Our Last Day in DC

So here goes the last official blog entry of our day in our Nation’s capital. Oh yeah, this is Hannah by the way. I figured I needed to write on the blog tonight because Ben always talks about how I’m either in the shower or just TOO busy to possibly write on here, so here it goes again.

Well for today’s job for my group (Ben, Kay, Allison, Chris, Jessica, Madison and I) went to Elder Buddies. It is a program run by a woman named Karen Greene who works for the AARP office. She has volunteers come into an apartment building, housing for low-income elderly, and clean out their rooms. She told us when we first got there that the tenants of the building are subject to inspections of their apartments and, for some of them, are evicted due to two things: 1. failure to pay rent due to high medical costs, or 2. failure to pass the inspection test due to lack of cleanliness.

We were then spilt up into smaller groups to assist two women in the cleaning process. Kay, Madison, Allison and I were fortunate to work with a WONDERFUL woman by the name of Jean Campbell. Ms. Campbell is a minister, and going through her cluttered apartment, we came to find out how strong her religious beliefs truly are. Allison and I first tackled a hard job of organizing a table with a bottomless pile of papers. When one thinks of this minor task they might think, “Well, luckily, today there will be little sweating.” Well I will have you know, I have NEVER EVER IN MY WHOLE LIFE sweated as much as I did in that apartment. This woman had been living in her apartment with NO AIRCONDITIONING for who knows how long and all she had to keep her cool was a small fan that I often found myself in front of (that is whenever Madison or Allison weren’t hogging it all). I think Kay, however, worked the hardest out of us all. She was some how fortunate to have the task of cleaning Ms. Campbell’s kitchen (with Allison’s help after we cleaned off the table), somehow eventually finding her way to the bottom of all the mess. Mark today down as another good, rewarding work day…if you are keeping score.

As for the other small group (Ben, Chris, and Jessica) they helped out a woman by the name of Ms. Jones. Ms. Jones is a retired military nurse of some kind from what little I heard about her and she needed some assistance organizing clothes. This group worked to help her get everything the way she wanted it, which as most of you know can be challenging for a woman, especially with her clothes.

After making MANY improvements to these women’s apartments, we caught our Metro (which was the best walk/metro ride we have had to a work site our entire trip…but what could have been worse than the 328 block trek earlier in the week?) back to Metro Center to grab some lunch. We had about had enough peanut butter and jelly this week so we decided to give away our lunches and go somewhere fun to eat. We ended up at a great sandwich place right down the street and then proceed to head on to Barnes and Noble soon after. After hitting up Starbucks and Madison getting a new DVD, Ben, Jessica, Allison, Chris and I headed on back to the church for reflection. After reflection and meeting up with the other part of our group who had been to Food and Friends (the organization my group went to yesterday) we once again split into two groups amongst ourselves and did our nighttime activities. Ben, Erin, Madison, Chris, Jessica, Cara and I ventured out (and when I say ventured, I MEAN ventured) to Tyson’s Corner shopping center. After a long afternoon/night of wrong trains, wrong buses, long buses, rain and fun we finally made it back to pack and prepare for tomorrows train ride. Everyone has been packing for the departure tomorrow morning to Union Station to catch our friend the Amtrak to, once again, ride our 15-hour adventure. The bags are mostly packed…well except for Cara who says she is already packed even though she has more stuff in MY suitcase then I do. So Cara, if you are missing anything when you get home, its more than likely in my suitcase.

Overall, I would say that this trip was a pretty good time. Between the YSOP dinners with the homeless people of DC to Erin’s face when Madison asked her to carry his bags on the broken escalator going up, I can honestly say I had a great time. Thanks to Ben especially for getting us all here and hopefully home one way or the other, we couldn’t have survived without you even if it seemed like we couldn’t stand you at times. Also thanks to Kay, Allison, Vicki and Erin for chaperoning us all here.

I hope that everyone got something out of this trip some how or some way, and I can say that I would do it again in a heartbeat…as long as I don’t have to sleep on those balloon animal sounds cots.

—Hannah

Photo 1: Erin and Vicki post with Chef Tim at Food & Friends.

Photo 2: Vicki and Erin's group helped pack meals for Food & Friends.