Day 7 the last full day :(

     We probably should have went to bed early last night, since we woke up at 6:30 this morning! We thought that we would get to Thurgood Marshall Academy early, but that wasn't the case this morning. We got on the wrong train twice leading us into the depths of Virginia-uh oh! Luckily, third time is the charm and we made our way to the high school. Upon entering, we actually found out that we weren't late like we thought we would be-yay! We were escorted by Annie who taught juniors and seniors at the school. While we were waiting for the students, we began setting up our powerpoint and PSA video. To break the ice, we played a game in which all students and ASB participants created a circle and answered questions that were on a beach ball that was being tossed around. After that, we started our powerpoint discussion. The group was very engaged and asked questions and were interested in learning more about the topic. We then broke the group into teams of 4-5 where we all worked to create a skit that demonstrated preventions to take if faced with this situation. The kids had such great ideas and were taking charge and presented to the entire class. We then showed our PSA video to end the presentation. It was great to see such enthusiasm from high school students. It was such a rewarding feeling when Annie asked us to consider presenting to other local high schools.
     Then we quickly ran home and changed into our snazzy and professional outfits to make our way to Capitol Hill. We were met by Congressman Chris Smith's office staff, Bob. He gave us a great tour of the Capitol building. We then went back to Congressman Smith's office where we had snacks, looked around his office, and were given a huge folder containing the first official law against human trafficking.
Yet again, we rushed back home to change into our comfortable outfits to do our street outreach surveys around the National Mall. We all split up into teams of 2 or 3 and attempted to collect at least 10 survey per person, giving us a large sample size. This survey was to assess the general public's knowledge about human trafficking. This was done for Professor Lederer for Global Centurion (who we met with on our first day). We finally finished and metro-ed our way back to the church at 8:30. Team B made some amazing comfort food (mac and cheese and chicken nuggets). Yum Yum.
     Then, it was time for our LAST reflection! :(:( We talked about the entire trip, how our views had changed, and what we learned. The night ended with a heartwarming game called Mad Props.
     We stayed up to do facials, even the boys joined:)...if only we had pictures right now to show you all!
     It was a great week, learning and creating new friendships that we all want to maintain.

sad to say this is our last blog post, but hopefully you all learned and got to share our experience through these posts:)

-Fo'Real and Gnarly Nar

Day 6

     Today was another early day. We started our day at Free the Slaves which is a non profit organization that works with local organizations in 6 different countries (Brazil, India, Ghana, Haiti, Nepal, & Dominican Republic of Congo). We met with the development and administrative coordinator of the organization, Lee McClure. He gave us a complete run down on what the organization does and future projects. He also explained to us how they have a contact person in each country where they work to provide services such as transitional schools for young children. These schools are built to provide a safe and sustainable environment that provides education and stability in their lives. Another great thing about this organization is their grassroots approach. This ensures that the community is empowered and aware of the solutions that can be used to provide a better life. Many community members are aware of the terrible problems with trafficking that are occur and are more determined to fix them.
     Lunch time. Yay! :) No, but seriously, we continued to work on our PSA. We split up into 2 groups and went around Dupont Circle. However, our group (Fareeha, Narineh, Joanne, Wendy, and Jill) went to Dupont, K Street, McPherson Square, Farragut North and West. We interviewed random people about their knowledge of human trafficking and if slavery still exists today. A lot of the people knew about the issue, so we were surprised, but what is sad is that no one takes action to try to stop this problem.
     Then, our team of 12 split up into 2 groups again and made our ways to Courtney's House and Fair Girls. At Courtney's House, we helped them organize and put away clothes for survivors. It felt really good to be doing this for the girls and knowing that it will help them when they are looking for new outfits. At Fair Girls, we had a lot of painting to get done! The previous day, the other team had painted one shade of orange on the top wall, so we came in today to put a second coat on and paint the bottom half of the walls purple! (FairGirls colors) We ended up staying past our hour and half limit because we really wanted to finish the painting for the girls in the program. The director was there and was explaining to us how these girls have been looking forward to a room with color and to call this their own space for about a year now. We ended up seeing one of the girls in the program and she was very pleased with the finished room, as were the volunteers and director! It was a truly great feeling to have accomplished something that seems so little to us to do, but for them it was such a big thing.
     It was a very long day, but it was still time to make dinner! Team A (Jill, Megan, and Nyana) made a great fried rice, chicken, and tomato babaganoush dinner. We were all starving, so this definitely fulfilled our appetites. After dinner, we had our daily reflection, which was led by Team C (Narineh, Wendy, and Daniel). We played a really fun icebreaker game which lasted for at least an hour! It was probably time for bed, BUT we decided to play frisbee in the church parking lot instead:).
    We then finished our PSA that was miraculously edited by JILL! (KUDOS TO JILL)

Until next time....

Fo'real and Gnarly Nar

So now we are on day 5 of the Alternative Spring Break Trip and thankfully no one fell, got sick from a cupcake, or caught a bug today! But unfortunately, the twelve of us were separated in order to visit two different destinations. The first group (Megan, Mark, Daniel, Gary, Fareeha, and Nyana) went back to Fair Girls again in order to help them organize and paint the building. The second group (Me, Jill, Joanna, Tanya, Narineh, and Phil) went to the clothing donation site for Courtney's House. Jill, Phil, and Tanya cleaned the kitchen until it was clean and sparkling, while me, Narineh, and Joanna helped sort the clothes. It was certainly an adventure since we found a number of interesting items in the piles, including neon pants and XXXXXXL size jackets. But what made the experience great was helping Courtney's House with work that would have taken them a lot longer since they're very busy.

After that, we drove to AMF Lanes for bowling with the girls from Turn Around Inc. But since the event didn't start until 5:30, we decided to kill the two hours we had by walking around the Towson Mall. The boys finally decided that they needed a major makeover and allowed us to dress them in matching outfits from H&M. They looked like male models!


My time at Fair Girls was also very fun and rewarding, We helped the staff there clean and scrub the walls and then tape the walls so that we could paint them. We organized some of the shelves and beads and swept up while they got us the paint. Once we had the wall prepped, we painted a good first coat for the other group to finish off when they go back tomorrow.

At the bowling arena, we had pizza and birthday cake (two of the Turn Around Inc. girls had birthdays this month). We played duck pins and for the last ten minutes or so, just went crazy and tried everything we could think of including multiple people bowling the same lane at once and bowling two lanes at once. It was nice bowling with the girls from Turn Around because it gave them the opportunity to spend time together as well.

~Turtle and Cookie Monster

Day 3

Today was another early day, we started our day at 8 am. We had breakfast and we were out the door at 9. We met with the president of Global Centurion, Professor Ledderer. She was an amazing resource and provided us with a  plethora of information that we had never heard of before. We talked about the many different types of human trafficking that exist, the policies that are in place in the United States, and created a survey to assess public general knowledge about the issue. We also got a very useful/huge handbook that contains data on human trafficking worldwide. It assesses the policies that are in place in every country in the world. It is very interesting to see where each country stands in their efforts of tackling the issue. After we got done at Global Centurion, we had lunch as a team and walked around D.C. for a few hours. We got cupcakes and went shopping, so it was a good bonding experience! :) Each day gets better and I am very excited to see what the rest of the week has in store for us!!

~GareBear & Fo'Real

Day 2

Today, we woke up early and went to the Holocaust Museum in DC. It was quite an experience for us to see the worst possible consequences of human trafficking. Visiting the museum was a great way to start off the trip- it got all our minds focused on the issue at hand. However, as important as this visit was, our day didn't stay dreary forever. Afterwards, we had a scavenger hunt in DC! Our teams tied, which was fine by us. It was tons of fun running around the national mall, finding what we were looking for, and bonding. What a great way to start off the trip! It was also really great to finally have our first real reflection tonight. We watched a documentary and discussed it, which was cool because we're starting to see some of the emerging viewpoints of different people on the trip. On an ending note, I'm really excited to see what the rest of the trip has in store. We're visiting our first organization tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it!
-Jill

Day two, spinach and beef lasagna, yum!

Thanks to megan, jillian, and nyana

Hey you!


... So today we embarked on a week long journey to battle the evils of Human Trafficking in the nation's capitol. But guys (and girls) if you expect to hear about our awesome crime fighting skills... I am sorry to disappoint. Unfortunately... we did not get to see Human Trafficking in action today. But we did get settled in and had fun exploring D.C.! 


After settling into the church, a group of strangers wandered in. But fear not, they were the other Alternative Breaks group that's sharing the space with us. Only... they were from Dartmouth. But they seem like a friendly bunch, so all is well (for now). We then decided to leave the safety of the church, and explore the wilds of D.C. 


We walked to Eastern Market in search of flip flops for Megan and Gary (travel tip # 1: remember to pack shower shoes), but mostly because it seemed like a cool place to visit. On the way to the market, we passed by a cool looking stone turtle (turtles are universal - go Terps!). But arriving at Eastern Market, we found that it was close to closing time. But, we were able to get some delicious goodies (rice pudding, beef empanadas...). But, we didn't get the flip flops :( So we walked around D.C. in search of flip flops... but to no avail.


We returned to the church, and by that time we were pretty hungry (my beef empanada was kind of cold when I got it, and who has time to wait 5 more minutes to get it heated). So we decided to make dinner: rice, teriyaki chicken, and a stir fry. But we only the only vegetable we had was brocoli. So we had rice, teriyaki chicken, and stir fry brocoli. It turned out pretty well. I stir-fried the brocoli, and it tasted pretty good for the most part (travel tip # 2: thaw the food all the way before you start cooking it). But we had a great meal, considering the facts that we are all novice cooks.


After dinner, the group decided to do some bonding activities (icebreakers). We played a few games (one of which  involved  a winking murderer). After running ourselves tired we decided to settle down for the night ... and here I am blogging.


So that's our journey for now, but I promise you that it will get more exciting. So, enjoy whatever little of St. Patrick's day is left, and keep reading our blogs!


N.Q.

Day 1-Settling In!

Today was the first day of our trip! We settled into the church we are staying in and explored the area around us. I somehow managed to forget shower shoes so during our free time, we went in search of a pair. Unfortunately, we didn't find any but Nyana was nice enough to lend me her extra pair =) We all helped cook teriyaki chicken, rice, and broccoli! It was really good! I can't wait for tomorrow! We are going to the Holocaust museum and then doing a scavenger hunt! Then on Monday, we start learning more about the issue of human trafficking...it should be a very interesting! I look forward to learning more about the issue so that after our trip, I can continue to help out both victims and survivors!

Megan Kimmel