The Last Day

4 March 2013

Panera Breads offered another decadent start to the day as we pulled up early this morning for fresh baked goods and hot coffee.  We haven’t splurged much on this trip, but I’m all of a sudden feeling the need to, since we get back to regular life here real soon. 

We went over the Watered Gardens, a homeless shelter, to volunteer today, but they didn’t open their doors til 9am.  We had an hour to kill, so we drove to Oklahoma so Kaleb could count that as another state he’d been to.  Joplin is right where Oklahoma and Kansas meet the Missouri border, so we dropped Kaleb off in Kansas and made him walk (across the street) to get to Oklahoma.  He thought that was pretty funny.  We got back from that diversion just as the shelter was opening. (photo below is of a street we went on where the tornado touched down - not a tree in sight.)

There’s always something to do in a place like Watered Gardens, and since there were three of us, we got through all their little “to do” projects quickly.  Kaleb likes repetitive tasks and he’s such an efficiency expert, he’s always looking for ways to improve the flow, but we jumped from one thing to the next so quickly he didn’t get to put that brain of his to work so much.  It kept us from being bored, that’s for sure. 

We started out scooping donated soup from a five gallon bucks into large baggies to be frozen.  We washed, dried and put away plenty of dishes.  We washed floors, watered plants, and tightened bolts on wiggly chairs.  Kory tried to repair a leaky washing machine, but found a large part needs to be replaced so he couldn’t do it.  Kaleb and I sorted through sheets and towels and labeled their sizes.  We all sanitized the mattresses the homeless sleep on each night and we cleaned up after the lunch crowd. 

One guy there washing dishes asked us if we “were doing community service, too.”  I didn’t ask him what kind of trouble he’d gotten in to, but he volunteered.  He’s from San Diego, but came out to help his mom move into her new house, once it finally got built, as her old one was lost in the tornado.  While he was here, he had his 21^st birthday so he had a bit too much to drink.  He was outside his mom’s house, and got picked up for “drunk and disorderly.”  I’m sure the fact he was black had everything to do with it, but he was given a sentence of 28 days in jail or 30 hours of community service.  I thought that was an incredibly stiff fine for something like that.  He’s a college student back home and a seemingly pretty respectable kind of kid.  He got to choose where to put in his time, but as soon as he’s done volunteering there, he’s on the next plane back to San Diego.  I don’t blame him. Norwegians all think it’s so strange we have that “public drunkenness” law anyway, since the main way they all get home, if they’ve been drinking too much, is to walk. They couldn’t do that in America – the land of the free. 

The homeless shelter closes from 2-5pm and they had nothing for us to do during that time, so we had to leave, sadly.  We only got in five hours of work, so we went over to say good-bye to Cousin Ruth. 

All the cousins expected us to stay three days, as we had originally planned, but when we told them Kaleb was so anxious to make it to church on Sunday and see his friends, they understood our need for an earlier departure time.  It’s just so great to be with relatives that love our company.  I should move closer, I swear.  They are one great family unit.  It’s nice to feel like I belong somewhere, anyway.  Kory says that’s how he feels when we are in Norway.

We drove out of town by 4pm and made it to Wichita, Kansas just after dark.  It’s a good head start to our journey, which will have very few stops between here and home.  Kaleb is doubling up on all his schoolwork as we drive so he will be free for a few days when we get home to see his friends.  He’s already making phone calls and arranging times. 

The weather report looks like nothing but sunshine all the way so Hallelujah for that.  God is good.