3/29/16: After a good night’s sleep we had another early start today and ate breakfast at 6:30 AM. At about 7:00 AM we left the hotel and headed over to Give Kids the World. We all had new jobs like helping children to get their stars placed on the walls of the Castle and...
Continue readingMFSpanish: Visiting a Bilingual School
Today we helped in a bilingual class of kindergarteners and first graders. They were so cute. It was a lot of fun to talk to them in Spanish. We headed off to Philadelphia to visit Southwark, an elementary school introducing a bilingual program. We helped out with kindergarten and first graders who were doing...
Continue readingDay Two, Bayshore Trip
After the tour yesterday we were ready to start working. Today we worked on sanding different parts of the masts for the boat. In total we sanded close to 5 masts. This was to prep the masts for the varnish tomorrow so that the new varnish will stay on the wood for a while....
Continue readingNicaragua: Sharing soccer, strength, skills
This morning we went to the Casa Del Niños art school. We did many different service projects, such as painting beams, shoveling old footings so that new foundation can be put down, cutting rebar, and then making them into squares for rebar foundations. Then we went to a women’s craft collective. There we learned the...
Continue readingGive Kids the World
From Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust
Day 2: Today we visited Habitat For Humanity’s Restore Center, and it was an extremely different experience than Palmyra Cove. We started off the day with a tour of the center by Mike. Mike showed us where we would be working and then we split up into groups. Some went to clean up carpeting,...
Continue readingUna clase de Flamenco
We started the day off with a delicious breakfast and a short meeting for worship. After discussing the schedule for the day, we divided into work groups and continued our service. Those who worked in the garden trimmed rose bushes, planted grass seeds, and learned about the history of the FES garden. The mural...
Continue readingQuilting: One Down, Two More to Go
Today Shelby and Jessica completed the first quilt. All of the groups are working incredibly hard to finish their projects. So far the day has been filled with laughter and smiles. I can’t wait to see what’s yet to come for the new quilters....
Continue readingRough Start, Strong Finish
3/28/16 We started our day early by arriving at Moorestown Friends at 5:45 AM to depart for the airport. From there we ate and socialized as the arrival time to Orlando, Florida had been pushed back by an hour due to delays caused by mechanical errors, thunderstorms, and even a 30-minute baggage claim delay. Following...
Continue readingSacred Spaces Day One: Service at Manna and Introduction to the Interfaith Center of Philly
We spent our morning at MANNA making nutritious meals for people who are ill and unable to do so for themselves. We met out guide Andrew who introduced us to our interfaith encounters through a team activity and an overview of a week of encounters and workshops. Some of the experiences we are the...
Continue readingExploring the World of Mandala
After our delicious lunch break, we explored the great outdoors, MFS’s backyard. We found natural elements and discards of the modern world (like tennis balls, lots of tennis balls) to use as elements of our art projects this week. We also found it necessary to pick up the trash and waste left outside for a...
Continue readingNicaragua: Building an outdoor classroom at Casa Del Niño
These kids are working hard. We are so proud of them....
Continue reading¡Dia dos en Nicaragua!
We started today off with a plentiful breakfast filled with pancakes, fresh fruit and yogurt! After breakfast we started our journey to a new location three hours away. Along the way we made some meaningful stops and learned mucho information! Our first stop of the day we went to a lake and took a boat...
Continue readingOver 500 hours of community service in one week!
Today was our last day in Bivalve, so we were busy at work finishing projects. The AJ Meerwald went for a sail in the morning with the coastguards. We couldn’t go, so we stayed on the docks. Some people painted a part of the wood (the centerboard) from the ship while on the dock....
Continue readingGardening @ Habitat
Today, in our fifth day of Habitat for Humanity, we went to the Perkins Center of the Arts and helped them build raised planting beds for their garden. We built the frames out of 2 by 8s and filled them using dirt from a large pile that the Perkins Center had delivered last Friday....
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