Catherine: Monday

Today was our first day we began our service. We woke up on our not so soft sleeping mats and meeting 30 new youth from Maryland. We split up into two groups with other churches and both went to houses to repair the exterioir with paint. At first it was a little intimidating considering that we were a much smaller group than the already closs group from Baltimore. But as the day went on we bonded over our love for service, dogs, and TV. We were chipping and painting the house of Patricia, an older woman living on the reservation. Although our conversations were sparse, she explained how grateful she was for the work that was being done. I hope I can continue to make relationships and connections with the people we are serving and working with because for me that is my favorite part of the trip. Today I was pushed to put my best effort and care into Patricia's home, rather than doing a sloppy job just to complete it by the end of the day. Throughout the day I was continuously reminding myself of the job I would want to have done on my house, a throughouh and clean one.