Atlanta-Homelessness and Poverty

Yesterday was business as usual for the most part. We broke back up into our two groups, half of us going to the EDGE and the other half going to the children's shelter. The group that went to the children's shelter then we separated into three groups; we had the shredder headers (Helena and Maddy), the M&M brothers (Max and I), and a solitary group of one: Muscles (Laureen). The shredder headers were tasked with what else, shredding. Muscles, Max, and I were tasked with reorganizing a closet. We tackled these tasks with intense precision, took a walk down memory lane, and even got to end the day early enough to go cook some awesome twice baked potatoes! The daycare group had a great learning experience with what tough love means. Ms. Betty taught us all how to teach an infant to mind its business and forcefully keep them in line. They watched the kids while the weekly staff meeting went on, and had a great time on the playground making sure the kids didn't burn the place down. Overall it was a pretty straightforward average day.

The real excitement for us came during our lunch break! We went back to Piedmont Park hoping to enjoy a nice lakeside lunch on a dock. That's when company came. A couple of Canadian geese decided to invite themselves to the luncheon. We tried to scare them away but the geese were relentless with their strategy of attack. It was then that the piece of bread went flying towards them. Someone had thrown a precious piece of food that would make the geese become more aggressive. This is now known as our version of "the shot heard round the park" because no one knows who tossed the bread but would be the event that would set the course for the rest of the lunch break. Cole very loudly and wildly began to flock towards the geese with his body hovering over them as if to say, "I'm bigger than you." Max, the more emotional person in the group was not pleased with Cole's macho behavior and then began to apologize to unwelcomed feathered enemies. After we had finished eating, we thought we had thwarted the geese, however, while throwing a Frisbee around, the geese regrouped and attacked again. This time they were squawking and flailing their wings like they were trying to attract mates. They even chased the Frisbee. Again, Cole got up their grill and chased them off again, Max trailing behind Cole with words of encouragement and more apologies for Cole's aggressive behavior towards them. I guess they appreciated the gesture because they didn't come back again.

That night, we got to babysit a few kids at the church near us while their parents were part of a special parenting course offered through the church. We served them dinner and colored. We also took them outside. We had various toys to give them, but little did we know that the bad mitten rackets and jump ropes would, towards the end of the night, be used as weapons the little army would use to try to overtake us with and gain entry to the house we had to keep them out of or what we deemed "the no no zone." We also had a marriage! One of the little girls grabbed Laureen and Stephen, made Laureen a bouquet of weeds, and married them both right on the lawn. It was beautiful; reception to follow when we get back to Mizzou. As for now, that was our night…just another day in the life of a Mizzou ASB'er.

Xoxo Skookums from the ATL

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