Just One of Those Days

Well we had a bit of slow week following the mission teams.  I'm having trouble even remembering what we did.  Monday we took off for some needed rest and catching up on reading. Tuesday was a lot of studying in the morning then we swung by Retreat and read some in Piedmont Park.  Wednesday walked the parish and spent most of the time up at the lot. I talked mostly with Holiday, who always seems a bit drunk but keeps conversation.  He was explaining to me about how his mom was a maid and basically raised the kids of this white family, and how that was so common for his generation.  He was also telling the others guys to respect me and "talk normal" to me, which was sweet.  Plus two different groups came and handed out sack lunches. The guys started giving us some of there food, there was so much.
Thursday we went back to Retreat after class in the morning.  I saw Steven. He looks good, but he says he is bipolar and has been depressed for about a week now that he is not self medicating with drugs. But he was on his way to pick up his medication.  I spent most of my time talking with Adrian about theology, which was frustrating as usual.  It was nice to talk about something real, talk about God and not something so light. However it was lots of me getting preached to again.  I was in a pretty tired mood when we left, telling Lauren (who also wasn't feeling to great) that is was one of those days.  Then we headed out to the lot for a while.  I talked to Mike who had missed his doctor's appointment for his leg.  I called Grady with him to get him a new appointment.  It was nice to be able to do something for him, and know him well enough to trust that he wasn't going to run off with my phone.  He was very grateful, but I know I'm going to have to be on him to make sure he takes this appointment seriously and actually shows up.  Then I talked with Eddy and Jenny for a good bit. I've met Eddy a few times but haven't talked to him all that much.  He is great. He talked to us about his time in the Navy and about how much he values education.  He loves science and animals and we talked and we talked about the Discovery channel and travel.  He really turned my day around.  We just had fun and talked about everything.

Today we did some errands before the mission team arrived in the afternoon.  Then we just went over what COTS is and some rules and took them out to the street.  It is a smaller group which makes things easier and everyone is really nice and open to the experience.  Being out today I ran into a bunch of guys (and a few woman) that I know. One guy, William, kept saying how we are out there all the time and we are just one of the neighborhood.  It felt really good to really be amongst friends, to see again that people do know us and welcome us in.  Today was a strange start to a mission trip. I think tomorrow will be better at the park when the group can really dive in.