Day 3 - Cucumbers and the Roc

Good morning! We met downstairs, some munching on remnants of breakfast, some talking about the night before. Then gathered together to jump in the vans. We were off to the north texas food bank. Of course no youth trip would be complete without a u turn, so we cheered as we flipped around. It only took a few minutes of mindless wandering before we came upon our destination. This branch we hadn't been to before (obviously) and once we arrived, we piled in and got ready to work. After signing our lives away, we went into the break room where Patti began to give some of the girls ettiquite lessons. How to sit, how to curtsy, which fork to use...."I look for the biggest fork to put the most food in my mouth" - Kirsten. Good fun.

Today, first job was sorting. First, we sorted carrots (no moldy!) And then had to have a Cuban Shuffle dance break. Our next sort was cucumbers. The thing I enjoy about our students is that they were workers. Even after most were finished cleaning and all progress had stopped to do our final count, some were still sorting cucumbers. These cucumbers were SO gross. Think, white, soggy things that were once cucumbers that mushed around everything. We had sorted a total of 9 pallets of food, which equated 6,920 lbs and 5,766 meals. We met and talked before we loaded the vans and headed to Jersey Mikes. After driving around for several minutes (you know we got lost) we finally found the place and talked and laughed over delicious sandwhiches. The parking was horrible, and took forever to get out of the parkinglot. Once we did, we headed to the Roc. There, the sound team went to setup while the mimes broke up into several groups to help with random chores around the Roc. One group picked up

outside trash, while others cleaned windows. The silly girls played mirror as they cleaned and laughed as they wiped the glass down.One group cut up walmart bags to make sleeping mats. The finished mat would be 3 feet by 6 feet and took 700 Walmart bags to complete. The bag was first cut into strips and then the strips were crocheted to make a mat. Upstairs, while testing the mics, Linda told us the story of the little green riding hood...a happy young girl that was wandering in the rainforest with spidermonkeys :)

The mimes ran their set, until it was polished and perfect. There were only a few casualties; Courtney hurt her knee and Andy got poked in the eye. Once everything was pristine and lovely, we loaded the vans for Chik fil A. unfortunately due to mapquests lack of knowing their places, we ended up instead at Sonic. Something was going on. We all felt it. At Sonic, we placed our orders just like we done before, yet the order took nearly 45 minutes. The Sonic team was going as fast as they could, but something was going on. We prayed in the vans on the way back to the Roc. The mimes hurried and changed and waited in line for bathrooms and for symbols. Yay! Dinner got pushed back, so we had 1/2 hour more.

 

So it began. The kids piled in, very obviously not wanting to been there. Craig gave announcements and introduced the mimes. As the lights dimmed, the whispers slowly faded. The mimes bagan and at first, the kids shifted in their seats, whispered to their friends or made quiet jokes. Although quite a few were attentative, the vast majority seemed uncomfortable; restless. The one song that seemed to grab all attention, even of the noisy ones was "Not Alone" All motion stopped; it was like everyone could understand the story. "The Glory" made one girl wipe her eyes and the last song, "forever reign" kept everyone engaged. The mimes in the front even said that although not everyone was engaged, EVERYONE was watching.

 

Afterward, we talked a bit before packing up and heading to Braums. As we sipped Snickerdoodles and crunched into cones, we talked about the mime symbols (Caroline's looked like a rocketship) and Rachael graced us with her grand idea of an "infinity Jesus love-fish"..... I really wish I could draw it for you, but its all in Rach's imagination ;) After we finished, got in the vans, got lost (the story of our lives) and flipped a couple of Uturns, we made it home for a good night's rest.