Today was a fairly slow day. We woke up much earlier this morning since we had to make two stops to drop everyone off at different sites. Something I have learned on this trip is to not expect boys to be ready on time. I always thought it was the other way around and that boys normally wait on girls, but the last two days have proven me wrong. Both yesterday morning and today, the boys have started us off 10-15 minutes later than originally planned. Luckily, is hasn’t made a difference either day. This morning, after dropping off three of our members at another site, Hannah, Yasser, Emily, and I went to the Fifty Forward Bordeaux site, where we first met with Jean Wilson.
The first thing I noticed about this site was the contract between it and the Knowles site. This site was basically a small building with one large room and a few small rooms for bathrooms, an office, and a kitchen. Nothing was in as good of condition; everything looked older and used compared to all of the new stuff at Knowles. Nonetheless we went inside and Jean told us a little history about the place. It was the newest site added to the organization, and the building used to be a church. Jean introduced us to her coworker Dorothy and told us a little bit about all of the people that would be coming in just a few minutes: the people who sat at the ‘card’ table were all business and probably wouldn’t talk to us much; Lenora liked to help everyone out and was learning how to read, and Tennessee was the backbone of them all. He was always there and helped with everything. When talking about him, Jean said, “If you spill something, Tennessee will be there to wipe it up by the time you turn around.” Jean then continued to talk about all of the people that come and the activities they do.
She then gave us the organization’s newsletter “Forward Focus.” After looking through that, she showed us a video that discussed some of the history of the organization and the activities and opportunities for is members. Just as we were finishing up the video, Dorothy arrived with some of the members that she picks up every morning. In came Jana, Margaret, and Bo, as well as a few other members. They all went and sat at ‘their’ tables as the four of us awkwardly sat to the side. After Jane showed us the kitchen and a storage room inside the office, we went and sat with the members. I sat in between two ladies who were very talkative. After telling one of them that we were from Kansas, she went on to talk about a lot of the experiences she has had in Tennessee, including working as a cashier at Vanderbilt University, which she did for around 30 years.
Sitting to my right was a woman who had caught my attention since she first walked in. Margaret kept joking around and laughing and her fun attitude was infectious. I asked her questions about baking and our conversation soon changed to how family eats all of your food. We had a fun time talking about random stuff, and then we decided to play bowling on the Wii. After playing a game, it was time to help hand out food.
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| Emily helps a Fifty Forward member, Lenora, learn to read at the Bordeaux site. |
After we handed out food, we left, picked up the other three who were at the other site, and went back to the Knowles site. When we got there, re recognized a group of women from the day before. When we went up to say hi, we asked them how their exercise classes had gone that they had invited us to the day before. After talking to them for a few minutes, they got ready to leave. At some point, Deborah or someone else (I honestly don’t remember) made a comment that made it sound like they had been waiting to talk to us before they left. It definitely made me feel good about the impact we were making on these people. For the rest of the time we were at Knowles, we cleaned windows in the upstairs offices and sorted yarn and beads, which was definitely a boring afternoon.
-Julie
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