What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

11 July 2009

Oops. Missed a day.

Oh, well, can't have everything.

So, our church started last year having a massive, one-weekend, community service day. They hoped for 50 people to come join in last year, and over 300 turned up. We all had a great day.

This weekend, we were at it again. Chad went yesterday to one of the local children's homes to help trim hedges, get tree branches off power lines, and that sort of thing. Today, we were out there again to finish up.

We did this last year, too, and I'm not sure it's been done at all in the interim. The difference is that this year we had temps in excess of 100 degrees. But, we got it done. I suppose that the ministers couldn't predict back in January which weekend during the summer would be the hottest-- but they may have chosen the correct one! Actually, our group was quite lucky-- we at least had shade. Some people were painting, putting up fences, and other hard labour without the benefit of trees and houses to hide behind. I haven't talked to any of them yet, though, so I don't know how it went.

Unfortunately, doing grounds keeping stuff at the Children's Home meant we didn't really get to interact with the kids, which is too bad. I chatted with a couple of boys for a few minutes about their toy guns, and that's pretty much it. I saw kids outside playing and riding their bikes, but everyone was back inside by the time we were leaving-- it was lunchtime, after all, and pretty hot.

I love seeing the kids at the Home ride their bikes. A lot of them never had a bike in their life before coming to the Home. A staple of my-- and, if all one hears is true, most of my friends'-- childhood was riding my bike, and yet these kids have missed out on that. The kids who are placed at the Children's Home are there through no fault of their own, and have had a raw deal in a lot of ways. But an upside of them being in the Home is that they get this little bit of their childhood back-- someone else is looking after them, taking care of keeping them housed & fed, and they can ride their bikes like all other kids.

Tomorrow, we have a picnic & concert to wrap up the weekend. Stay tuned to hear how it goes.

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