Last week, I was at a going away party for Shannon at the Johnson House. Most of the volunteers from the east side were there, but Shannon had also put in a special request to Harold (their volunteer manager) and asked him to bring his 2 daughters, Lena and Makenzie.
This particular story is about Makenzie and Nick (another volunteer), so I need to describe them a little bit. Makenzie's 6 years old and she has cerebral palsy. I've only met her a few times, but I've seen that she has a deep love for other people and a strength that most don't possess during their entire lives, much less by the time they're six. I first met her at Camp Caleb a couple of months ago when I was over at her table and catching up with Harold. Makenzie asked, "Do you want to go outside and play tag with me on the porch?" I, of course, told her that I would because she's absolutely adorable, then we went outside and played for about an hour or so.
Nick is 24, probably 6'5" or so, and he's built like a football player. He has pretty blue eyes and a beard that he probably hasn't shaved in 2 months. He looks like a mountain man when you first meet him, but then you talk to him and realize he's more of the gentle giant type.
I think that's enough back story, so here's the conversation that occurred between Gina (another volunteer) and Makenzie when she arrived for Shannon's party.
Makenzie: Do you know where that guy from the other day is?
Gina: Which guy? Do you remember what he looked like?
Makenzie: A prince.
Apparently, Makenzie has a crush now... it starts so young :).
Sunday, July 26, 2009
What is my life right now?
During the past 2 weeks, I've been living about 2 hours away from the Rockcastle House on the very eastern side of Kentucky. Week 1 was spent at Camp Shawnee as a counselor for "teen girls' week" (our group had 17 girls ranging in age from 8-11). Week 2 was spent volunteering in housing at the Floyd House because Bridget asked on Sunday, "Do you want to do housing this week instead of day camp?" and I said, "Sure," then moved into their house about 8 hours later. Here are some of the things that made me step back and say to myself, "What is my life right now?" and "Where AM I?"
1) I got lost 2 weeks ago when I drove to Camp Shawnee. I had gotten directions from mapquest, but it turned out that they must be to the place where they receive mail in Prestonsburg because it was definitely not where camp was. I called up to camp and they gave me directions for the rest of the way. I decided to go back a couple of miles to McDonald's to go to the bathroom (in case I got lost on my way to camp) and also ask for directions there because I thought they might be able to draw me a map or something. Brian at camp and the nice McDonald's lady told me to go to 1428 and turn left at 194, then keep going straight, which would be a long way, until I saw the sign for Camp Shawnee. Well, I really paid attention to both of them saying that it would be a long way and ended up passing the camp by about 40 miles :(.
Long story short, I ended up completely lost for about an hour, without cell phone reception, and not a car or house in sight. Finally, once I had been hyperventilating for a few minutes, I saw a car coming from the opposite direction. I waved at her to stop, then asked, "Do you (gasp) know where (gulp) Camp Shawnee (gasp again) is?" She said, "Is that with the Christian Appalachian Project?" I said that it was and she told me, "Don't worry, people are really nice around here." I explained that I knew that people were nice, but that I had gotten completely lost and hadn't seen anyone for awhile. Anyway, she ended up being kind enough to lead me all the way to camp and she pointed out where it was. Camp was about 10 miles from where I had flagged her down on the road, which means that she went about 30 minutes out of her way to show me where it was... I don't think that would happen anywhere else except for here. My favorite part was when I thanked her again for showing me how to get to camp and she said, "I think it was meant to be that I came along."
2) We put new shingles on a woman's house and it turns out that she has a puppet ministry. During one of the times that I wasn't on the roof, I went inside the house and she was doing a puppet show for some of the teenagers in the group that we were working with. It was kind of creepy because she had her mouth closed as if she was a ventriloquist, but it was definitely a male voice coming from the puppet. It turns out that she has a tape that she plays while she does these puppet shows and the puppet is moving its mouth to that while playing a keyboard. It's a detective puppet that sings about the Peace Patrol and I had to listen to the show twice, which was 2 more times than I actually wanted to.
3) Our group was also interviewed by the Paintsville Herald at this woman's house. I found out on Friday that the article made the front page, so I was kind of excited about that. There goes my 15 minutes of fame.
4) At the end of the week, there was a picnic for the groups who had done housing. One of the groups had a couple who does music ministry in it, so they did a little concert in the park for us. It was kind of strange when I realized that I was sitting in a park in Kentucky listening to a couple from Pennsylvania as they sang in Italian (they were singing "The Prayer" by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli).
5) Yesterday, we went to Robyn's (Jenny's boss') farm to take pictures with bales of hay... we needed new facebook pictures and thought that it would be very Kentucky-like to take them with hay. We got the tour from Robyn, her 13 year old son, Isaac, and her 7 year old niece, Libby. After we had taken the pictures, Libby drove us in the Mule (basically a golf cart) back to the house. I just couldn't believe that we were being driven around by a 7 year old and all of us were fine with it! This wasn't that she was steering and someone else was using the brake or accelerating... all of it was her driving. She did an excellent job, too, and no one was hurt.
Those were the only ones that I could think of for the moment, even though I'm sure that there were plenty more.
1) I got lost 2 weeks ago when I drove to Camp Shawnee. I had gotten directions from mapquest, but it turned out that they must be to the place where they receive mail in Prestonsburg because it was definitely not where camp was. I called up to camp and they gave me directions for the rest of the way. I decided to go back a couple of miles to McDonald's to go to the bathroom (in case I got lost on my way to camp) and also ask for directions there because I thought they might be able to draw me a map or something. Brian at camp and the nice McDonald's lady told me to go to 1428 and turn left at 194, then keep going straight, which would be a long way, until I saw the sign for Camp Shawnee. Well, I really paid attention to both of them saying that it would be a long way and ended up passing the camp by about 40 miles :(.
Long story short, I ended up completely lost for about an hour, without cell phone reception, and not a car or house in sight. Finally, once I had been hyperventilating for a few minutes, I saw a car coming from the opposite direction. I waved at her to stop, then asked, "Do you (gasp) know where (gulp) Camp Shawnee (gasp again) is?" She said, "Is that with the Christian Appalachian Project?" I said that it was and she told me, "Don't worry, people are really nice around here." I explained that I knew that people were nice, but that I had gotten completely lost and hadn't seen anyone for awhile. Anyway, she ended up being kind enough to lead me all the way to camp and she pointed out where it was. Camp was about 10 miles from where I had flagged her down on the road, which means that she went about 30 minutes out of her way to show me where it was... I don't think that would happen anywhere else except for here. My favorite part was when I thanked her again for showing me how to get to camp and she said, "I think it was meant to be that I came along."
2) We put new shingles on a woman's house and it turns out that she has a puppet ministry. During one of the times that I wasn't on the roof, I went inside the house and she was doing a puppet show for some of the teenagers in the group that we were working with. It was kind of creepy because she had her mouth closed as if she was a ventriloquist, but it was definitely a male voice coming from the puppet. It turns out that she has a tape that she plays while she does these puppet shows and the puppet is moving its mouth to that while playing a keyboard. It's a detective puppet that sings about the Peace Patrol and I had to listen to the show twice, which was 2 more times than I actually wanted to.
3) Our group was also interviewed by the Paintsville Herald at this woman's house. I found out on Friday that the article made the front page, so I was kind of excited about that. There goes my 15 minutes of fame.
4) At the end of the week, there was a picnic for the groups who had done housing. One of the groups had a couple who does music ministry in it, so they did a little concert in the park for us. It was kind of strange when I realized that I was sitting in a park in Kentucky listening to a couple from Pennsylvania as they sang in Italian (they were singing "The Prayer" by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli).
5) Yesterday, we went to Robyn's (Jenny's boss') farm to take pictures with bales of hay... we needed new facebook pictures and thought that it would be very Kentucky-like to take them with hay. We got the tour from Robyn, her 13 year old son, Isaac, and her 7 year old niece, Libby. After we had taken the pictures, Libby drove us in the Mule (basically a golf cart) back to the house. I just couldn't believe that we were being driven around by a 7 year old and all of us were fine with it! This wasn't that she was steering and someone else was using the brake or accelerating... all of it was her driving. She did an excellent job, too, and no one was hurt.
Those were the only ones that I could think of for the moment, even though I'm sure that there were plenty more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)