teachers have an easier time living in the city.  When we arrived we were split into groups.  One group, which I was in, painted the exterior of the house and the other group moved appliances and such out of the house.  They then began cleaning the interior.  That took up most of the morning.  Before we broke for lunch about four of our number left the sight and ran to the grocery store for supplies.  Once they had returned we proceeded to break for lunch.  After lunch, we either resumed cleaning windows, dusted off appliances, or cleaned off paint brushes.  Upon the completion of these activities, we moved everything back inside and began to work on the interior of the house.  There was painters tap being put up, caulk applied to cracks, and a few other things.  We even stayed an extra half hour in order to make sure we had done as much as we could.

When we got back to the mission, we all were relieved to find out that the largest group staying at the mission had yet to return.  We all got a warm shower!  This was well needed and deserved after our day, but most of us still have paint on us somewhere.  We also this evening had a foot washing after dinner.  It was a cleansing and bonding experience.  At the end we all held hands and said a few things we were thankful for.  It was sad because we would do this after every Sunday School class and it was our last time doing it as J2A with Felicia and James and Crystal, who is moving to Virginia after pilgrimage ends.  There were also tears.  I think we are all upset to see this journey be almost over.  Tomorrow is our last day here and I know that I am really going to miss this city.  I won't miss the heat and sweat, but I will miss many other things.  I won't get into this now because I have one more blog post to write.

-Sophie