D.C. - Day 4 (Breanna Rhode)

Today was definitely full of new experiences. I think today out of all days something everyone was not exactly comfortable with. We woke a little later than the past couple of days, but I was in a rush because I also had to take a shower. The first stop of the day was at The Downtown Clusters (which is a geriatric daycare center). It was definitely a new experience for me because you never know what to expect with the elderly. We got up on the stage and sang worship songs to them and got a chance to talk to them. When we sang you could definitely tell they really enjoyed listening to us. Getting to see them smile from ear to ear made me smile.







After going to The Downtown Clusters we had lunch in a small park in the middle of the city. The talk of the day was wondering what the “Urban Plunge” meant. The leaders wouldn’t tell us what we were doing other than we would be doing a lot of walking and might be in uncomfortable situations.

After lunch we went to the National Cathedral. It is one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen. Being inside that was amazing. We went on a guided tour, which I will admit I had no interest in. History isn’t exactly my favorite subject, but still being inside the church was breathtaking.






Now it was time for the “unknown” part of the day. Everyone had their own speculations but once they told us everyone was pretty excited, or at least I know I was. Basically we were split into three groups with one adult. Within each group we had 30 dollars. Each group was assigned to a different section of D.C. With the money we had we had to find a homeless person and ask them if they wanted a meal with us. It was so hard because we didn’t know what to say to the person when we approached. We got rejected three times until we finally went up to a guy and offered him some Subway. He asked for a salad, but couldn’t come with us because his stuff was too heavy. We went to Subway and came back and asked him if we could eat with. It was really fun to get to know him and see how he was trying to get back on his feet and try. The whole experience was emotionally draining, but at the same time it was so much fun.

Each night we do a thing called debriefing where we talk about the day and just wind down the day. So tonight we went the World War II Memorial and then it started raining, pretty much down pouring. So we had to run from the World War II Memorial to the World War I Memorial. While we were at the World War I Memorial we did our debriefing. It was fun to hear about everyone’s experience. So to wrap up the day I would say it was overall an amazing day and I learned so much about the Nation’s capital and I would love to come back.

- Breanna