So today was the most effective day we had so far, and thus was a good way to end the trip. Pretty much started like every other day except today we got to put down the God forsaken paintbrushes and do some real labor. We worked on clearing the overgrown sections of the front of the school. We dug out roots, raked weeds, moved dirt and got sunburnt. It was sweet. Today made the most difference out of the whole place. That’s not to say that what we did earlier in the week wasn’t important, it’s just that the difficulty of labor today made me feel like we really made a difference. Today was the first day we got really addressed for the work we had done—one of the volunteers let us know how valued the chores we were doing really were. We thanked him with exhausted, dirty, sweaty smiles and posed for a pretty good group picture in front of the bushes Jan had worked so hard on (she did an incredible job with that little plot of land, let me tell you). This is the only time I’ve been to South Carolina, and after having gotten used to it for the past 5 days, I’m ready to leave it. We came, we saw and we definitely conquered. Hopefully they continue to work on the extra stuff that needs to be done around that property—it has so much potential and should not be given up on. We’ve definitely only added to that potential and hopefully, we’ve given it a little spark of life in the form of white paint and clean sidewalks. It suddenly seemed like less of a prison today, and that’s what told me that what we had done made a difference.

-Matt C.

Today was day five of our mission trip here in Georgetown, South Carolina. We got up early as usual, eager to return to the work site and finish working on the picket fence.  There was a lovely breakfast of waffles and eggs whipped up by Nicole, Olivia and Matt C. to fuel the rest of our hungry group members.  Then we packed up our lunches and piled into the vans to head back to the Andrews Jerusalem Center.  The ride there always amazes in new ways.  The community I witness each day on the way to the work site clearly exhibits a class of people working hard for their living.  The area has hit hard times, which can be seen in the numerous empty buildings and small businesses with deteriorating exteriors and few customers.  The people here are hopeful for the future, however, and I see their positive moral and God given good spirits in the people we coordinate with at our work site each day.  Lee, a very spiritual and upbeat gentleman that we met on our first day, always expresses gratitude for our aid.  Others come and go from the work site, always with a friendly hello and a compliment to soothe the tedium of the day’s hard work.

Today I continued to work with the majority of the group in finishing the picket fence at the front of the facility.  I helped scrape the old peeling paint on the remaining 20 feet or so of fence and then moved on to help replace it with new, pristine paint.  The day was filled with many small moments of triumph and feelings of success.  I felt a strong feeling of accomplishment once the first coat of paint covered the fence.  For the first time since we arrived the facility took on a welcoming tone, and the grounds looked renewed and revitalized.  It felt as if the buildings themselves were coming to life again.  The sparkling white picket fence contributed greatly to the new atmosphere.  A second coat was needed on the fence, and my feelings of victory were dulled slightly by the thought of returning to the beginning of that long line of pickets and doing it all over again.  Matt and Andy quickly worked to restore morale however, as we remembered that the UConn Men’s Basketball team was playing their first game early this afternoon.  Matt found a live broadcast of the game on the radio and Andy lent a speaker so that we could all cheer on our team while finishing up our work for the day.  By the time that the announcers declared the victory of the UConn men’s team, we had reached the end of the fence and so declared a small victory of our own.  I will always remember the pure joy and sense of accomplishment shared by all of us as we looked upon our beautiful fence and rejuvenated courtyard.

This evening we ventured out to a local restaurant, Eddy Chacone’s, to enjoy some southern seafood.  I have always had a passion for food and I believe there is no better way to get to know a culture than through a good meal and a friendly conversation.  I decided to try the Shrimp and Grits, with a little sausage, tomato, and cheese mixed in.  I had never had grits before and the dish was delicious.   For desert I had a chocolate lava cake that was well worth the wait. The wait staff were very friendly and some locals had filtered in, dressed to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  I enjoyed an evening full of laughter and amiable conversation; beside people with whom I share my faith and my friendship.

-Olivia L.

Today we returned to the Jerusalem Center.  We have been working on finishing up the fence.  In order to experience Georgetown to it’s full capacity we took a half day and went to the beach!  It was absolutely beautiful at the ocean.  We, the crazy students, went for a dip and learned how easy it is to go numb.  We also learned how easy it is to get sun burnt.  For most of us the first of the season.  After we made a quick pit stop to get some ice cream, we went to a vesper service at the Georgetown Presbyterian Church following a Dinner.  We have been so blessed to have such wonderful hosts.  They were very welcoming and made us feel as though we were in our home church.  They were so proud to be hosting and so happy we could use their facilities to assist others in the area.

-TJ

Today was our second day on the work site. We painted the remainder of the poles in the breezeway surrounding the courtyard. We finished doing both coats and touching up the last 70 poles by lunchtime.  While we were finishing that, some of the group started repairing the picket fence in front of the building. Some of the pickets in the fence were rotten and the paint was peeling off. We had to get rid of some of the more rotten boards, but luckily we had another board that we could use to replace the boards. We also scraped off the old paint and repainted about half the fence. By the time we left the half of the fence looked exponentially better than before. The new paint on the fence and the poles made the whole building look newer and more beautiful. We look forward to finishing the fence tomorrow in the morning and going to the beach in the afternoon!

-Olivia A.

Today was our very first day on our worksite, so we had a lot of people to meet and an overwhelming amount of work given to us! This week we are working at an old and abandoned school that is going to be used to house volunteers that will be working on flood relief.  There is a myriad of different tasks that we will be doing this week, all the way from painting to weed whacking.  When we first arrived at 9am we met Dee, the volunteer coordinator.  This was her third week on the job so she’s pretty much as new to this as we are.  Then, we met Lee.  He is the sweetest most loving old man we all have ever met.  He is the site manager, so he’s the one giving us all the work to do.  We all congregated in the school’s cafeteria and asked Dee to give us some background on the flooding that occurred last October.  Basically, South Carolina, specifically Charleston, Georgetown and other surrounding areas got more rain then they have ever seen before and the main river surrounding these towns, the Black River, flooded and demolished roads, homes and lives.  Many different groups are beginning to come in and help with relief and we are coming in to help fix up a place for the volunteers to stay.  Lee then took over and started telling us about his experiences with the school and his calling to working here.  If I could have everyone in the world meet one person just to make them happier, I would have them meet Lee.  He is so passionate about what he does, it really makes the work so worth it.

Today we decided to start painting the outside poles that hold up the overhang.  There are about 145 poles that we have to individually sand, wipe down and paint with 2 coats.  Although it’s a long process, by the end of the workday we had an extremely effective system for painting and got 75 poles done.  Tomorrow’s plan is to finish the poles and start fixing and painting the white picket fence.  All in all, for a first day I’d say we were extremely successful, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us tomorrow!!

-Nicole

We set off on our trip early Sunday morning, even earlier when taking into account the time change.  After two flights and a considerable drive we reached the  Georgetown Presbyterian Church.  We are staying in the youth center and were pleasantly surprised by what a nice facility they have.  Newly renovated in 2012, there are plenty of couches for everyone to sleep on as well as large living space and billiard and table tennis tables.

Sorry this post is a little late. Friday was the last day we spent in OK. It was a busy one. We split into two groups to finish off the projects that we started the day before. We finished putting the windows in fairly quickly and then proceeded to make the house look super clean. While with the other group we finished putting down some flooring and patching holes in the original subfloor. Shout out to Rachel Legg who crawled right under the house to put in new wood. It was really muddy down there, but we didn’t hear a single complaint out of her. We were able to get all the flooring set up for the next group to come in and continue to work on the house. A perfect way to wrap up our projects.

After spending the day on the worksite we went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. This memorial is to remember those whose lives were impacted by the tragic events on April 29^th 1995. The entire group was quiet as we walked around and paid our respects. The memorial was very well done and had a lot of symbolism that Jill Hardy was able to explain to us. It is a definitely a sad place, but if you find yourself in OKC you need to check it out.

Please join us on April 12^th at 10:00 am at the Storrs Congregation Church as UCC UConn leads the worship service. We will spend this time to reflect on our alternative spring break and thank everyone that could support us. Hope to see you there!

Rachel a new member had this to say about Thursday: This morning we woke up to some more lovely Oklahoma warm weather. After breakfast we headed to a new house to work with Habitat for Humanity. The house had endured extensive water damage through the roof which rotted out the flooring in the back of the house. Several of us spent the morning ripping up the damaged flooring and plywood. After lunch we began reinforcing the structural components and replacing the damaged ones. Others in the house worked on fixing a door frame and replacing the front door. The rest of the group in the house worked on reinforcing the structural components of the bathroom. In the evening we attended a cowboy-themed dinner celebration and met some of the people aided in the relief effort. The night concluded with some group bonding.

Kenny wrote the following about his day: Today we got a chance to work with Habitat for Humanity again. The first house we got to was too small for the amount of people we have in our group so to be most effective a small group of us were told to go to another work site that was about a 10 minute drive away. The small group included Richie, Jane, Emily, and I. Chris from Humanity was in charge of our group. My task at the second site was mostly window trimming and replacing some of the windows with newer ones. I teamed up with a woman by the name of Brendy who told me she came down from Edmond in order to do some community service. I worked with her mostly while at this site.

The owner of the home had both a dog and a cat roaming around. The dog was friendly and didn’t really get in the way. The cat on the other hand constantly got in the way when we were trimming the bathroom window. It would not stop jumping and hanging on from the window sill that I was attempting to work on. It was a cute cat but it definitely reminded me of why I’m a dog person. I introduced myself to Carmine, the homeowner, and spoke to her for a little while. She took some time to show me some photos she had in her camera of some of the damage that had been done to her home. I was glad to look around the house today and see how far along it had come.

Our work was unfortunately cut short due to the poor rainy weather so we were not able to get as much done as we could’ve, but I still felt like it was a very productive day. I constantly had something to do so the time flew by fairly quick. This whole week has actually gone by very quickly and I can’t believe that it’s already Thursday. Even if the weather today was not as nice as it has been while here, I am still trying my best to enjoy it because before we know it our group will again be dealing with the very cold weather of Connecticut.

One of our members Peter had this to say: We woke up this morning to a cold, drizzly Oklahoma sky. After filling our bellies with eggs, sausage, pancakes, as well as all the fruit we could want ever want, the team headed out to yet another worksite. Todays mission: to caulk and paint the trim of a freshly finished home and clean up all of the surfaces in order to keep the building process moving along. Challenge accepted! Off we went to find paint scrapers, caulk guns, and vacuum cleaners with our characteristic fervor and determination. Around 10 o’clock, five of us were sent by Johnny, our project manager, to another house one block away. This house was still in the beam and stud phase of building and was a mess! So, out came the brooms and garbage bags. Once the house was deemed tidy, some of us were put to work caulking beam connections while others were put to the task of using a nail gun to secure diamond plates to the crossbeams of the home. By 3 o’clock we confirmed that our work ethic knows no bounds. We had successfully completed all the work that our project manager could find for us at both houses, while still managing to find time to sing and dance to the ever-impressive playlist of Logan, another worksite manager. After a good game of soccer back at our host church, we again satiated our hunger and reflected on all we had done today. Sadly, tonight was our last night with Steve; a saint of a man with a sense of humor to rival God’s with whom we have worked with in the past and love oh so dearly. After Steve set off towards home and his future mission work in Mississippi, a few of us drowned our sorrows in milkshakes from Braum’s, a local food joint, ending our most relaxing day so far on a good note.

Jillian a new member had this to say: The forecast for was for a wet rainy day.  We were set up inside a newly built house to clean and caulk.  I had a terrible time caulking.  Yes, it was very fun and entertaining; but I was terrible at!  It was a very emotional experience for me.  One of the other volunteers was much more apt at caulking, so I moved onto painting the frames on the doors.  However, that was just as frustrating because I was too short to reach all the way to the top of the frame.  In the end, with a lot of teamwork and with the help of some awesome music we got everything sealed up and painted.

Our group finished the roofing project from yesterday. Some people finished with the shingles while others cleaned up the shingles that were on the ground. It was incredible to see how fast we worked to clear the huge piles of shingles that surrounded the house. By the time we left, the yard was completely clean which felt really awesome.

One group of us went to a daycare build a play scape which had been started by a different group. There was a large pile of wood pieces and bags of screws and no instructions to put them together. Once we got into a rhythm, we worked hard to finish the play scape which looked amazing. As we were cleaning up the site, we picked up the tarp that the wood was on and the directions were underneath the tarp. However, on a high note, the little boy that was at the site was so happy that we built this play scape for him and his friends. The smile on his face made all of the hard work so worth it.

The other group went to a house to fix a shed. The siding was done incorrectly the first time, so we had to fix it. The property was very interesting because there was a lot animals there. The home owner showed us some baby goats. On the shed we put up upper paneling and closed gaps between the wall and the roof. It require a lot of cutting and a lot of participates learned to use a skill saw, which was really rewarding.