Thursday we woke up around 6 and left at 7 for our first ISP. For the first ISP my team were street monitors for the 9th Annual Turkey Trot 5K. We all had a lot of fun seeing all the families! Old, young and even the dogs ran! All in all it seemed like they had a lot of fun. After the run we walked back to our van which was parked outside of the church that we were volunteering at. The church was having a thanksgiving meal for the homeless with the whole works! I was a door greater with another team mate. After awhile though it got boring because once everyone was in, there were only a handful of people that came in late. So I joined one team member who was a table host. The table hosts had to sit with the people and start up conversations, and make sure they got the food in which they asked for. I ended up talking to a lady named Sandy Unger. She told me a little bit about Alaska, so I took out my notebook and wrote down the places in which she was talking about. Once I took out the notebook she began to tell me different beautiful places that I should look up that are in Alaska. I talked to her more, and found out a bit more of her life. She lived in Alaska for only a short time in her life and talked about how her dad killing a large grizzly bear that was in her back yard. She also said that one thing that they ate a lot were seals or whale which "would warm your blood up". She then was adopted and moved to Arkansas for 7 years. Her last name was Milak, then once adopted was Sandy Hendrickson; And once was married changed to Unger. Sandy talked about how Arkansas was "the buggiest state" and that "you'd have to shake your shoes and coats out to make sure there were no poisons spiders". She talked about her nephew "Richard Free Milak" whose sign was an eagle and whenever he was outside, an eagle would be flying around. She ended by telling me how she is good at drawing Elephants, and had to run out to her car to show me all of her drawings. She insisted that I take a picture of all of them to remember her by and to write to her at any of the addresses that she gave me. It was really cool getting to know Sandy and hearing her story.
After our ISP's we drove to our sponsors house and most of my team members went on the bus to get to the other station, closer to our sponsors parents house. 2 other team members and I just rode in her car so we were the first ones there. The party was just a bit smaller compared to what I'm used to, being that at their thanksgiving there were only her parents, her two aunts and her brother. Like I said just a bit smaller haha. The food was really good; but again, doesn't compare to grandmas turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing...etc. We finished the night playing "Uno", but never finished (which I was fine with considering I had most of the cards). I was tired and over the past couple days my ankle has been hurting a lot (after twisting it a little while hiking to or work sight); but has progressed to me not being able to walk on it very much. When we got back to our van which was parked at pour sponsors house we dropped off a few of our team members who were staying in a hostel that night before taking a bus to Canada on Friday. Finally once we got home we all went straight to bed.
Today (Friday) I slept in until 7:30/8 and noticed right away how much my ankle was hurting. Thankfully I stayed home all day so I could rest it. This morning after getting up I made some cinnamon pancakes for the few of us who stayed behind and then watched some movies with a couple people. And that's pretty much all I did today was rest and watch movies. Except tonight I went with a couple people to target so I could purchase an ankle brace. It was crazy the amount of people that were at target tonight (after forgetting it was black Friday). I did however see a movie that I had been wanting for a while which was "Age of Adaline". Problem was, the only ones they had on in the Dvd section was Blue-ray/Dvd/special features all in one and was $30! Ha I don't think so. So I asked where I could find just the dvd of the movie was and the employee said that they were in the girls section because of black Friday; and that the last time he checked there were only 12 more Dvds. I quickly (hobbled) over to the girls sections and there the discounted movies were, hidden in the corner. I found the LAST "Age of Adaline" hidden on the bottom shelf and snatched it up. I bought the movie for only $6! Score! I'm now back home with a cup of hot coco and listening to the a different movie that a team mate bought.
I also want to take a moment to write a few things I am thankful for.
First I a thankful for my wonderful for my whole family who has been so supportive throughout my AmeriCorps NCCC experience. You all have helped shaped me into the person I am today; and for the I am forever grateful. I also want to thank all of my friends who have also been supportive over the time I have been gone, and know that I am missing you all so much, but to not worry because I'll be back home in no time! I'm so thankful for this amazing opportunity with NCCC to be able to travel to different places in which I have never been and to gain new experiences that I would I never dreamed of experiencing. Lastly I want to thank God for always being with me throughout my life. Through the ups and downs He has never left my side, without Him I wouldn't be where I am today.
~Savannah
I had to dig out all the good mineral soil
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