Day One
Our journey to Pensacola began with a rude awakening at 4:45 in the morning from our trip leaders (moms) at Bridget’s house in Como where all 12 of us had bunked for the night. We loaded the van in negative two degree weather and began our uneventful and extremely long 14 hour car ride, briefly stopping for food and gas along the way. Around 7-ish pm we arrived at Pine Forest Methodist Church where we will be bunking, showering, and eating for the next week. Here we met our dear friend Dave, a member of the church, who showed us the ropes very enthusiastically and helped us settle in. He took us on a tour of the kitchen area and dining hall, the rooms we will be sleeping in, and the gymnasium which houses our showers… all in three different buildings. The only problem with this situation is that Pensacola is about 30 degrees at night this time of year. After we briefly unloaded the van, we made a $511.33 trip to Walmart for groceries, our first of many. We headed back to the church loaded with groceries, eager to make the frozen pizzas we had just purchased. Once we were finished eating, we all took some well-needed showers and headed to our air mattresses to get a good night’s rest for the day to come.
Day Two
Being worn out from the 14 hour car ride yesterday in the twelve passenger van, 6:30 am hit us all pretty hard this morning. As everyone ate breakfast and got their lunches prepared, Cara and Bridget carefully mapped out (or so we thought) the route to our first destination of the day. We were supposed to arrive at the office of Project Green Shores, but instead we ended up getting lost… twice. Eventually we ended up waiting in a parking lot listening to Disney tunes until the members of Project Green Shores came to our rescue. But before they arrived, we discovered that we had parked in a federal parking lot as a security guard approached our van. Luckily Cara’s charm talked him down and we were on our way to our first project. After a 15 minute drive, we arrived at what appeared to be an empty parking lot, but then came to find thousands of oyster shells recycled from various restaurants spread across the asphalt and bagged in piles along the fence. The members then informed us that we needed to load the bags of oysters into the trailer they had provided. After we finished loading, we proceeded to the beach where our second task would begin. One by one, we unloaded the bags from the trailer using an assembly line until they were in the correct locations by the water. From there, we created oyster reefs by placing the bags precisely in the dimensions measured by the members into the water. In the end, we successfully made two and a half oyster reefs after another journey back to the loading site. At first we wondered what the reefs were used for only to find out that these reefs prevent sand erosion, provide habitat for living oysters, and filtrate the ocean water. Each oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day! Lunch time arrived and we scarfed down our sacked lunches as we journeyed to the nursery of Project Green Shores. After a brief tour of the facilities, we began work with the native plants within the green houses. We split into two groups and spent our time dividing larger plants into smaller ones and re-potting them for future growth. Once that was accomplished, we spent the next two hours picking weeds from dozens of thriving plants.
3:00 o’clock soon arrived and we said our goodbyes to the lovely team of Project Green Shores. Along the way to our next destination, we made a pit stop at Sonic for some well needed happy hour slushies. Next, we got the opportunity to tour a fully completed habitat home, which was amazing to see the outcome of all the hard work we will be doing within the next week. Our habitat guide Kevin then lead us back to the Habitat for Humanity headquarters for Pensacola where we got a grand tour, an orientation presentation, and a tasty Chick-fil-A dinner. On our way back to the church, we stopped by Walmart for a second time and bought some well needed Febreze for the ripe oyster smell contaminating our clothes. Eventually we arrived back to our sleeping quarters where we found out we could not shower due to a basketball tournament being held in the gymnasium. To kill time until we may finally see the inside of a shower after a long day’s work, we’re currently playing an intense game of spoons in the dining hall. Besides the exhaustion, sunburns, and stench, it was overall a very worthwhile, rewarding and NEAT day here in Pensacola. Anyways, back to our card game…
Love,
Lindsey and Allie
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