Round 3, Part 1: Tougaloo College

Wow! 2 posts in 2 days?! Unheard of!

For Round 3, my team will be working on 2 different projects. The first couple of weeks (i.e. right now), we're living on campus in Vicksburg and working with Tougaloo College and the Rainbow Garden, just north of Jackson. Tougaloo was founded in 1869 by the American Missionary Association, an abolitionist group committed to educating freed slaves. It is now one of 4 historically black colleges in Mississippi and is currently home to about 1000 liberal arts students. Tougaloo has a very impressive list of alumni and associations and was highly involved in the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Jackson. They helped stage the Woolworth lunch counter sit-in that eventually integrated it. It's said that about 50% of the black doctors, lawyers, etc. in Mississippi have come through Tougaloo. Since May 2008, there's been a sustainable garden on Tougaloo's campus as part of a partnership with the Rainbow Natural Grocery/Whole Foods Co-Op, a really cool natural/organic food store in Jackson. We'll be spending about half of our time at Tougaloo working in the garden and on the nature trail that's connected of it and half working with the facilities department helping rehab some of the buildings. I'm really enjoying it so far.

the sign at the head of our nature trail

walking the trail after we cut it

Today was the MLK National Day of Service. Katie, one of our amazing projects STLs, set up a great project for the 2 teams on campus (mine and Jo's) and some of the staff members at Initiative, Inc, a local low-income housing complex that helps its tenant-families get an education and increase their life skills so that they can be self-sufficient at the end of a 2-3 year period. We worked with the Mayor of Vicksburg to invite the city to make it "a day on, not a day off" and we were blessed with a lot of volunteers who came out and worked with us. We did various projects around the Initiative--painting, gardening, putting house numbers on mailboxes and curbs, childcare, debris removal, etc. It was a really great day and we all left feeling very fulfilled. The executive director of the Initiative cried during her reflection piece at the end of the day because she was so grateful for our work and how the city had shown her that they really did care for this little non-profit.

Did any of you volunteer for MLK day? What did you do? I wanna hear about it!


Back to Tougaloo tomorrow morning and then Miami next week to start with Habitat for Miami!


Thanks for sticking with me through my long absence and please drop me a quick hello in the comments! I need to know there's life outside the AmeriBubble!

XO

finally!

So, yes. I disappeared from the blog for a while. I’m sorry. Things got crazy throughout the end of my second round project and then it just took me a while to find some time to come back. But here I am.

I continued to really enjoy my time in the Bay. I gained some real life skills working with Habitat and felt very accomplished by the time we had finished our service there.

My trip home and to DC over Thanksgiving was a great time. I really enjoyed my whirlwind of activities: seeing Brendan as Lewis in “Angels in America;” surprising Liz for her birthday; Thanksgiving dinner, of course; watching Sarah sing the National Anthem at the Sixers game; my 5-year high school reunion; Luci and Randall’s wedding and spending time with 2^nd Belk girls in DC. It was great to be home after 5 months away and a nice little sneak peek of how nice winter break would be.

My team experienced some drama over Thanksgiving break and immediately afterward, but we made it through and came out for the better, I think. It wound up getting pretty cold down in Bay St. Louis—my team and I were pretty shocked by the weather!

We finished up round 2 with a debrief of the project back on campus and then I started my trek home for our two-week winter break. I drove home with Chandra, Andy, and Jo, three of my TL friends. We had a blast on the 1200 mile trip home, but unfortunately were slowed down by the “Winter Wallop” and it wound up taking us about 53 hours to make it to Ardmore from Vicksburg (including a 12 hour stay in a motel in Salem, VA). Home time was lovely and quiet. I only had to carry one cell phone and use one laptop—I was govey-free! I rang in the New Year with good friends and good food. Refreshed, I came back to Vicksburg for our mid-year transition and Round 3 (see the next post for updates on my current project)!

Transition was just fine. I love spending time with Team Green up in our ivory tower. It’s great that we’ve all bonded so much—I really feel like I have a family here. We’ve built a fantastic support system for one another and can almost always understand where one another is coming from.

I’m posting some pictures below from my time in the Bay, so enjoy.

Thanks for sticking with me through my prolonged absence and stay tuned for a post on round 3 very soon! I promise! XO

my team went out as a jazz band for Halloween!

one of the empty lots in Bay St. Louis

the house we completed during our Blitz Build week!

laying bamboo floors in one of the houses