Day 5

Day 5: Wednesday, March 22

This morning we returned to Cumberland Hope Recovery Center for Women to continue our furnishing projects from yesterday. We started by making nightstands for clients’ bedrooms. The staff and community at Cumberland Hope value the lifestyle of their clients, and want them to be comfortable and enjoy the space. Bobby, the Operations Manager who we met yesterday, goes above and beyond to help clients decorate their rooms. One of the clients recently mentioned that having a nightstand would be helpful, as state funding only provides the clients with the essentials. Today, Bobby came in with plywood and tools, and we build and painted 12 nightstands. As we were working, many of the clients came outside to chat with us, share their stories, and ask us about our lives.

We then enjoyed lunch with the clients, getting another chance to hear their stories. Throughout lunch, they sang songs to promote unity and positivity as well as made announcements about their progress in recovery so that they could hold each other accountable and support each other. The women were interested to know what we were doing there. They seemed happy that we are spending our Spring Break volunteering and understanding Harlan.

After lunch, we returned to Christ Hands to continue our work with sorting and packing equipment from the donation drive. We worked efficiently and quickly finished, so we also had a chance to help tidy up the dormitory area for both individuals with homelessness and another visiting volunteer group to stay in.

We ended our day with a fun little train-tracks photoshoot (featuring train track yoga) and making breakfast for dinner!

---Becky + Linwei + Melissa