Birmingham 1 - HIV/AIDS

TUESDAY MARCH 26, 2013

“You guys are absolutely barbaric.”

Today was our first real work day with AIDs Alabama! It was a blasty-blast. After we checked in with the housing coordinator, Amanda, we decided to grab coffee at our new favorite hipster joint The Red Cat (they use uncooked spaghetti noodles as environmentally safe coffee stirs. Like, what?) Sadly, someone mistakenly let BK navigate again and we ended up 15 minutes in the wrong direction and 20 minutes late to our work site. It worked out, nobody died, all is well. We spent the morning and afternoon weeding, mulching, planting flowers, edging and cleaning the yards of a few women in houses provided by AIDs Alabama. It was dirty and gratifying and a great way to find out how we could all be amateur landscapers if our grad plans fall through.  Amanda thanked us profusely, assuring us that our small tasks were a huge relief to the families we assisted and that they would be thrilled when they saw the new flower beds.

In the afternoon we aimed to check out the Zoo, trampoline garden, historic park, or shopping district. Instead we all came home and took a nap. We also had access to a nearby school gym where we played knock-out and showed up Father Paul on the court.

Dinner was served by Brittni and Naomi and Amber—gourmet grilled cheese (which is really just regular grilled cheese with a slice of tomato to look fancy), tomato bisque soup (Amber’s grandma’s recipe) and BIG COOKIE. What is big cookie? A delicious invention introduced to us by ASB President Caleb Philips. You cook two sheets of cookies without separating the dough and then throw a block of ice cream on it and attack with forks. It’s barbaric and delicious and so intimidating that Ashley refused to participate. Ashley is also a vegetarian, so like, who is she calling barbaric you know? (Just kidding, we support you Ashley, you hippie, you.)

In other news, our sink is clogged, we flooded the kitchen, and there’s a creepy statue of St. Francis that keeps showing up in random places in the middle of the night. We’re trying not to stress about it. He probably just wants to learn how to twerk.

As of right now, we’re playing hide and seek in the dark, and frankly, it’s pretty terrifying. Tomorrow we’re working with a new organization, AIDs Outreach!

Peace & Blessings & Twerking,

ASBAMA