Day Four

Church, Community AND State. And the sun returns!

Settling in. Getting the single shower thing routine ... well, routine. Eating well but on the lower ends of the food-expense chain. Learning the ins, outs, high and low places of this HUGE church building. Figuring out the church-key system (We may have ONE person who has that done.)

After breakfast we again divided into two work groups. Group A represented us at Miriam's House, where Group B had been the previous day. The sun and the promise of 60+ degrees meant they were to garden. "Garden" is defined here as the verb meaning to clear and prepare, more than actual tilling and planting. That group's pictures are below.

Group B subdivided into various work-groups around the church. The Baptistry (baptismal font for the non-Baptist readership) is now ready for testing prior to its need on Easter. We have laid down two coats of a sealant, the consistency of which is like a jello when poured from the pail.

If this were an other-than-Baptist church, this would not have been a problem. Baptist churches usually have large tanks the size of a children's swimming pool (larger than a jacuzzi), about 3-4 feet in depth. 

This particular church's tank is HUGE, the largest I have ever seen. I guess we could easily get all 20 of us in it.

So this sealing job is magnified by the sheer physical size of the area to be sealed. And its importance to a Baptist (baptism) church.

Group B also schlepped (a good Baptist word, no?) cut brush from the parking lot on the 15th Street side parking lot to the front of the church on 16th Street, avoiding the good-natured pedestrians and bus-waiting people we encountered. Additionally, we cleaned out a not-cleaned-out-in-this-century storage room for outdoor equipment, and put Round-Up on recently-cut shrub stumps to prevent their growing again.


After a quick lunch, we put on our best clothes and made a track to Union Station and then over to the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 523, for our meeting with Senator Kay Hagan. The suite of offices was outrageously busy, with NC folks going in and out. How would we ever see her?


We did not, as it turned out. But we did speak with her administrative expert on the current Health Care overhaul. It turned into a 50-55 minute give-and-take. We asked questions generated from our own experiences this week, as well as from our individual placement in the proposed legislation.


Then, a 75-minute window of time to get to the Kennedy Center for some Irish Dancing exhibition. It was packed, but we got to see it from afar and hear it pretty well from the steps on which we sat near the back of the Center.

Back home, a meal and no reflection. People are getting run down, some certifiably sick. Let us sleep.