Welcome to Kansas City

I finally have internet! I only have it for a couple of hours, so I'll see how much I can blog and gather myself in that amount of time :) For my own sake, I'll start off by introducing my first group to the blog :)

My group is made up of 22 adults and students from right outside of Kansas City. They came to CSM on Sunday night, and I unfortunately have to say goodbye to them tomorrow morning. This week, we're staying at a church in Southeast called Anacostia Gospel, and so far I have no complaints :) The difficult part has been no internet, but even that has made me focus on my time here with the group so it has been nice :)

This group is made of 11 boys and 7 girls with 4 leaders. The aspect of them that I have appreciated the most is that they get along better than most groups I will work with this summer. They each come from hard backgrounds, and you would NEVER know it by the way that they live their lives. They are joyful, loud and full of life. They are serious about serving, but filled with youth and I love each of them so much. I'm so sad I'm going to have to say bye to them.

We started this week out by volunteering at "The Downtown Cluster." It is a geriatric daycare. Half of the kids volunteered in the common lounge, and the other half went and worked specifically with older people struggling with Alzeihemers. The kids handled it so well, and I was so proud of them. Since then, we have volunteered at S.O.M.E (serving breakfast at 7 am...yes, I was exhausted :), gone on a prayer walk down H St, an area facing gentrification, worked at St. Thomas More visiting individuals in rehabilitation, volunteered at World Vision DC and prepared food at Thrive, an organization empowering women who have been in difficult life circumstances. Our week wound down by volunteering on a farm in Maryland and doing an Urban Plunge where the group is divided into groups and forced to face homelessness heads-on.

On top of this busy schedule, we have eaten at a Middle Eastern Restaurant, the famous Ben's Chili Bown, a Jamaican Restaurant, and IHOP :)

I have more blogs coming with lessons I've learned from this past week. Trust me...there's a LOT, but for now, I just wanted to remind myself of the basic sites we've been able to visit over the past 4 days :)