Day 1

Morning of day 1!
Rise-n-shine.  It’s time to start a new day. This morning we passed out fliers to invite people to our community dinner. While we where passing out fliers to houses in the community, we saw lots of dogs including six very cute puppies. We wanted to take to them home, but knew our parents would not let us. So we continued on inviting as many people to our evening dinner as we could find.

Afternoon of day 1!
Well after handing out some of the fliers we went to church. They talked about a person named Paul, a leader of a mission group from Gettysburg Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania. He was the one who built their new church and passed away last summer. His daughters were there and they did a ‘wiping of the tears’ ceremony. It was really cool watching it. After church, three of us passed out more fliers inviting people to dinner.

Evening of day 1!
DINNER! FRIENDS! FUN! What new faces we waited for as we stood on the front drive of the community center. As the cars piled in we started meeting new people. We played for hours with bubbles and kites but they had to leave some time so we were left bodiless, but we had each other so we started a kite flying contest. Parker won. Then we played cards. Good night!

 By: Addison Schlatter, Wynne Reddin and Lauren Reddin        

Addendum:
Red Scaffold was a great experience.  the community center was rustic but did have modern amenities(ac, commercial kitchen and fully functional bathrooms) the catch was that the ac didn’t work until the last day there, only the men’s shower worked and was made of cinder blocks (awesome water pressure though!!)  The kitchen had two brand new stoves but only one was hooked up because only one power cord was affordable.  Kitchen sink had a broken drain but with some duct tape] we got it working. The water from the tap tasted great–not as I expected for sure!  Fly strips hung from the ceilings and were quite interesting for the kids the first several houses…We all slept in one large room on our air mattresses and I have to say it was fantastic sleeping with no outside lights, windows open and nice humid-free cool breeze.   

First day there the neighborhood dogs (I should say mongrels) discovered our presence and never left!  So many kids with so many petting hands and running feet were the dog’s favorite.  A “pet” cat was also around but didn’t make it to day 2-one of the dogs killed it and then they all proceeded to play tug-o-war-you can fill in the drama that ensued with the girls in the group!!  The circle of life is well understood now!  

Eight of the kids, Ruth Lockhart and I piled in my van and drove around a 10 mile radius of the center passing out home-made invites to our dinners for Sunday and Monday night.  The homes are as you would expect, we would assume no one lived in them and they had been abandoned for years but in reality 8-15 people reside in a 600 square foot home and are happy and excited to see us!  So many puppies everywhere-and unique ones too!  None of the monotony of a pure-bred!  Needless to say the “drive-ways” to their homes were dirt or mud in many cases and the van suffered for it-I’m trying hard to leave my OCD in KS but there have been some moments!!!  We have met many people and I have really enjoyed them-such great sense of humor!  I love talking with the 55-75 set, very funny and good-natured and full of fantastic stories.  The kids are so affectionate-hanging all over us and laughing and teasing too.  At the first meal on Sunday night over 55 people came and I had three different ones ask if I was “skin?”  Funny!  They laughed with me when I tell them that wherever I go someone asks me something about my lineage-they understood my situation! 

Sunday morning we attended a church service in a “town” six miles away and were lucky enough to see a “wiping of the tears” ceremony.  It is a ceremony given to those who have lost a loved one–very moving of course most of the adult women in our group cried and don’t even know the man that died!!

-Michelle Schlatter