A day in the life...

Monday, March 31, 2008

Pillow fight



There are many reasons why I love Seattle. One of the reason being that it is a city who's inhabitants do not take themselves too seriously. One such illustration of this was the undersgourn pillow fight which I happliy took part in at the famous Pike Place Market this Saturday. The rules were that you showed up at the market, with your pillow hiddeen on you somehow - some poeple were better at this than others. Then at 3.15 a whistle would blow and pillows would be unleashed, for a 5 minute pillow fight, after the 5 minutes, another whistle would blow signalling the end of the fight. Pillows down and everyone goes home.

I went with a couple of friends, and met up with a few more at Pikes Market, where we all gathred pillows hidden, waiting to see if the fight would really take place. The large number of peple gathered, drew a crowd in itself, with both locals and tourists waiting to see what was going on. Others just happened to be at the market when *surprise* we are pillow fighting!

3.15 and the whistle blew. Fun, fun, fun. Everyone was good natured and simply out to have fun which made the whole experience really great. There were jids and families as well as many more mature folks who joined in the fun.

After the fight, we did leave a mound of feathers, from the few feather pillows which had burst. There are quite a few videos on youtube and I am sure other places, but I found myslef in this one, at about 35 seconds, I duck out of shot in the bottom right hand corner, I am wearing a black coat, straight hair and have a bright blue pillow. This is the whole fight, but really after a minute or two you get the idea. It's always more fun to be in a pillow fight than observing one, but enjoy!!

(So for now I am having problems up loading the video, but if you want to see it, go to www.youtube.com and search for seattle pillow ight. The first option is titled 'seattle pillow fight 2008 in Pikes market'. That's the video you want to click on!)

Monday, March 24, 2008

Mississippi 2008

I just got back from a week long trip to Tylertown, Mississippi. It was a wonderful trip. here are a few pictures to share with y'all (see how the southern accent sticks!)

We were a team of 9; myself, Jillian, Josalyn, Keith, Kevin, Beth, Anna, George, and Caitlin. We went to the rural town of Tylertown, Mississippi. We stayed at Holy Temple ministry church, under the care of Pastor Glenn Allen. We woke each morning at about 5.30am and after breakfast and packing lunches we left for the work site. Hammers in hand by 7.30am

We were introduced to Patricia and her son Taran. Patricia is very involved in the community, and as well as being a fulltime parent, holding down a fulltime job which she has to drive over an hour each way to get to, she makes time to visit the elderly in her community. She is a beautician, and until Hurricane Katrina, she had a small beauty shop on her property which had given her a second income, but also allowed her to bless those in her community by helping them prepare for job interviews and other important events. Pastor Glenn wanted to bless Patricia and so we took on the project of restoring her beauty shop.

Patricia's parents also live on the property and their house had been very badly damaged by Katrina. All the crucial repairs had already happened for them but their front room had never been fully repaired, and so we pulled up the floor and repainted for them.

Grandma Ruby and Grandpa Lee were so blessed, Pastor Glenn told us that Lee had been so choked up on the phone when he was telling him how grateful they were to us fro helping them. I am so glad because they really blessed us. Grandma Ruby made coffee each day, and served it sweet - just like everything in Mississippi!!

We got to experience many southern delights, crawfish, fried catfish, hush puppies (corn bread balls, and peppers deep fried) as well as gallons of sweet tea.

We spent one day visiting Mendenhall, another rural town in Mississippi, made famous because it is the ministry of John Perkins, a special man passionate about racial reconciliation. Mendenhall is a town still literally divided by the train tracks in the middle of town. One side black; one side white. Mendenhall had many different projects, a school, a farm, a medical clinic plus many other programs to serve the community. It was an eye opening experience for us as white people who live in the pacific north west where racial divide is much more understated and hidden.

I have so many stories, and hope to continue sharing about my time with you all, but for now here are some pics... Enjoy!
Me trying crawfish - yum


Shopping at Piggly Wiggly!!

The start of our project


Cleaning the chairs for the beauty shop

We took some of the church members and friends out for dinner - fried catfish and fried frogs legs both made an appearance on the menu!

Me with Kevin, Anna and our new friend Taran

Pulling up the floor inthe beauty shop

George and Beth fix on the trim

the beauty shop

Hearing the story of Mendenhall

The team outside the John Perkins centre

A very tight van ride to teh mendenhall ministries farm!

Mudding hthe walls

Jill and I sample the local treats - sno balls, shaved ice and flavouring


Granpa Lee comes to see how work on the beauty shop is going

Laying the floor at Grandma Ruby's and Grandpa Lee, with Caitlin and Josalyn

Me at teh work site

Lunch break!

Eating chilli out the back of the truck - classy!!

The new shop is called Pretty ladies

We chose a pretty pink for the inside - the boys really loved it!!!

The finished result - team picture with Patricia and Taran