Day 2: Drew, Emily and Josh

     Hello blog followers!  Today, May 25, we started off by leaving the lovely Country Inn & Suites at approximately 8:02 a.m. While we were still at the hotel, we enjoyed a nice breakfast that included waffles, cereal, ham, eggs, potatoes and an assortment of fruit. We also had a small contest within the group to determine who could leave their rooms the cleanest, the winner to be determined by Mrs. Dann. The winners were Heather, Jillian, Donni and Sara. The thank you note that they left for the staff clinched the win.  The prize—a seat all to themselves on the way home!

     After we left the hotel, we then embarked on a six hour journey through parts of Tennessee and North Carolina.  The scenery was spectacular as Mr. Allen Speckhals drove the bus though the Appalachian Mountains. We also enjoyed watching the White Water rafters as they weaved their rafts down a river of fury. We stopped for lunch at around one o’clock, and had a variety of choices consisting of Wendy’s, Pizza Hut and Long John Silver’s. The group also stopped at Walmart to buy some small items.

     Once we left, we arrived about thirty minutes later at the Hinton Center. Once we were there, we met in the Great Moore Hall and greeted our group leaders. The group also had to introduce themselves. We did this by having Cullen “read” everyone’s palms and give them their fortunes for the upcoming week. After meeting our leaders, we were assigned our groups and positions. The positions include relationship, clean up, food, tools, and programming.  Relationship responsibilities include conversing with the homeowners we are helping and communicating between them and the group leaders. The clean up person within each group is responsible for making sure the site and Hinton Center remains clean, and also helping other positions. Tool people have to load the tools into the trucks each morning for their specific site. The people that are in charge of food have to load the coolers with the lunch bags and fill the community water jugs each day. Programmers make sure everyone remains on task and that safety precautions are being followed. Following the positions meetings, we participated in a short prayer service, then ate a stir fry dinner prepared by the wonderful chef at the Hinton Center. We ended our night by going down to the lake and enjoyed the sunset along with a bonfire. Everyone from Hermann is excited for their jobs and what the rest of the week has to hold.