Birmingham
Today we had fun! We did a lot of work but also had the opportunity to sleep in an extra hour. Laney made breakfast for Father Paul who laughed like Rafiki from the Lion King. It was very comical.
We made our way to Birmingham AIDS Outreach after several minutes of rounding the block, trying to find the location. Once we found the correct building, we all entered and received a tour of the facilities from Jamie, who is the Fundraising Coordinator for Birmingham AIDS Outreach. We learned that it used to be a research laboratory and rumor has it that there is a secret passageway to a massive mansion. With them being a non-profit organization, they don't put much money toward their facilities. The money instead goes to life-saving medication and legal services to HIV+ individuals. In fact, their air conditioning was broken and they did not have the money to fix it so they all worked in the heat without complaint. On-site, they have a food pantry, a clothes pantry, as well as some food for pets.
They're the social side of the AIDS outreach and work closely with AIDS Alabama, as they provide direct services such as food and clothes as well as legal services to HIV+ individuals whereas AIDS Alabama takes the housing route. AIDS Alabama provides the foundation of housing, whereas Birmingham AIDS Outreach provides the basic necessities after that. It was interesting to note the differences between AIDS Alabama and Birmingham AIDS Outreach, as BAO was less of an office, more of a community center.
After the tour, we were immediately divided up. Jong-In, Laney, Shea, and Peter went upstairs to the clothing department to fold and sort oodles of clothing. They rummaged through hundreds of pants and shirts, sorting them and refolding them to a more presentable fashion. The clothing shop was arranged to look more like a department store so as to provide a sense of normalcy to the individuals utilizing those services. Amanda, Gage, and Colbey went to one of the rooms where they keep the protein supplements. They removed the boxes of Ensure, took out the shelving units, swept and mopped, then replaced everything. Allea, Lexie, and Zach ended up in the food pantry moving all of the food, sweeping and mopping, as well as removing the shelving units to clean them. Michael and Dane ended up outside pulling weeds initially but then moved on to the daunting task of cleaning the shelving units.
During lunch, we found an awesome unicorn piñata that we named Martina McUnicorn. After lunch, we had another quick discussion with the HIV Educator through BAO who informed us that the highest rates of HIV are found in the Spring Break states: Louisiana and Florida. Then the rates follow the interstate all the way up north as people return home and spread the virus.
After lunch though, it was back to work. Gage made a run to the courthouse with Steve but the rest of us ended up back in the food pantry. We continued to clean and reorganize the food pantry in order to make it more accessible as well as cleaner. It was long and laborious day, but well worth it. We were all very satisfied and gratified with our efforts and made a few new friends in the process.
After our complete day of service, we decided to take a trip to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in the hour before they closed. It smelled wonderful and we had a lot of fun taking pictures and just enjoying the environment after a long day of work. Zach was very upset that there was not a Butterfly House though we promised we'd find one before the end of the trip.
Colbey and Shea attempted to make dinner, which was laughable but interesting nonetheless. It turned out to be fine, but an entertaining show. We ran out of actual Texas toast, so we had to improvise. It all turned out fine, except for the burned noodles at the bottom. Jong-In made fried eggs even after we had already fed him.
Tomorrow is our day off, and we've already scheduled some majorly fun activities! We can't wait! Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment