Another Day In Paradise

Just Another Day in Paradise

     Merrily we left at 6:20am to serve breakfast at the Union Gospel Mission. Four of us served the grits, pancakes with syrup, and bacon. Two of us handed out milk, bagels, yogurt (sweet potato being one of the variations) and an after breakfast mint. There were four shifts of guests with a total of three hundred served. One hundred percent of the food served is donated. We were told by one of the local volunteers that they have always had enough food because God always provides. After the final tier of breakfast was served, we cleaned up and then started cutting vegetables for lunch. One of the volunteers had attended culinary school so he showed us the proper techniques for cutting celery, shallots, and red peppers. We managed to not cut ourselves with their chef knives and enjoyed some nice conversation. That same volunteer explained to us that he is a graduate of the mission program and that eighty percent of the staff graduated from the program as well. We left Union Gospel Mission and enjoyed a picnic lunch before working at the Our Lady of Guadeloupe school library.

     For those who don't remember, Our Lady of Guadeloupe is the parish generously providing us with a place to stay at their parish center. The facility is state of the art and beautiful. Their school library will soon be transformed. The librarians spent hours researching and created a master plan. Step one of this renovation is to make room for the new by filtering out books older than thirty years old. Research has shown children feel overwhelmed by overcrowded book shelves and are more likely to explore a library when the bookshelves are half full. Nine of us checked the copyrights of every book in the library and removed the older books in one afternoon. The school will donate the older books to a place in the Philippines. It was fun to see the old books, to reminisce and to educate ourselves. At the end of the day, the library was ready for the next stage of their renovation.

     The weather has frequently been discussed this week but for good reason. Today was 80 degrees and without a cloud in the sky. Seattle is normally not blessed with this type of weather, especially not in April. We spent the evening at Alki Beach. For dinner we had hot dogs cooked on a beach fire followed by s'mores. We forgot we were in Seattle until we dipped our toes into the sound. So many people were out enjoying the gorgeous weather. Watching the sun set behind snow capped mountains is truly a sight to see.