OUR WORLD=AWOL San Francisco or the eyes of Holley
(its about 1-2am at the moment so please don't pay attention to the spelling mistakes because of the time and because of the author! :D )
Today was a day where coffee at every corner was indeed a great purchase! BUT that is besides the point, I'm going to start in the beginning if i can remember it all! The days have been so long and the week has been so short! Its going to be difficult to remember everything, but I'd like to put in what i have to say about everything that happened. Saturday was an interesting waking up time for me because i'm not sure i've ever been up at 4:30 am to do anything in my life. It was a uneventful trip to the airport and just a long day of flying and actually getting to San Fran. Once we got here it made it all worth it though! We got off the BART which led us to Market Street which is where we could walk just about 3 or 4 blocks to our hostel. We got to tour the city a bit until we finally ended in our hostel that night. It was a long day but so exciting to see the 17 starbucks in the 3 to 4 blocks to our hostel from the BART train. Those Starbucks quickly became our friends!
Monday was another day where i hadn't even seen 7am in a long time! Having to wake up and get ready before 10am when i normally have class was a bit of a shocker to me, but i was jazzed and excited about getting the ball rolling on our AWOL trip! We went to the R.O.C.K. site where we took a wrong turn after getting off the bus and actually ended up in the night time "bad spot" which we didn't find out until later. But we had a fun time with Tina at the ROCK place which was under a beautiful church where we could hear them singing praises and the stopping and joyous worship noises from above. It was amazing! We then went to the Tenderloin Health place where we sat in a room with the whole group and 3 other volunteers and had a three hour "training session." It was very informational and we got some AMAZING but spicy burritos! After that... i don't really remember... all the days are running together, so i'm just going to write about what i've done on this trip so far! HAHA!
ROCK-- i got to help out with a 4th and 5th grade classroom at El Dorado elementary. I was joined by a Emily, a fellow team member, and a substitute teacher. These kids were so beautiful. Young and eager for knowledge, or just a new person to bother... It ended up that they wanted to bother the sub and were eager for knowledge from Emily and I. I was a little bummed when i found out that we wouldn't really be helping the students with their homework and such, but for the most part we'd be correcting homework and doing other little projects that the teacher just hadn't had the time to get to. But after a while i realized that i liked correcting the papers and i didn't mind doing the other little projects because the kids were giving the sub such a hard time, all there was TO DO was sit in the back of the classroom with Emily and wonder how the substitute was going to be able to control them! Finally the sub got the kids to listen to the little book that he was reading to them, the kids were really into the book by the end, but didn't want anyone especially the Sub to know that they actually enjoyed the story. After the story i'm not really sure what happened because the sub didn't really do well with the sub-notes and i'm just really not sure if the sub was drunk or high or what because he was goin off on some pretty odd stuff! But this wasn't supposed to be about the substitute teacher but the kids! The kids were AMAZING! i was so excited when the actual teacher showed back up though! The teacher got control of her class and it was so exciting to see the way that she could handle them. It almost made me think that i was in the wrong program at USD! I had so much love for that teacher to be able to connect with those kids and have those kids trust her although their home life may have been horrible, they could come to school and connect with the other kids and be close to their teacher. I got to go read with a couple of the kids, both who were Hispanic. I don't remember their names, but the first little boy i read with read about a talking T-REX book and was very well in his reading skills, but the other one i helped had a book of a bunch of short stories and wasn't quite up to the right skill level. I was so excited when i got to help him sound out a word or explain the meaning of a "pasture" to this young boy. I just felt that although it was the only day we were there, i got to help him learn a new word and maybe if he doesn't remember my name or anything else, he'll remember the meaning of a pasture. :D THEN i got to work with the same "pasture" boy and two young girls who were BEAUTIFUL!!! i mean more beautiful than any model i've ever seen! One looked like an African American baby barbie and the other just had such a glow that made me smile! Then the day was over and we had to say goodbye and that was so hard for me, because here i was just getting to know the kids, and i had to say goodbye... Some of them asked how far away South Dakota was and if they could ever come visit Emily and I... One even said she'd ask her dad if she could! DOUBT IT! But maybe one day they'll go through South Dakota and remember the volunteers that they met that one time in like 4th or 5th grade... :D
PROJECT OPEN HAND-- I have had such a great time with this org. It is not as massive as the San Fran Food Bank which is to be expected, but it was the same sort of stuff. We get to go there for 3 days, Wed. Thurs. and we go again tomorrow. Here we get to package things up so that when people "shop(will explain later)" for the clients, the items are in nice packages. So the first day that we got there, it was two other girls from the trip and i that got to package Carrots for most of the time there. We also got to help out with some of the other things that just needed to be done. We sorted through a couple boxes of oranges, pulling out the rotten ones and throwing those nasty green and pure white colored oranges away! (yummy i know) It was a fun time trying to go around the nasty oranges so that the other person helping with the box would have to be the one to grab the nasty orange and not yourself (thanks Marcus ;)..) BUT ANYWAY! That was only one day though. This org. works with a bunch of people, but their main focus is on the HIV+ and AIDS people, but also women with Breast Cancer. So.... when one "shops" there is a "Menu" for the clients who come in and they can choose 2 meats, 2 dairy, 6 produce, 3 grain, and like 2 of something else.... and they fill out this paper, and then a partner and one's self would go in this TINY little market type of thing and pick up what they asked for. Emily and I have become good team mates and friends and so again here i was working with Emily and we got to help a bunch of the Breast cancer women, because Wed. are for the breast cancer women. It was so amazing to be able to help out those in need that way! So yeah, not much about it, but i really enjoyed the shopping part and they always fed us the food they served to the clients and let me tell you...... YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!! it was GREAT! We go there again tomorrow and i'm sure it'll be just as great as every other day!!!
BAY AREA RESCUE MISSION-- We were only at this organization one time throughout the week, but it was fun! no matter how bad we smelt when we left there that day! We arrived and were able to find the building pretty easily (which was good because Roger gets us lost sometimes ;).... ) and when we got there, we got a tour of the place which was interesting, but then was the FUN stuff! We were split up into 2 groups of 6... I was in the group with Roger, Bailey, Jordan, Emily, and Alex. We were the group that got to stay and do some landscaping work first! I looked out into the little bit of grass they had and the beat up basketball court and saw a mower, a van, some garbage bags, some rakes, and some hedge clippers. So i assumed that we'd be using all those things. It was asked to have volunteers to do mowing, trimming a couple bushes, and taking one gallon buckets that had been donated and dumping them together to make a 5 gallon bucket. So i had my gear on for that day... an old pair of jeans that i had planned on throwing away when i was packing to come to CALI and i honestly don't remember what shirt, but nothing too important! and... as everyone knows on the trip..... my adidas shoes....... sooooo.... once the jobs were said, we got to pick which one we'd most like to do, and the first one given out was the mower and the weed wacker......... So nobody was stepping up to the plate because it was the most difficult job of them all, so I decided that i'd risk the white-ness of my shoes to mow the little bit of grass that was in and around the building, but the weed wacker would have to be someone else, because they scare me! I got going on some of the grass by the road, and it was too long of grass and too short of a cut, so it got clogged and i had to get help from Roger to raise it up and mow all of it...... then i lowered it and mowed again... I had a great time, but my shoes were super angry at me! (again everyone has heard about my shoes and all that!) So i mowed and the white-ness of my shoes all turned to green and went and helped Alex and Roger mix paint. I ended up doing the dumping the one gallon into the 5 gallon bucket and dropped one of the one gallon buckets into the 5 gallon bucket and HAD (.....;)...) to get paint all over my hands. And we were at this place on like TUESDAY and i just now got all the paint out from my nails and everthing and it is THURSDAY night... friday morning! so i had a good time doing the landscaping and all that good stuff. Little did i know it was time to switch with the other 6 from our group of 12 and go to the kitchen. We arrived and were served a DELICIOUS meal.... BBQ chicken, beans, amazing fries (thanks or zack), fruit, a pretty good salad bar and soup. It was wonderful food to be at a mission where i thought of like bologna sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. After we ate the good meal, my group got to go behind to the kitchen and found out that we'd be peeling GARLIC for a while, until some people had to help serve for another group. So i just stayed and peeled garlic for 3 hours, but during that three hours of my hands being stained with garlic odor, i got to hear the stories of many people. Again i can't remember names, but there were fellas working there who were in the program of the Bay Area Rescue Mission and just got to hear all about what they had experienced in life. Also got to listen to two men sing beautifully! Were only there for one day but it was fun indeed!
TENDERLOIN HEALTH-- The 3 hour orientation for about 3 hours of being there! HAHA... the three hour orientation was very informational and interesting to hear the statistics of San Fran. That it is the 16th largest city in the US the 3rd largest in HIV+ and AIDS and also 3rd largest city for the homeless population...... MIND BLOWING!!!!! We actually worked with this organization today and it was a little disappointing, but understood that where we were put to do our jobs was where they needed us. I guess i'm not going to say a whole lot about this one because not much can be said because it was so short of a time to be with them, but it was a lot of paper and rat poop!
SAN FRAN FOOD BANK-- This next to ROCK was pretty much my FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! here we got to do an assembly line of white rice!...... there were about 8 people to a table and TUES and WED night we got to bag rice. One person would weigh a pound of rice into a cup, the next would pour the cup into a bag, the next would label the bag, the next would seal the bag, and the last would make sure the bag was sealed and put them in a box. IT WAS CRAZY!!!!!!! and soooo sooo sooo sooo fun! the first night we were there at my table it was Marcus, me, some people i didn't know, Alex, Emily, and Bailey. It was so fast pace that i almost had a heart attack (not really, dont worry mom!) But, it was so fun!!! i don't really know how else to describe it, i mean it really doesn't sound like it would be but just the group that was there and just everything was amazing! we bagged rice WED. night as well and we only got about half the amount done that we had one TUES, but it was still amazing!
FISHERMAN'S WHARF-- This is where we went Saturday when we first got here. We got to ride the different buses and all that good stuff, and we walked around the place and got some SWEET pictures, then we ate at the SEA LIONS CAFE or something of the sort, where when you looked outside the window there were platforms with Sea lions just laying all over them! There were millions of pictures taken of those sea lions before and after we ate. I had an AMAZING something with like big shrimp! yummy yummy yummy! ANYWAY!... after that, we just had to have something to top off the meal.. so we ended up going to Garadeli or something square where the factory for that type of chocolate was made. The biggest hill to get to the factory, but well worth burning off the calories before you make it to the ice cream and gain them all back! I ended up getting coffee ice cream because one of the workers suggested it, and i go with the workers choices because they are ALWAYS the best!n and she was right! amazing!
HAIGHT and ASHBERRY (or whatever)--GOLDEN GATE PARK-- This was actually a bit out of my comfort zone... (dad i called you because of this).... there were a lot of... hippies..... um.. smoking pot... but once you got past the hippies, there was so much beautiful stuff in this park, a huge playground, polo fields, some art buildings, just a lot of stuff that i wish i could have looked around more and not seen the hula hooping hippie hop happily high! :D BUT it was a good experience and i may have gotten a couple of the group members convinced in getting a tattoo today or tomorrow or whatever right now is! So i may be going back, and i'm sure i'll enjoy it, and Bailey will enjoy her Eggplant sandwich!
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE-- there was actually a time where half the group went to golden gate bridge at night so they got to see the lights and everything cool like that, but i just wasn't in the mood for the golden gate bridge at night, especially because i almost couldn't walk on it due to me being a bit nervous of bridges when i did go. anyway... i ended up going today in fact! and i did have a good time, no matter how much i said, its just a bridge blah blah blah... it was pretty cool to walk on and i got some good pictures that hopefully my brother will be proud of! :D
ALCATRAZ--- WAS AMAZING! no other words to describe.... except after like 200 pictures of it, my battery decided it was tired of working for me and died.. :( so i'll be getting some of the "private tour" pictures from someone else to show my dad! so yeah we got on a private tour and it was super cool, got to see the "bird man's" cell that he stayed in for however long, i don't remember all the rooms and such now, but it was cool, we got to take a walking tour through the main prison building.. and i don't know.. if you have a chance to go whoever is reading this.. DO IT!
CHINA TOWN-- by the end of the week i'll have gone 3 times i think... its pretty amazing as well! I have enjoyed everytime that i've been there... and i got some super good cookies that hopefully will bring me great fortunes from San Fran!!!
WELL as you can see this is much to much for one to type at 2 in the morning, but that's most of it. Died out a little in the end, but so am i :D.... It has been a GREAT trip so far and with only Friday (today now) left i hope that there will be another paragraph to add to this post although I most likely wont add anymore. I had a great time on this trip and am so glad i had the chance to be a part of AWOL SAN FRAN!
Thanks everyone
(XOXO family!)-- Holley Anderton
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