Monday, August 26

This was the big day.  I woke up at around 5 a.m., 10 minutes ahead of my alarm.  I left my cozy bunkhouse and found that it had gotten nice and cool overnight (low 50’s to most of my readers).  I went down to the kitchen, which is in the church basement, and began right away to forget what all I was supposed to have out.

 There are always cold cuts, other meats, other sandwich items, fruit cups, trail mix, chips, fruit, cookies, and the like. Eventually the lunch fixin’s table was set for the first sleepy volunteers.  They are supposed to pack their lunches sometime after 6, but before 6:45, because that’s when the lunch items are supposed to be put away. Since there were quite a few stragglers, and it was their first day, we gave them a few extra minutes to finish up.  

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Breakfast is ready to go at 7:00 sharp.  Today it was bacon and egg casserole. Every day, there is fresh fruit, bread, yogurt, cold cereal, and usually porridge (which I didn’t make, but it looked kind of like scottish oats with some other darker grain on top).  

Every meal, Mark, the director, asks for a volunteer to say the blessing.  Whoever does this gets to go first to the table and get their food, along with their table mates.  This was the same way it worked at the Conway, SC site back in May.

After breakfast, someone who signed up to do so during the previous night’s orientation leads a brief devotional, and we sing a few songs.  The group from Manitoba really impressed us with their enthusiastic singing! After devotions, Mark went over who would be traveling to which of several work sites, based on their specific skills, or lack thereof.  Most of the sites are fairly local, but one is a good hour to the west of Grand Forks. I hope to get out there to visit that location during my time here.

After this briefing, it is almost like an explosion, as volunteers and crew leaders head in every direction to load tools, lunch coolers, and other supplies.  Meanwhile, Connie and I start clearing breakfast and getting the food put away. Dishes need to be started as soon as possible since there are so many of them, so after the items needing immediate refrigeration are put away, it is time for the dishes.  The eating utensils get to go in the dishwasher, and fill it completely, so that means all the cooking and storage dishes get done by hand. I did this today while Connie continued to put away other leftover food.

After we got things cleaned up, we sat down for a breather and planned out the rest of the day.  Connie had planned out the week in advance, but everything was always flexible so that we could make changes as needed on a daily basis.  Tonight we planned to have sweet and sour chicken with rice. We also had to cut up a lot of apples that had been brought to us by one of the many community folks who are so appreciative of our work here.  The apples were starting to go bad, so they couldn’t wait even though we really didn’t have any use for them yet. We did a grocery run, which is really easy here because the biggest supermarket is a couple of blocks away.

We sat down for lunch with other long-term staff who were around, and then we took some “self-time” in the afternoon.  This is one of the things I was grateful for being told to do during our cook training back in June. Cooks are usually the first ones up in the morning and the last physically working at night, so it is really easy to get burned out.  Every afternoon we try to make sure there is time for a nap, bike ride, walk, or something else to get us out of the tight kitchen and rejuvenate for a bit. I opted for the nap today.

At about 4:30, I put the chicken into the oven to bake, and we continued fixing the other items.  There is always meat, salad, and veggies, and usually potatoes or rice. By 5:00 some of the work crews started rolling in, so we had lemonade and tea out for them.  At 6:00 we called everyone in and started dinner.  Working at an MDS worksite builds a large appetite, so most went back at least for seconds.  After they were through, Mark had someone from each work crew give a report of what they had accomplished during the day, so that the next day could be planned out.  After report time came dessert, which was peanut butter pie that I made.

After dessert, three of the weekly volunteers who had signed up for Monday night dishes rolled our dirty dish cart into the kitchen and began to pre-wash the dishes that would then be put into the dishwasher to basically sterilize them. 

The dishwasher is a household unit, and needs all the help it can get. While this was going on, Connie and I quickly washed all the pots, pans, and utensils that had been used to make dinner. 

After dishes, we started getting a few things ready for Tuesday morning.  I had to re-stock lunch items so it wouldn’t need to be done in the morning, and we made sure all ingredients were there for the blueberry pancake breakfast that was planned.

Off to the bunk trailer.  I was beat, but satisfied that I had survived my first day with not too many glitches.