A Very STEAMY Day

We were told to wear long pants and our service shirts (the ward shirts that we had the choice to by at Fleurty Girl the previous day). Complaining about the hot weather, we begged and pleaded to wear shorts, and the next morning 8 AM, we were called by Mr. Hayden who told us that we were allowed to wear shorts and were expected to be downstairs in the next 20 minutes.

All of us knew that the day was going to be long and hot. Once we got off the elevator, we were greeted by Jackie, our bus driver. As we waited for everyone to get downstairs, we were anxious about exactly what we were going to do and what to expect. However, we got in the bus ready to serve. We drove through the town and got to Ms. Kimberly's house, one of the houses that were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Through the organization Beacon of Hope, we were able to help landscape and paint her house. The Beacon of Hope organization was founded after the hurricane to provide hubs where the people of that community could have a place to communicate with others to receive help and supplies. Even today, 5 years after Hurricane Katrina, there are active volunteers helping to rebuild homes of people who lost everything in this natural disaster.

Once we got there, we were split into two groups, the landscaping group and the painting group. We needed to replace the soil and plant plants in the front lawn, and completely paint the garage. Starting at 9:30 am to 3 pm, we worked to complete these tasks. Although we had a difficult time working through the heat and completing what we needed to, we all learned that we should appreciate what we have because everything could be gone with one horrendous event.

The landscaping group had to loosen the soil and dig out the pieces of rock and clay throughout the front of the house. After loosening the soil, we put on top soil and turned the soil to mix it in. The beginning of the day was the hardest because it was so hot in the front of the house. Many of us were becoming very exhausted and had to take numerous water breaks to keep us hydrated. After eating the 2 XL pizzas that barely fed everyone, well actually didn't feed everyone (Mr. Hayden and Ms. Richardson didn't get any), we got back to work. Following lunch, the landscaping group had to plant the bushes and flowers in the front yard.

While this was going on, the painting group was working on painting the garage. We were told by Ashley, the volunteer manager, that we needed to paint the big bucket on the sides and the little buckets on the beams. However, it ended up being the wrong paint and we had to scrape off the granular paint that we painted on the back of the garage. Mr. Hayden came to us and told us to cut into the wood. We were all extremely lost at this, and he had to guide us through the entire painting process. After cutting in for an extremely long period of time, we were finally able to roll. We rolled all the sides of the house, and then eventually got to the beams. Once we thought we were finally finished, Ashley came to us and told us to paint the inside of the roof, which was virtually impossible. Ms. Richardson told us to not do that, but instead get the detail work on all the beams. By 2:30 we had finished the two projects and started to CLEAN UP!

Once we heard Jackie roll in with her air conditioning on wheels, we were extremely excited. Cleaning up the mess we made hastily, we got into the cool bus to greet Jackie with her new hairdo. All extremely dirty, sweaty, and aching all over, we drove back to the hotel eager to take our showers and rest before our steamboat ride and dinner on the Natchez.

In the evening we went on a steam boat cruise over the Mississippi River. The steamboat was so grand, kind of like the ones you see at Disneyland. We learned about how the steamboat works and even listened to a jazz band! The food was delicious; especially the bread pudding.Overall, today was not only a productive day, but an amazing day full of new experiences. We learned what it means to serve through working hard through the humid, hot weather, and although it was tough, what we did today impacted each of us as people.

Class of '12 Girls +

Joy & Kimberly