Day 84 - Big Event

Today was a pretty awesome day. I got up and left early with the assumption that I would miss my tram (or at least have to wait for a few minutes) and shop around for new ear buds because I think I accidentally left mine on the bus yesterday. It's actually really saddening because those were really comfortable, and definitely my favorite headphones. However, my train was just pulling in as I was walking up, and the shop wasn't open until 10 today. As a result, I walked into AIB super early today. It was alright though, because I was able to talk with some Aggie alumni who are stationed at a military base about 2 hours away and came specifically for this event. We had a quick overview about the history of the event for the non-Aggie participants before heading outside to take a picture.

We're super excited for this day

We then split up into our groups and were taken to our respective sites so we could start out service project. The group I was with was set up to do some gardening at a nursing home in Bad Godesberg. When we got there, we were shown what areas we needed to work on. The first part was cleaning up the front area and replanting or putting in new plants to the pots. Two others and I tackled the task of removing moss from an arrangement of stone blocks as well as removing any weeds before adding in fresh soil and planting some strawberry plants. The only problem? These stone pots were super heavy and set into the ground, and the only way to get the lattice-work of roots out of the pot was to flip it over and push out all the dirt from the open bottom. However, we got it all done and it looked pretty good if I do say so myself.

The (almost) end result of our labors

After our fun with plants, we had to help the guys with their project. What they were doing was creating a bed where rose trees and lavender would be placed later. They started out with a grassy field, and through hard work and a lot of pickaxes, they dug out a trench that we could then come in and add new soil to, remove the rocks and roots, and generally make the bed more soft for the planting we would be doing later. Before we started on that though, they fed us lunch made of two different types of soups and bread and talked to us for a long while. After lunch we went to work on making the trench plant-friendly. At about 3, they came out again with some cakes and a whole bunch of drinks. We took a break for a short amount of time before continuing with our gardening, this time with actually planting the rose trees. We had to do it a special way or one of the elderly gentlemen helping us would get upset and so it himself, but we ended up planting the entire row of trees.

The (almost finished) row of trees

Just as we finished, Kristin called the student worker that was with us to tell her that she would be coming to our site with the camera to do an interview. The reason why they did this was because this is the first ever international Big Event, which is kind of a big deal. They came just as we were starting to plant the lavender between the trees and took a lot of pictures of us as we worked. They also wanted an interview with one of the students, so I was able to talk about why we were doing this service project and what we did. After that, I showed the camera man the other garden area (the one with the strawberry plants) so he could see exactly what we did and he could take pictures if he so chose. They gave an interview to the manager of the home before heading back out to another site.

 The camera crew with the staff

All those who worked on the gardens

The last thing we had to do before we were done was to water the plants so they could grow. As we finished, the staff called us over to the eating area. They had prepared a BBQ for us as thanks for the help that we provided for them. It was really cool, they had bratwurst, steak, potato salad, as well as something called Krautsalad. And of course, beer. We sat and ate for about 2 hours, just talking with the residents. They were really happy that we had decided to help them out on our free day, and had a great time watching us work throughout the day from their windows. Actually, while we were working, one lady was kind and threw down some hard caramel candies for us to snack on throughout the day. It was pretty cool to sit down with these people and talk to them.

Soon we had to leave, and I went home to finally hang out with my family. My host mom wasn't home, but the kids were and I sat with them for a little bit before their tiredness overcame them and drove them to sleep. I followed and did this blog as well as did some work.

Tomorrow is the Bonn Marathon, and I'm going to be running a quarter marathon tomorrow. I have no clue what possessed me to sign up, but now I have to go through with it, so wish me luck!

Erin Z