Detroit 1 - Children (1)

Hey guys!

    After a 13 and a half hour drive, with a fake birthday, vehicle naming and a snack crisis behind us, we finally arrived in Detroit, MI, late Saturday night. After a (relatively) good night's rest, we were up and ready to take on Detroit Sunday morning for our free day.

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    We started our day attempting to get some famous Detroit Doughnuts, only to find that on the one moment in time that doughnuts should absoluately be served to the masses, the store was closed (still kind of upset about it). So, we had a morning feast at IHOP, and proceeded to Belle Island. While there, we saw America's oldest aquarium and a lovely, but slightly frozen, beach. After attempting to get into the Detroit Institute of Art and deciding to not deal with the ridiculous amount of traffic, we made our way to Comerica Park, the other home of the Tigers! Following our escapade around the park, we split into groups; some of us went to the city's riverwalk and eventually to the Detroit Institute of Art. Our groups ended our night by getting some deep-dish pizza in Greektown (not what you expected, huh?), going back to our church, and discussing our first day of service the next day. We were all anxious but excited to start working with kids at Urban Neighborhood Initiative. 

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    This morning, we woke up bright and early to begin our day of service at UNI. Upon arriving, we were immediately greeted by a welcoming neighborhood and park where the children could play safely. We got a chance to evaluate our own thoughts about Detroit and the initiative program. It was refreshing for the entire group of volunteers and workers so ready to work and so eager to make a change in this city. We reorganized the after-school system's garage, cleaned up the streets and built some wagons before the kids showed up. After helping set up and some minor preparations, the kids arrived at 3:30. We helped with homework, did arts and crafts, played games outside, and had a lot of bonding time with the kids. We found ourselves addressing our own biases and getting to really enjoy our time with these wonderful kids. All of the kids were really open and fun to be with, and we were sad when we had to leave at the end of the day. 

    We're all so excited to work more with these kids, and we can't wait to see what the rest of this week has in store.

Love,

​- MAB Detroit 1 <3