NYC MOVE Trip

In my last post (Birthday Shenanigans), I mentioned that I went on a MOVE Extended Service Trip to NYC for Spring Break.  It was an exhausting but well worth it trip.  I had an amazing group and met some really great people while helping them out in anyway we could.

My Group <3

All our days were long but it was well worth it.  We traveled mostly by subway and foot since it is the most convenient in the city.  For the most part we mastered it, only after we lost two people on a platform on the first night.  We all made it in the end and we laugh about it now.

Our mornings normally started out working with God's Love, We Deliver.  It is similar to Meals on Wheels but at a much larger scale.  3 out of the 4 days we worked there, we help package food.  Me and 4 others in the group chopped 200 hundred pounds of onions while there.  We helped prepare other food and also organize the bags to be delivered.  On the last day, we each got paired up with a van driver to deliver food to the people.  It was quite an experience to meet the people in need and I think that affected me the most in the end.

On the odd morning (my birthday actually) we went to help sort inventory at Handcrafting Justice.  It was a different experience since we only interacted with the people who handled shipping.  We had fun anyways.

Sorting backpacks

For three of the afternoons we worked at The Mercy Center hosting some after school games for the kids who went there for homework help.  It was a lot of fun because the kids were great and entertaining on their own!  Our last stop of the day was the Covenant House.  We all really enjoyed going there because we got to hang out with people our age.  We played pool, air hockey, basketball, and a lot of cards.  It was interesting since a lot of us were from different areas (including the people there), we all had different games and such to teach each other.

One of the coolest things we did was on the vernal equinox.  There is the old tale where you can stand up an egg.  We actually did it!

By the time we got home at the end of the night, it was probably about 10pm.  After the second day we decided to nap anywhere we could, if we had time:

I wouldn't go back and change the schedule even though I was running on fumes by the end of the day.  I really enjoyed meeting new people and getting to know more about the different types of people in the area.  It was definitely a rewarding experience.