Day 2 & 3: Can't Stop, Won't Stop

This post comes a day later than expected. On this trip, hours seem to fly by so fast and yet the days seem to pass slowly. However, we are enjoying every minute of each day. Tuesday was the busiest day of our trip yet. We woke up around 8am and we were out of the house well before 9:30pm. We would spend our morning serving food to the women of YWCA and from there head over to Neighborhood house in order to assist in the tutoring elementary school children, followed by a search and rescue project with interns from Serve Seattle. For many of us these experiences were very new. Some of us were nervous about serving meals to the women at the shelter while others looked forward to tutoring kids later that day. Nobody really knew what to expect going into the search and rescue that evening, but at the end of the day we we were all pleased and excited about how everything went. The day took everything out of us and for many of us we didn't have much time to reenergize or just relax. Yet on a positive note, that did not stop us.


Tuesday was very refreshing and rewarding. To start the day off,we served at Operation Night Watch,whose main goals are to provide food and short-term shelter for senior citizens in need of support. Our team helped clean rooms of four individuals that are residents at the shelter. Groups of two students per room helped residents by vacuuming floors, sanitizing dressers,cleaning windows,etc. After this was complete,we took a brief break and then cleaned bathrooms and kitchen equipment. This experience had a cleaning component to it but the group was satisfied to have a direct impact on those we served. Throughout our morning and early afternoon,we were able to all build good rapport with the residents. From here,we went to the Neighborhood House to tutor the elementary students, the same that we helped yesterday. The students seemed to be very excited for us to be in their presence as they are now used to us being there. Towards the end,we also played with the kids in the park after the tutoring session,which was quite memorable for us all. From our group debrief,most if not all of the team did not have specific complaints on the day. The only main issue was with scheduling dinner in Pikes Place market was that all of the restaurants were closed,so we had to change plans. With this said,the team took the challenge in stride and was willing to consider other options for dinner. So overall,a satisfying day on all fronts.