Today was the Rockcastle School Readiness Distribution. Jenny and I got to First Baptist Church at 8:20-ish and there were already about 15-20 people waiting in line. Luckily we didn't have much set-up to do. Robyn and Amy (CAP Volunteer Recruiter and former Family Advocacy/Outreach long-term volunteer) came shortly after and we got underway. I was working the backpack area. It was fun to see some kids get excited picking out their bags. My personal favorite would be the 1st grader who got the Superman backpack (complete w/ cape). His grandma told me he was an honor student. I joked with some of the little boys, trying to get them to pick pink or purple backpacks. Of course there were some difficult moments where a couple kids didn't like any of the bags we had and pouted about it. Even a couple of parents got that way! But overall it was a good experience, and we were all pretty tired by 11:30.
We had a ton of clothes still left over. It's almost overwhelming! Looking at it I started to think of who we could give it all to when it dawned on me, WE are the ones who people give it to! Like, we're not going to give these clothes away to the Goodwill, we ARE the Goodwill! (Not really, but you know...) Crazy!
I did help one little girl with clothes. She was super cute and sweet. She was going through all these dresses, even pulling out ones that I was sure would be either too big or too small. When I mentioned this, she said she could "make any dress fit," explaining that she sometimes has to wear things that are too big. The honesty of this statement struck me sad. She said she couldn't wait til her dad came home from work and saw the pretty outfits she had picked out. It reminded me of the "fashion shows" Carol and I would have for Dad after a day of shopping.
I came home this afternoon to Brianda's neatly made bed, which is unusual. I found out that Brianda left for home today because her ankle (which she broke on Saturday) was not healing properly. It's nice to have a room to myself again, but I'm sorry to see her go so early on. And I know she didn't want to leave this early either. She was really enjoying her position at FLAC.
Tonight was my very first House Meeting, so Kiara (the Volunteer Life Manager for our region) came and made us a yummy dinner and we talked about community - the struggles and benefits. I do feel like I'm becoming more a part of the community, but with so many people (a few of whom work 2nd shift) coming and going it can be really hard to connect. So our challenge for the next few weeks is to have a conversation with all of our housemates (or as many as possible) in order to create opportunities for connecting. I know for a fact that living in this community is the hardest thing about CAP, b/c you are living with people that you have not chosen and of course there is always that one person that just rubs you the wrong way. So I'm dealing with that inwardly, but for the most part I have enjoyed getting to know my housemates (slowly but steadily I think). It's just very different to go from Brescia and Owensboro, where I already had very established friendships, to Rockcastle where the environment is .... just very different for some reason.... I can't really say why right now. But I look forward to the challenge Kiara presented us with!
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