In the nursing home, on day one, I helped wheel old people into the dining room to hear a gospel quartet. They were pretty entertaining. Then on the second day, I helped an old lady play bingo. She talked and screamed a lot of gibberish and didn't know how to play at all, but I have to wonder if she could maybe think okay. She was counting the number on the bingo cards, looking for a one, then a two, and so forth. And she kept telling me thankyou. She also said (very slurredly) that they cut her hair. When I figured out what she said and repeated it back to her, she said thankyou. I have to wonder if maybe she could think okay but not express herself verbally, which must be a terrible way to live. You get treated like a little kid, like you don't know what's going on, but really you do. The thought of living in a nursing home some day depresses me. It's dreary, it smells bad, and everybody's about to die.
Then came the overtly rewarding part of the trip. For the next two days, we painted the house of a woman who had cancer in her leg. She couldn't walk very well, but managed to get out into the yard to talk to us and bring us what was quite possibly the best pink lemonade in the world. She was very very nice. When we got done painting her house (a nice carolina blue) she started crying and saying she had a brand new house. Why did a great woman like her have to get cancer?
So that pretty much covers the mission part of the trip. I met a lot of great people, got my face painted so I looked like Captain Morgan, and voted for Lester Jackson. That's tight. Uh. yeah. AHHH! uhuhuhuh.
The beach also rocked my socks. We got there on friday afternoon and proceeded directly to the beach, where two people were stung by jellyfish within an hour of our arrival. Then I think somebody got bitten the next day. Not to mention all the little stings that showed up on most everybody.
Saturday rocked my socks. Once wer were up and at 'em after a swell breakfast of cheesy eggs, biscuits, bacon, cantaloupe and gravy, Jason Fisher and I went in together to fulfill a lifelong dream...
That's right, we rented ourselves a moped. It was a red yamaha, and I swear it was going 46 mph at one point. We took turns all day giving people rides. I don't care what you think, it was awesome. I drove all around Tybee island. The hog really helped me in my attempt to pick up ladies. (I didn't actually get any, but some smiled at me, which is better than some days) We also took it through the drive-thru at Arby's.
Sunday I had to go home and face the parents
Lester Jackson
All you white crackers better vote for me
Lester Jackson
