This morning started with all of us getting a little closer and ended with us being inseparable.  We pushed the tables that we eat on together and I felt a little more like one big family. We went to a park where we will be working all week. We found a large, cracked basketball court with no hoops, broken dugouts, and a weed-filled baseball diamond.  I started out cutting vines out of a fence which led me to my personal theme of the day! The vines and branches were so entwined in the fence; I couldn’t help but feel a longing for the life I was prying from the rusted chains. The director of Motown Mission, Carl, pointed out how amazing it was that the branches found a way to grow. The vines found a way to live in something sad and ugly. But later, Carl said that in order to make something better it has to get a little bit worse.  I started connecting this to everything I did. Detroit was something that everyone is trying to fix but I feel like everyone is getting discouraged by the shape it’s in now. But maybe it’s okay that it gets worse, maybe that means that it will get better soon.

                  By the end of the day, we were covered in silver paint from head to toe. We were painting a fence and Stasia just got really excited and splattered paint everywhere.  We used some product to get it off and our faces started to sting. A bunch of us were worried that our skin was going to fall off, but then we realized that we were sunburned. I feel so close to my painting group today! I never think that it’s possible to get any closer to STAGE, but it happened again.

Jamie Stafford!

Same Day As Jamie……

So today was just completely and utterly redic (that’s the hip lingo for ridiculous)!!!!! Not only does it feel like Friday and the end of the mission trip, but we got FILTHY!!!! Well…I got filthy. I was in the group that painted this fence and I don’t know, I guess I’m just a really aggressive painter. I somehow managed to get so much paint on me that people would automatically call me the Tin Man (it was this really awesome metallic silver paint) Now all of this wouldn’t really bother me if I didn’t have to go around Detroit after without washing it off!!! was just sitting in the front seat of the car and this guy walks past us, does a double take, starts laughing, and then keeps walking down the street while continuing to look back and laugh. That was just one of many instances because Nathan decided it would be a great idea to WALK OUTSIDE to get to a CVS!!!! Who does that?!  Well I guess I made a whole lot of people’s day on Woodward… The worst part though was taking it off. For one, IT HURT SO BAD! And then I find out that I actually have really bad sunburns on my face and arms but the sunburns on my arms are SPECKLED because of the paint! I look like I’m diseased!!! Lets just say I’m going ham on the whole covering up thing tomorrow!!!

-Anastasia Rogers