MONDAY

Hi :) My name is Sarah Chambers and I am a Senior Spanish major at the University of Memphis!

Needless to say, today came bright and early for us as we gathered together for our first day of service. We all got ready and ate our breakfast on the go and then split into our two groups to go to our houses. First though, we stopped by the elderly home to get our assignments. The man there, Carl Hatcher, was unbelievably friendly and gave us the directions and supplies we needed in order to do our work for the day. My group, the Awful Waffles :) piled into Leslie's van and headed towards the home of Celeste Stewart! Let me just say she is my new favorite person. Possibly one of the greatest people I will meet in my lifetime. Meeting her was such an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. She was filled with so much spunk and spirit! I only hope to be half the woman she is when I'm that age!! Well when we first got there some of us were a little hesitant to hop in there and start working because we were either afraid of breaking something or touching something she didn't want us to touch. BUT that only took five minutes because she ended up making us feel so comfortable, almost like we were cleaning our own grandmother's house!

Joel, Countess, and me all started on cleaning the windows. Which by the way, who knew you could clean windows with water and vinegar and dry it off with newspaper so it doesn't streak??? FASCINATING!! hahaha :) Leslie, Abilash, and Ashley began working outside by gardening and raking the leaves. However, this is really funny. While we were doing the windows, Leslie came in and saw what we had done. She said - "Wow you guys, you really are doing such a great job!! Look at how clean that window is!!" BUT it turns out we had the window down so it only looked really really clean...so Leslie was like oops...nevermind. It was absolutely hilarious!! We died laughing!! :)

Then once we finished the windows Joel, Countess, Kia and me all worked on cleaning the fireplaces. And man were they dirty!! haha :) I never realized how dirty fireplaces could get! But nevertheless we got it done! And when we looked back over we were just so proud of what we had done! We were dirty from head to toe but it was worth it! After that, we polished her silver and she allowed us to watch Days of our Lives while we worked! It was the first time we watched it and it was so much fun cause she was able to watch it with us and we all made fun of it together. After we finished for the day, Ms. Stewart wanted us to stick around and talk for awhile which we had no problem doing because she was just soooooo much FUN!! I never thought the elderly could be so lively and fun to hang around! We even traded phone numbers and addresses with her so we can keep in touch! BUT this was the funniest thing ever! I want to laugh out loud just thinking about it! But when we were done and gathered on her back porch Ms. Stewart just all of sudden said - "Too bad we can't all just hang out and drink beers to admire our work!" HAHAHA :) We didn't take her up on her offer but we definitely hung out for awhile which totally made my day and perhaps week. The stories she told were amazing and she was not only filled with wisdom but you could tell she loved life and wanted to take advantage of every breath she took. She really was an inspiration to all of us to remind us that life is not meant to be taken so seriously :) Also, she really appreciated the work we did. She kept thanking us over and over again which was completely unnecessary because I didn't mind it one bit!

Also, she asked Leslie why we were doing this and if we received credit for it. Leslie went on to explain that we were doing it just to do it during our spring break and Ms. Stewart just smiled so big! Then she went on to say that why would we pick cleaning her house and being with her over the beach? This statement made me so happy and made my entire trip! I don't care anything for the praise but the fact that 13 college students can make her feel like she is the most important person in the world was such an unbelievable feeling. One that I'm sure I will never forget. Just the fact that we made her feel important and worth being with was amazing. I tear up just thinking about it! She is an amazing woman and I hope she realizes that. She touched us and I only hope we made her feel like a million dollars cause she is soooo worth every penny of that!

The rest of the day obviously doesn't hold up to what happened earlier but after we left her house, we went and got some famous St. Louis custard and met up with the rest of the group at the church. Needless to say I was tired so I hung out with the group for a little bit and then headed to bed! The only thing that worried me was that the rest of the week wouldn't hold up to only Monday! haha! :)