Today (Thursday) was our last day of service at Wesley-Rankin Community Center. The day started with a game called Connect where we learned more about eachother, went inside for our daily reading time, then went back to the gym for some run time, wrote “Just Because…” poems, ate lunch, and then had our “Finishing Ceremony.” For our finishing ceremony, we made books of all the worksheets and pictures that the kids did about their identities. The back cover of their little book had a photo of the group that we took yesterday and we all signed around it and wrote sweet notes to let them know that they do have bright futures and can do anything they put their minds to. We also gave superlatives (individual awards) to each student for a characteristic that they displayed throughout the week that we noticed. We had a future president, future judge, first woman to play in the NFL, and SO much more. It was a very important goal of ours to show these students that they can do anything and have the same opportunities as anyone else in this world. It was hard to say goodbye to these sweet kiddos who probably taught us more than we could ever teach them.
Our indirect service today was pretty simple. The group finished up leveling donated books and putting them on their appropriate shelves, cleaned up classrooms that we worked in, and painted a couple book cases over in the senior center.
This morning we got to the center especially early due to an event happening at our housing site that started the time we usually leave. When we got to the center 15 minutes early, someone suggested that we drive around the neighborhood to just see the homes that our students come from. That part was so surreal and I think hit our hearts pretty hard. There were so many signs in the yard that said “We fight for West Dallas” since they are struggling to keep their community from being developed into apartment complexes. When driving around it looks like what some might consider a “dangerous” neighborhood but then you realize that you don’t see any cops because it is not a bad place to live. It is such a tight knit community that there is no crime which was so inspiring to see. I think that was one of the many strong points of Immersion on this trip.
Dinner tonight was some amazing Mexican food made by Brother Carl, a local pastor (He also made us dinner last night, spaghetti and meatballs). Last night was so great Brother Carl hung around and just talked to us which was a lot of fun and then we got to see his awesome car! The best part about the car is that it was a real fast car and when Jimi from Admissions started asking about the car, Brother Carl says “do you have your drivers license?” To a guy he has known for like 30 minutes, and when Jimi said yeah, Carl tossed him the keys to take it out! He wasn’t allowed to use the red key to start it though… that key is illegal.
Reflection tonight was letters. On Tuesday night we all picked names out of a hat and were told to watch for that person through our service to write a letter to them at the end of the week (tonight). I think the letters were good for us all because it was so much fun to see what others noticed in eachother.
Tomorrow is our free day. We have decided to visit the Bishop Arts District in the morning. It is a gorgeous area with lots of murals, photo ops, and a great pie shop that we couldn’t go to on Pi Day. We will do lunch somewhere and then go to downtown to see a few things including the plaza where JFK was shot, which is he part that I am most excited for.
I think we are all sad that our service is over but we will most definitely be headed back to Springfield with an entirely new outlook on life.
Our home life is still the same. We have or ever growing wall of quotes, we spend most of our time together, and we laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. I would not trade this trip for any other spring break opportunity.
– Catie Goetter