Here We Go Again

For those who dont know, I'm going back to Helena this summer. I leave for Orientation tomorrow, and I'll be in Helena on Sunday. Hoping for a great summer!

Less than a week till I go home. Actually, only 4 days. I am so excited! Since the ACC ended Thursday, we havent done a whole lot. All day Friday we chilled out, went shopping, and went to Toy Story 3, which was awesome. Saturday we worked a little, and the same on Sunday, but still not much. I figured once Monday rolled around we would get back to work, nothing too hard, but a nice long list of everything that needed to be done in the next week. But, no. We worked from 10-3 packing stuff up and doing random odd jobs that barely broke a sweat. Today wasnt much different, but after we were done working we got to go to Lake View and say good bye to the kids. Those were some amazing children and I'm really going to miss them, but at least we got to spend an hour just hanging out with them. We also got to take lots of pictures, and I'll probably have a hundred more before this week is out. I wish I had more to tell you, but this week has been really low-key and a great way to end it.

Entertained Amy:
We went through some books today and found some wonderfully hilarious things. One of the books was called "Hug" and the entire book was this little gorilla going around everywhere demanding that other animals hug him. Also, I found a few Wishbone books with almost made me scream with happiness. Oh, and my absolute favorite, a book called the Worrisome Wombat.

ITS OVER! Today was the last day of the ACC and all the volunteers are headed out. This week we had way more volunteers than last time and I almost went crazy trying to cater to all of them. Don't get me wrong, we needed the help, and got lots done, but not always in a way I would prefer. But, hey, thats life. I'm glad it's over though, I am more than ready to move on. I only have a week left in Arkansas and I dont know how I feel about that. I'm thrilled to go home and see people again, but I feel like I didn't do much here. It's not that I expected to change lives, but I was hoping change my own. I feel much the same now as I did when I came down here two months ago. I do have more respect for people who can handle leadership, but its still not something I can do myself. I love helping out and taking on small things, but I would rather work alone than be the head of a crew. Last week I probably sounded different since I had a great crew, but they helped me be in charge since they were so great, and the people this week were crazy. I keep thinking of all the things I did in the past year and I dont know how I handled it now. I used to love being busy and made sure I had plans almost every day of the week, now I think having plans a couple days a week is cool with me. Oh well, I'll probably go back to my old ways and be crazy again this semester. I can't wait to be home!

Entertained Amy:
I dont even know where to start, this week has been crazy! I had some really crazy moments that are just blurs now but I do remember some stuff. The people that are usually in charge of Together for Hope Arkansas Delta left for a year to spend in North Caroline, but they came back for the ACC. The woman's parents are Dutch but they lived in Brazil for most of the time she was growing up. Anyway, she made Brazilian food for us, and it was incredible. It was some type of bean stew that you put over rice, and it just made me really happy. Also, this wasnt entertaining for me, but I though you all would like it. I yelled at volunteers. Not really, but I talked to them in a not so nice voice. I have never met people like them and I couldnt stand the way they were treating this project, so I told them to follow the rules and let the kids be the top priority. Oi.

I am getting just a little bit tired of being woken up by people calling me before my alarm goes off. If you want to talk to me that bad, do it when I'm standing next to you, not when I'm trying to sleep, please. Obviously this doesnt apply to any of you, but I thought you all would like know I'm being woken up at indecent hours in order for people to tell me things I either already knew or didnt want to know. I also found out I have a hold on my account for SEMO so I can't deal with all that stuff and dont know why. I'm hoping I'll somehow be able to take a few minutes off somewhere and fix that, but I really dont know when I can do that. Anyway, lets talk about something happy. As I mentioned before, we get assigned volunteer churches to take care of each week, and this week we have someone from Missouri coming in. The leaders name is Davide Goode, and since I was wearing my CBFMO shirt at the time he mentioned he had also attended. Excited, I asked if he was related to Cory Goode, and he is. YAY! So, I get to work with David, his grandsons, and other random Goode family members for the week. They invited me out to breakfast this morning, and I really should have said yes, but I didnt feel like spending money so I declined. I hope they invite me out again though. This morning they're taking me to Divine Deliverance church, which is a black church in Elaine and I'm not sure how to feel about that. I tend to be a rather reserved person, and those churches are anything but. I think I'll enjoy it though, and it will definitely be a new experience. The past couple of days have been great because we've barely had any work except for prepping for the new churches by cleaning showers (fun), but now it's time to get back to it. One more week of ACC, then a few days of cleaning up after it, and then? I honestly dont know what else is planned for this summer. If nothing really needs to be done I may get home earlier than I originally planned, which wouldnt bother me at all. There's a million things I need to get sorted out at SEMO, theyre still really unhappy with my plans to move out, though I have got them to grudgingly accept, but I'm also doing some other things. Has anyone heard of a consortium agreement? Well, I'm doing it this next year and really hope it goes well. Also, changing my major and adding on a music minor, this is going to be one crazy year.

Entertained Amy:
So we had some time off last night and decided to go to burger shack for some food and ice cream. Then, while we were still very full, decided to go swinging. Not my best idea. Also, I just have to mention on more time, I'm working with the Goodes! I dont know why I'm so excited about this, but it is the first time I've gotten anywhere close to home in a long time so it made me happy.

Well it's technically the end of the week for the volunteers and most of them are heading out today or tomorrow. Not my group though! A couple of them are still going to be here so they want to keep working, which is fine by me, but I wish they didnt want to do it in the early morning, afternoon is fine by me. I did have a great time with them though, and I'm going to miss all of them. For every volunteer we give them one cross necklace to find someone through out the week who they feel made an impact on them that past week, and one of my group gave one to me!! She was in graduate school and several years older than me but she said she saw Jesus in me and gave the cross and the verse Duet. 31:6. At the time we were at a church eating, and I had snuck away to sit in the sanctuary and pray. I was kind of stressing and worried when she came in and gave the necklace to me. It was such an amazing feeling, and the fact that I really needed to hear something from God right then made it all the better. When I first came hear I was positive this was where God wanted to me, but as I went through the experience I was worried I had rushed in and just came because it was what I wanted, not God. Now, I'm a lot more confident this is where He wanted me, but I still get curious sometimes. There's so many different things I had planned on doing this summer that couldnt happen because I was here, like being a leader at youth camp or VBS, and I thought that would make God happy, but I guess He had something else in mind. Anyway, almost all the books are done being sorted and marked and are basically ready to go to Elaine so next week we wont have much to do except put the libraries together. We had the farewell picnic tonight and it went pretty well, even if it was really hot. Each Together for Hope worker is assigned a church to look after for the week, and since my church is leaving in the morning, I debriefed them tonight. We didnt talk much, but what we did was cool, and it was an even better story after, but I'll mention that later. Anyway, tomorrow I have to get up early again to see my church off then finish up some library work with the girl who gave me the cross. At least I dont have to make any more lunches till Monday!!

Entertained Amy:
So about that story I mentioned... Well, I was dropped off with the expectation that I wouldn't be be done for awhile so the intern who left me went to do her own thing. We got finished early though so had to call someone else for a ride. I went to wait outside so my church could go to sleep and sat on the stairs of the church. After about 10 minutes of wait, the lights behind me shut off and an alarm starts going. Well, I'm totally freaking out because I think I set it off, so I call my supervisor and tell her what happened and all she said was "I'll be there as soon as I find my keys." Well, I figured it wouldnt be that long, but as I'm standing there a police car rolls by, then keeps on rolling. Well, I'm wearing a volunteer shirt and a cross necklace so I didnt look that threatening, but I was also a white girl out by herself in the dark. Whatever, they dont care. What seems like an hour later, but was really only a few minutes later, my supervisor calls me back and says the alarm went off because there was a power outage and it had nothing to do with me, yay! Anyway, that was my fun night.

I LOVE Being in charge. Thought you all should know. These women understand I have no experience but they respect me and the way I want things done and its great! The main problem is that my supervisor is technically supposed to be working in that group too, but shes also doing 10 things at once. So, when she is actually in the room we have totally different ways of doing things but I have to let her do things her way and do my stuff around her. She says I'm in charge, and if I ask her to do something differently she will, but I'm trying to be respectful and let her try things out. Other than the times shes in there people always look to me and its great to be given the chance to just sit down and think about an answer before I give it. I'm not just running one thing, I'm running the whole library so I'm making an entire plan of how exactly I want things to happen and in what order to see how it affects everything else. I almost sort of wonder if my other supervisors gave me this assignment because they didnt think I could handle running things without another supervisor there, but I think thats just paranoia because I did make it obvious I loved library work. Library isn't the only thing I do though, I also handle lunch prep for the children. For the first time in my life I have to wear a hair net, and believe me, I am not loving it. Making the actual lunches isnt bad at all though, we throw down two loaves of bread, slap on some cheese and three pieces of meat, then two more loaves of bread to put on top, then wrap them up and send them down the assembly line. We have to do this several times though, seeing as we make about 300 sandwiches a day. Woot!

Today was a little more hectic though since the kids camp is always outside, but it stormed today. That meant everyone had to move around so the kids could be inside and dry and people not working with kids had to leave. So, while we were making sandwiches this morning, part of the construction crew came in and packed up every single one of our books, all 24 shelves. So we took all the boxes and began to sort them at Delta Fellowship which is the church I attend. They have an extra building on the side that used to be the boys and girls club, but I think it's used mostly for storage now. That may sound sad, but believe me, Together for Hope needs a place to put all their stuff for camp and donations for the million different projects they do for future use. Anyway, we continued to sort books there, one area to stay at the community center, one to go to the new, (and only), library in Elaine, and one to go to the Stories on Wheels bus so the kids could have some new books. I was worried it wouldnt work out, but we kept all the boxes labeled and I think we'll be able to pack them up and put them back in the library really well.

We're also doing adult swim lessons at night so that we cant cater to the whole community instead of just the children. The first night we only had three people show up, but tonight we had about a dozen and I hope it keeps growing. I'm not actually teaching the lessons, I'm not the best swimmer myself, but I register people as they come in to keep a good count of what's going down. After the first half hour we dont really have anyone, except one or two stragglers, so I get to stick my feet in the water and watch, and just sit in the pool and float. We also do water aerobics afterward and I've discovered I really enjoy them. And! I have a friend back home who teaches a water aerobics class so I know what I'm doing when I get home! Not that I'll be there, but still. Anyway, now that I've totally exploded on you everything thats going on I'm going to bed.

P.S. Entertained Amy
So we had to sort the volunteer shirts today and one of the churches order a shirt that was 5X. 5! Two of the interns held it up and it covered both of them, very entertaining. Also, working with childrens books is very entertaining. There was one book with a picture of a toilet that was called "Where does it go?" Awesome.

I don't even know how to describe the day I just had. Some was good, some was bad, and all was crazy. I honestly dont think I'm cut out for this kind of work, I'm not a leader, I never have been, and I dont deal well with girls. Today was the first day in over a month that I just got to sit down and talk to a male and it made me feel so much better. I dont know what it is, I just blame it on the fact I grew up with all boys, but I am so much more comfortable around males than females, and working with a group of all girls down here grates at me. They're all great people, truly they are, but theres just too much girliness going on down here. Anyway, all the volunteers for the next week are down here and ready to go. Each person is assigned to a church, and I got some people from Arkansas. They're staying at an episcopal church so I got to experience that for the first time today. I now have respect for the Episcopalians, but I have no interest in being a part of their worship service. I dont think there was a single time we prayed that it wasnt something read out of a book. Liturgy is cool, but I think there needs to be more personal stuff sometimes. There were also a lot of rituals and such that makes sense to them and helps them worship, but to me it feels sacrilegious. Over all, I believe they are truly worshiping God and thats great for them, but it's not the way my brain works so I'm gonna stay baptist. After church I stayed with my church and played card games and ate lunch and just had a great time, I'm thrilled theyre my church. Things got out of hand though and I ended up having to walk to the community center for the meetings and being unable to prepare for it much at all, but the group was pretty laid back so they it worked out. I wish I could run this show my way, but I dont even know what I want to get done here or how, so I'm just going to finish what they asked me to finish, and I have more time, that library is mine.

By the way! At this point I was going to go to apartment and try to regroup my crumbling brain, but yesterday we had a very sudden flea infestation so we're setting off bug bombs and wont be spending much time in the apartment for awhile. Woot. So, we chilled for awhile at the park then went to the farm where we were having the welcoming party, which turned out great. The food was good, the volunteers was fun, and I just had a really good time. Then we came back to get some more work done, my supervisor called my 3 times in ten minutes (oi), and we eventually got everything worked out to finish at working an 11-hour day. Not bad, could definitely be worse. Now though, I'm ready for a shower and as many possible hours of sleep I can get before starting the ACC at 8 in the community center. Who's excited?

Entertained Amy:

So at the welcoming party today I was hanging out with some of the volunteers and one of the looked at a girl and said "Every youth group has a Dwight. You're the Dwight." Most of us cracked up, but she had never seen office and that made it even worse. Wonder who's the dwight in your church?