An Update (Finally)

An apology for a long delay in our next update!

We made it to Texas City without any issues. Our site manager, Rich Grobe (who is from the Hartford area), met us at the church to give us a tour of where we are staying. It's a nice location with two bedrooms with six bunks each (12 beds total), a lounge area, a bathroom in both bathroom, a third bathroom with three showers and two sinks, and another room that is a classroom for Sunday school, but is currently being used by us as a study room. We also have full access to the church's kitchen where we prepare all of our meals.

The rest of Saturday was spent food shopping, making dinner, and some relaxation. Most of us were in bed by 10pm since we were up so early for the flight.

After a good night's rest (at least for most of us), quite a few of us went out for a run around the neighborhoods, finding the water's edge (even though it was through people's yards). Afterwards, individual omelets were made for everyone by Richie & Bryan. After breakfast, we attended the First Christan Church 10:45am Sunday Service. We more than doubled the amount of attendees. The church uses two projectors and a TV to put up images and the words for all of the sungs sung, and the bible verses being read. They also welcomed us, which included a picture of the UConn logo on the screens!

After the service, we grabbed lunch quickly and then headed off for Houston. The whole trip to Houston was a little frustrating, as we could have used some more time actually planning what to do. We first went to the museum area, where we split up. Some people went to the Holocaust Museum, a few went to the Art Museum, some went to the Museum of Natural Science, and others wandered around (they were planning to go to the zoo, but it was too expensive). We had planned on meeting back up around 5:30, however we all ended up meeting at 4:30 because most of us were fairly bored already and were ready to leave. We had found out from some locals of a couple of places to go in the main part of Houston. We set out to a location, only to realize when we got there that is wasn't the right location. We ended up traveling to a mall North of the city instead of getting into the main part of the city. So then we re-routed ourselves to the correct location. By this time, we were all starving. Most of us went to the House of Blues restaurant, while the rest went to the Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant. By the time we finished, we were all ready to head back to the church for the rest of the night.

Monday brought an early morning rise. We were all up by 6:45am. Richie made some regular and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and we left the church (somewhat late) by 7:45 to go to our orientation at a church 20 minutes away. At the orientation we were introduced to Susan and Monte who are the organizers of the projects we're working on. They travel to devastated areas as a full-time job in an RV to organize relief efforts. After the orientation, we split up into four groups and traveled to our work sites. They vary in distance from the church, from 10 minutes to up to 30 minutes. Details of each of the sites will come soon by people who are each of the sites. We all got back to the church between 4 and 5pm, and then proceeded to make a great chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggie dinner. After a small break we gathered together to have a reflection people, where Chelsea lead us. She had us go around and say an apology and an appreciation to either someone in the group (or the whole group) or someone (or a group of people) who weren't part of the group. It was a great discussion, and since then until now we've all been hanging out, playing bananagrams, working on homework, or sleeping.

That brings y'all pretty much up to date. The hope is that other people will be posting real soon, whether it's about their work site, a reflection, story, or something else! We hope to have some pictures posted soon as well, and possibly some videos too!

Till then ~ Richie