May 07, 2021: Final day of our first week of service

Today was the final day of our first week of service. Throughout the week, we have focused our efforts on a house outside of Marianna and today, we all worked together during the morning to finish the siding on two of the outside walls as well as the front porch. We also made progress on the flooring. So far, the floors in the living room/kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and most of one bedroom have been installed leaving two more bedrooms to complete. We also took a short break from our service work to play with the two kittens that are living on the property (they are extremely cute!). On Fridays, we are also responsible for cleaning the MDS vehicles so a small crew of us soaped up the trucks and gave them a thorough cleaning in order to be ready for the work next week.

After finishing out MDS work around 2:15, we prepared for interviews with various community members in small groups. Interviewees included Rev. Levon Pettit and Rev. Ron Mizer, two leaders of local churches as well as Angela Klopf, the Development Director at United Way, and Don Mintmeier, the MDS Project Director that we have been working with. These interviews are a way of learning more about the community we are serving and the complex effects of Hurricane Michael on people and organizations within the area.

In addition to both the service and academic work we have been doing for this course, we are also embracing new friendships within our Goshen College group as well as with our new MDS friends. Adihka and Juan worked in the Kitchen with the long term volunteers Em and Dianne. Each day, students help plan meals, do grocery shopping, and assist the cooks. As a fun fact, we have learned that in various places in the south, shopping carts are called “buggies”. Our aforementioned project director, Don, also taught us the colloquial phrase, “Bob’s your uncle”, which can be used as a concluding remark to mean “there it is” or “it is done”. Not only are we learning about natural disasters and building new friendships but we are also improving our vernacular!

Lastly, we concluded the day with a small cornhole tournament where Kendra’s sister Kristen was the undefeated champion. Both Thye and Brianne came close but failed to match Kristen’s prowess. Then Elaina and I gave it our best effort but were bested by the reigning champion. Stay tuned for our weekend adventures and be well!

Written by: Anna McVay