Mashulaville Dormitory Trip

In classic procrastination master fashion, I've got some updating and pictures to add from the last few months that I've been neglecting to share. I'll start with a trip I took back in March to Mashulaville, Mississippi. I went with my dad on a work project from my home church in Middlebury to do some repairs on the Mashulaville Dormitory, which is a Mennonite hospitality house. Chances are I just named about five things in those last few sentences that are pretty unfamiliar to most non-Mennonites, so to better explain what I'm talking about here's a couple of links to help out: This is the website for Menno-Hof, which is an Anabaptist learning center in my hometown, and this is an article I wrote for their publication talking about our trip. The article is much condensed and there's not a lot of room for pictures, so I'm expounding for you image-hungry readers. (I say that like I have hordes flocking to my blog. I'm pretty sure the only person who reads this is my mother. Ah, well, a fan is a fan.)

So anyway, now that you've read the article and know what we were doing (I'm just assuming you're going to read it because I don't want to re-type it and there's not THAT much space on this page), here's some more images from the trip. It was pretty darn fun except for all the rain. Most notable was the comment from the owner after what I thought was one of the scariest rainstorms I've ever seen: "Well... I haven't seen a storm like that since Katrina went through. Come to think of it, I hadn't really seen a storm like that before Katrina went through. Come to think of it, that's pretty much what Katrina was like... just shorter." Excellent. So we were treated to the cliff notes version of a hurricane. I'll stay here in Oregon, thanks... the worst that's going to happen here is that we're all going to fall off the coast in a giant earthquake... but as we all know earthquakes only last for a few minutes, not 24 hours, so it should be a nice quick and easy death. Grisly, perhaps, but quick. Hey, I'm digressing. I never do that. (I'm never sarcastic, either.)

Okay, so here's the goods! Some before shots of what we were working on:

The dorm itself:

The ceiling of the porch:

The roof of the porch, which was also used as a bit of a hangout for the teens, and (we hear) a place for girls of the dorm to meet their boyfriends back in the day. Scandalous!

Back porch that needed a ramp:

There was also painting projects here and there, drywalling, plus the girl in me just couldn't handle that dingy sign hanging above the doorway. So we had our work cut out for us.

So! We were on a mission! We weren't afraid to get our hands dirty!!

Which we did. First things first- repairing the water line that we broke. Day one is so fun.

Those guys did an amazing job with the sidewalk. The nerd in me was totally fascinated. The artist in me wanted desperately to help them make it pretty. The idjit in me just messed it up further.

Thankfully there was someone who screwed it up even more than I did to take the spotlight off my ineptitude. This IS a law of pouring sidewalks, right? There has to be a dog around somewhere to do this?

Anyway, after shots:

New sidewalk:

Porch ceiling:

I forgot to take an after shot of the roof, but you can see they're working hard:

And the ramp to the back door:

Don't think that we didn't make sure to do all the necessary activities for a Mennonite gathering- after all, where two or more Mennonites are gathered together, there shall a game of Euchre be also. But they wasted no time at all in collecting all the mushrooms...

Yes. They fooled me too. Them crazy guys...

And the basketball- both the watching of the NCAA tournament and the playing in the afternoons. This guy had aspirations to be an NBA player. He was pretty good. I think Dad might have had a chance, though, if he hadn't been, oh, five feet shorter...

Waiting for the rain to stop:

This dog didn't live here, but just kept coming around begging to play.

And of course, what is perhaps our greatest trademark of them all: the food line. Note how the two not directly serving themselves are casually sizing up the guy with the plate, making sure that he's leaving enough for them when it's their turn. What. If. We. Run. Out. Of. Pie.

Now many people have false images of what the Mennonite lifestyle is all about. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. We're not all buggies and black dresses. We drive cars and watch TV. Why, we even have cell phones in today's modern era. Of course, we have to walk out to the middle of the field to use them...

Dad made fun of me the first day because I swiped the (second) mirror from one of the two bathrooms to put into my bedroom. After all, I was the only girl and I figured there would never be two men in the bathroom at the same time to require two mirrors. Poke fun all you want, Dad, but I caught you enjoying my mirror when there was a line and you needed to shave... ;)

Truly, this was an amazing trip. I had a blast. Even the rain was cool. If you ever feel compelled to do some good, go check out the website of the Mashulaville Dormitory and find out how you can help out.

Just for fun, this was one of my favorite pictures. I could wax all poetic, you know, beauty in the darkest spots, blah blah blah, but a) I'd be stretching it, and b) that might reveal a side that's neither sarcastic nor indifferent, so... hey, isn't this a really pretty flower?