To start off, Monday was great; and I believe everyone felt the same way. During Sunday night’s reflection we all indentified the various nerves we felt going into the week including the possibility that we won’t learn as much as we wanted from the program. However this and the rest of the fears were almost instantly alleviated because most of the staff and students at the various campuses seemed eager and excited to have us around. The team was also able to learn a whole lot – what one of the staff described as “a whole semester’s worth of knowledge in a day”.
Of the three campuses we visited, one was a shelter for pregnant/parenting teens, one a boys campus and the other for “differently-abled” girls. At each of the campuses we participated in their mission day which was strategically placed on Martin Luther King day. A few of the take-always included a rendition of the song, “We Shall Overcome”, which Dr Martin and his followers sang as they marched during the civil rights movement and a touching performance by the girls at the Eisenberg home. In all it was a great day and the main lesson learnt was to “love” and accommodate everyone despite their views, beliefs, etc.