Critters, water fights, and paint

So last week ended up going great despite the fact that only 5-7 kids showed up each day to basketball camp. This meant that on Monday we had about 12 leaders from Indiana (who were expecting about 40 ballers) and only 5 kids came! Thankfully 5-6 of the leaders were flexible and Anna and I ended up switching off taking them to a variety of different worksites throughout the week where we worked alongside them until the other half who stayed for basketball camp joined us in the afternoon. On Tuesday we did demo work on Dennis’ house who is an older widow that I have been working with throughout the summer. Parts of his roof blew off during the storm and water came in and rotted the walls (which happened to already be probably 50 years old). It’s been neat to see the progress we have made with the multiple work teams who have helped him out.

On Wednesday we went to City Park and did yard work all day. We pruned trees and pulled weeds. The thunder and lightning tried to scare us away before lunch, but we waited it out beneath a large plastic tent that was once used for weddings before the storm. One exciting discovery within this tent was hundreds of Antlions. These crazy insects dig small holes in the sand known simply as “sand pit traps” which they use to capture their unfortunate prey – usually an ant as their name implies. When one of the high school boys identified one of these pits, we all of a sudden had free entertainment for a solid hour as we ate lunch and waited out the weather. We found multiple victims consisting of ants and spiders and dropped them into the “Pits of Doom.” They scrambled for their lives, but were often sucked under and eaten alive by these ferocious creatures. It was epic. Once the storm subsided we worked for another hour or so but were again bombarded by bad weather. We waited it out for about 45 minutes under a rundown bathroom shelter as the thunder roared only a few miles away. When it was nearing 3pm we decided to call it a day. It was during our trek back to the bus (oh I forgot to mention that the Indianans brought a school bus…well they did) that I foolishly got myself into a water fight with some of the high school girls. I must admit that I got pretty drenched, though I’m pretty sure I won the battle when this 6’5’’ tenth grade boy held captive one of the girls while the pastor’s oldest son assisted me in dumping the remaining half of a 5-gallon water jug that was half full of ice and water on top of her head. (just picture a football coach getting dunked after winning the super bowl). = )

On Thursday I was able to take the day off. This meant that I got to sleep in, though I spent half the day writing my “Mid-Term Reflection” essay that I am required to complete as a part of the Lilly Summer Internship Fund. This was actually kind of enjoyable and beneficial as I reflected on the first half of the internship and thought of how the next month or so should play out. I also got to play some competitive double’s volleyball with Rusty (my friend from the church who helps out with the youth group), and some of the best players out at Coconut Beach. Even though we only played an hour and a half, this made my day. On Friday we went and painted at the schools again with the group from AmeriCorps. It was interior work and therefore air-conditioned which made it amazing.

On Friday night we joined the group at church for dessert, and Mikey and a couple of his friends led the team in worship in the sanctuary for about an hour which included a time of praying aloud for the city and the church. We concluded it with the whole team of 24 laying hands on the four of us interns and praying for us – for the rest of our summer here and our futures. This was a powerful and intimate experience. (The first group from Chicago also had done something similar to this where just the leaders laid hands on Mikey and I and prayed for us when we came to see them off the night before they left.) We also were each given one of the shirts they had made for the mission trip which was pretty cool. Overall this was one of my favorite groups thus far. Both the leaders and students showed genuine interest in interacting with us (the interns and I) and getting to know us, and I was able to have some great conversations with a few of them.

On Saturday morning this team left, and less than 12 hours later a group of 46 arrived on a charter bus from Charlotte, North Carolina. This group will be our largest (thank God). Over half of them are putting on Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood kids, and the other half have been doing relief work. Thankfully our attendance for VBS has been much better than basketball camp. We have had a pretty consistent group of 40 little kids. My job this week has been to be in charge of about 10 of the work team volunteers as we have been painting the outside of a house and shed for a man who lives alone with his cute German Shepherd puppy. This has included scraping off chipped paint, caulking the siding and windows, and painting two coats. The siding is a plain white and the window trim and awnings are a deep royal blue. I’ll try to get a picture soon. This group is proving to be our most challenging group yet, partially because of the size, but also because some of the leaders are total control freaks who have a million questions that I unfortunately can’t answer. To give an example of their controlling mentality, lets just say that they somehow commandeered a church map of all the rooms and had walked around throughout the entire church and set up signs and air mattresses for who will be sleeping where before we even gave them our tour of the facility telling them what can and cannot be used. Don’t get me wrong, I do admire their efficiency, we just would have liked them to wait for us to give them the rundown before they took action. Anyways, they haven’t been too bad and we have gotten a lot done on the house and will likely finish painting both it and the shed by tomorrow.

Alright that’s all for now. I’ll probably post some lessons I’m learning or random stories/highlights this weekend or early next week.

Here's a picture of some of the work team from last week. I unfortunately have yet to take action photos. I'll have to convince Anna to bring her camera out to the job in the next few days.



Here's a picture of half of the workers we had at City Park from the Indiana group. We were waiting for further instructions from the Park Supervisor. That sombrero works wonders for keeping my head cool when I'm in the sun.