DONEEEE

Another week ends- the FINAL week ends! Holy cow. I can't really say this summer went by fast, but it go by at a reasonable pace. I'll let you know my thoughts on the summer in a later blog. As for this week, highlights include:

- A group from Michigan! They were loud and silly, but fun. Their leader also encouraged me with my speaking skills. He said I had a gift for public speaking and teaching and that I should use that in my future!

- Last week, we had 17 people either vomit or get nauseous between Tuesday night and Friday morning. This week the same thing happened. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, 5 people threw up. By the end of the week, more than 10 people got sick. It's so bizarre and we can't figure out what caused it because we've done the same thing every week. Nothing was different between this week, last week and all the other weeks. Bizarre.

- Kid's Club went surprisingly well every day except Monday, but the kids are always wound up on Mondays. Thursday we threw a big party for the kids with homemade pinatas, a cake walk (with fun prizes instead of cake), pizza and free school supplies. We had been warned by our Area Director (who had been on staff in Newport in 2009) that the kids go CRAZY on Thursday because it's the last day. Surprisingly, though, the kids handled the last day very well. They were occupied the whole time and the only chaotic part was handing out the school supplies because they all wanted the at the same time.

- During Club on Wednesdays, we do a skit to show off the shirts we sell at the end of the week and this Wednesday we let two of the most outgoing adult leaders do the skit for us. It was interesting... well interesting might be an overstatement. It was like watching an awkward episode of The Office. Sometimes I don't think people ever get filters. It was uncomfortable all around- I'll just leave it at that.

- Thursday evening, we had our very last community cookout. It was royally sad. My favorite girls were there and it was a little difficult to finally say goodbye- especially after they gave Brooke and I bracelets. My other two favorite kids, Isaac and Kaylee were also there and we hung out almost the entire time. We ran through dirt piles together. I'd love to adopt these kids.

- This morning a group of 8 from Asheville decided to leave late to help us transport all our stuff out to Hal's barn for storage. Once everything was packed in their mini- bus, it only took us 45 minutes to get to Hal's, unload and get back to the church so they could leave. To put this into perspective, with just our van and car, it took us 3 trips out to Hal's at the beginning of the summer- probably around 3 hours. Having this group stay behind to help was a HUGE blessing.

Tonight we are hanging at Hal's house for the night as part of our goodbye. Currently we're watching Shark Week (!), but soon we'll be watching Prince of Egypt. We've all been craving PoE since this morning (the soundtrack was part of our wake up playlist this morning). Tomorrow we unload the very last bit of our supplies into Hal's barn and then... I dunno. We don't have to prepare for another week or anything. We just have to get ready to go back to Birmingham for Exit RAMP. We leave for Exit RAMP Sunday after church and are there until Tuesday morning. Daniel and I are driving up to Indiana together- he lives a few miles down the road from my good friend, Allison, from Taylor whom I'm staying with Tuesday night.

I am soooo excited to go home. I have a list of things I want to do when I get there and I can't wait to do them. Please pray for safety on the way home and that we'll all get plenty of rest when we get there. Thanks!

~Sarah