Birmingham 1 - HIV/AIDS



SUNDAY MARCH 25,2013
“Don’t be shy.”

Since our orientation for AIDS Alabama doesn’t begin until Monday, Sunday was a day for exploring Birmingham. Nick, Alyssa, Emiy, Treyon, Naomi, Wesly and Amber headed to Mass at St. Francis while Troy and Ashley went on an extensive run around the grounds. Father Paul was a wonderful, interactive priest and the church has a lively community. They sang happy birthday to Naomi and also sang Happy Anniversary to another parishioner as well as thanking every student, one by one, that participated in a recent service event. Treyon—who is not Catholic—tried to take communion. He failed miserably. Watching the interaction between Father Paul and Trey as he attempted to take the Body of Christ from the priest was painful, but his intentions were pure and it was still a wonderful morning.

After Mass, we tried several busy local restaurants and settled on Bogue’s. We ate our weight in Mac and Cheese, collard greens, friend chicken, mash potatoes and cornbread and then headed to the incredible Civil Rights Institute of Birmingham.

BK looked up directions on Google Maps, which is usually completely reliable. We ended up in front of a random house in a sketchy part of town that had a multicolored fence with steel dragons on it. We figured this was probably not the right place, but circled around a couple times just in case.  We eventually redirected and found the correct street. Brittni was barred from navigating for the rest of the trip.

At the Civil Rights Institute, we explored the impactful history of our nation’s battle against “Separate but Equal” laws and learned about the bombing of the Baptist Church on 16th Street, where four little girls were killed. The church has since been rebuilt and sits across the street from the Civil Rights Institute.

Sunday was Alyssa and Wesly’s night to make dinner, and they made a delicious spaghetti meal with garlic bread that was missing garlic.  After nomming down, we played another round of Werewolf and Signs until we were all basically passed out from exhaustion.

Tonight was that night that our catchphrase for the trip was born. As Trey was trying to get Amber to say a word for the assassin game, Amber caught on to his game and refused to speak to him. For the rest of the evening, he creepily whispered “Don’t be shy” every time she ran from him. We now use it for every instance possible.  It continues to creep people out.

Also, Trey mentions “twerking” as much as possible. If you don’t know what twerking is, look up a YouTube video. Unless you’re over 30 years old, then maybe just be content knowing it’s a dance that involves a lot of booty shaking and we’ll leave it at that!

No comments:

Post a Comment