What In Tarnation?!?!? In the Classroom

Day Two at ministry sites.

Previously on WIT?!?!?:
Special Mission

Our second day at ministry sites was in stark contrast to our relatively easy first day. Our first stop was a nursing home called Seabreeze. This nursing home didn’t have all the nice extras that the home we visited on the first day had and its residents were typically in much worse condition. Thankfully there were quite a few more residents here. I started talking to a resident who was unable to repsond though he did give me a few guteral sounds and grunts. The students sang quite a few songs. We had two students who were quite gifted with the fiddle and guitar which the residents really enjoyed. I was impressed with how the students jumped into talking with the residents. When our track leader was describing Seabreeze, he painted a very bleak picture. Most of the students commented that it wasn’t as bad as the picture that J-Little (our track leader’s nickname) had given. When we enter the facility we all entered through the front door. It can take a little while for a group of our size to get in. I was one of the last people to enter and just as I grabbed the door this horrific alarm. I immediately began to take inventory of metal items that I had on my person, maybe I had set off a metal detector. No it was an alarm on the door inicating it had been opened too long.

For lunch our team stopped in a nice little park in downtown Mobile and we ate with the pigeons and the wide variety of people who took lunch in the park. (Pictures of the park below.) While we were there, students shared extra lunch food with the homeless in the park. A few of our adults had a lengthy discussion with one homeless gentleman who shared his story of how he got to where he is.

Click for larger images.

After lunch we headed off to the site that I was most looking forward to: L’Arche. L’Arche is a faith based community for people with mental handicaps. The L’Arche in Mobile is located in four different houses in a two block area. In each house there were four residents and staff. Unfortunately because of the size of our group, only about ten people got to go visit with the residents. The rest of the group, including myself were asked to stay outside and do some work in the yard (our PCY experience). We weeded, trimmed bushes, raked leaves, and cleaned out a shed. I won’t lie, I was quite disappointed, that was the one site that I was really looking forward to but those of us outside were able to make the house to look much nicer.That was day two.

Later taters!