The freshman class spent last Thursday gleaning at an organic farm and picked over 1000 pounds of greens. In this picture, they are delivering 500 pounds of greens to the Durham Food Bank. As I write this blog, they are on their way to Newton Grove to work with migrant farmworker families. This is our 7th freshman trip to Newton Grove to work with Father Tony and the Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry. Our students have been divided into 4 work groups. They will be working at 2 Head Start programs, U Care in Clinton, a Farmworker's Project in Benson. Group leaders are Susan (for the 4th and final time!), Jon, Gustavo, and Bryce. Mentors include CFS grad Sam Robinson, and upperclass students Madeline, Jamilah, Katie, and Bennie. We remain committed to this important partnership between the Upper School and Father Tony's work.
Although I don't have photos to share from our other groups, I do have some updates. Most importantly, all seems to be going well. Frances reports that the service project is going well in the
Galapagos Islands. "Our service work is going really well. We have already transformed the site. Food situation has worked out and finances are good. We had the afternoon off today. I went to the supermarket to purchase lunch for tomorrow and on the way back I was just in time to witness the fish market. I must have stood there for an hour watching the catch, a host of pelicans eating fish innards, a sealion begging, frigate birds swooping and stealing fish, a marine iguana ignoring it all .......... I've never seen anything like it. Tomorrow we will go to the local market close-by and then to Tortuga Bay before the heat of the day around 2:00pm."
For
Trinidad, Elise reports, "Things continue to be great here. We have been thoroughly involved in service projects that have included making and hauling cement to build a preschool at a church; learning to mortar and brick walls; painting; tearing down, framing, and rebuilding a wall; glazing windows and installing glass panes; and any number of other projects. Needless to say, your kids have been busy and are pretty tired at the end of the day. The work at Habitat and the Nursery has been great and today kids are involved in completing some projects at the Nursery that will make it possible for the entire group to go to Habitat next week (they need all hands on deck to paint a church).
Tomorrow we will go to the beach for a little relaxation! (much deserved)
We celebrated Maria's birthday last night with chocolate cake and ice cream. Afterwards, the entire group played a long game of "mafia" in the common room with much laughter and fun.
Everyone is great, in good spirits and having a wonderful time. The group has truly come together as a family which has been terrific to see."
I will include further updates as we hear from groups.
During our End-of-Year time, Ken is teaching a guitar building class. As you can see, Ken's students are hard at work building their beautiful new guitars. Ken has studied in the NC mountains with experienced luthiers and has developed into quite a guitar-building artist himself. It is exciting to observe as he imparts his knowledge to these lucky students...Will, Rhiannon, Nick, and Eric. As you might be able to notice, they are working in Ken's (living room) workshop at his home...his dog is watching the work progress. I look forward to showing you their finished products.
