We're Good People (Probably)

Because out family is always so kind and thoughtful and giving we applied to volunteer at the Savannah Civic Centre where AWWIN (Assisting Working Women In Need) was hosting a program for single mothers. We had to be out of the trailer by 9:30am, since the event started at 10:00am, and we got there with plenty of time to spare. The boys and I went inside straight away to see where we had to go and what we had to do, and Mum stayed outside to lineup for the parking meter. Since there was only one. In a parking lot made for dozens of cars. Hmm, the setup seems a bit faulty to me. After I found out where we had to be, I went back out to keep Mum company until she paid and then we both went up to the third floor where they were holding the event. I ended up leaving again, taking everybody’s coffee mugs down to the car and when I got back up, the volunteers were called to help with what little was left to do. Once we had set up all the tables, all four of us got talking with some of the other people there to help out. The first person we talked to was J’Miah Nabawi when we were helping set up his table of books. He is a storyteller and was here to tell stories to the kids

while their mothers were elsewhere. His story is called Anansi is Ananse, which is about Anansi the spider, a traditional story from Ghanaian culture. He told us how when he would go into schools in the 80’s to tell his story, he would ask the kids if they had heard of Anansi the spider and almost every hand would go up. Over the years, less and less people had heard the story and he decided he wanted to reintroduce it by writing his own book. We got a copy of the book to read, which is pretty cool. He also knows quite a bit of Gullah culture and history, the culture of the slaves that had come over from Angola, and taught us a Gullah phrase. It is “come crack teeth with we,” and is said like “come crack teet’ with’ we,” which means come talk with us. He was quite interesting to talk to and he was very friendly. We were also introduced to the organizer’s pastor, his wife and his son-in-law, who is also the junior pastor. We talked with them about our trip and where we’d been, kind of thing, and they recommended some good restaurants for a true Southern meal. After we said hello to them, the speeches started and they were all quite inspiring, especially the one by a quite successful restaurant owner who had started from humble beginnings. I had to go down to the car in the middle of it though, because I had more stuff to put away and when I got back, the kids and the mothers had separated for their activities. I stayed with the kids for most

of the time, while J’Miah told his story accompanied with sounds, games and instruments (one of which was played by me). After a while, I wandered over to the adults where Mum was, holding someone else's baby as she tends to do. The baby was very cute though. After that, it was time for lunch. A restaurant had brought over a big Southern buffet for everyone and I waited until all the Mums and kids had gotten their food before going up myself. It was a very Southern meal, of course, with lots of barbeque and some greens and some pie. After the meal, the families began to line up to collect their share of the donations that had been given to AWWIN for the event, as well as a copy of J’Miah’s book each. There were lots of non-perishable foods, as well as a full ham each and lots of toys for the kids. After everyone had collected as many items as they could carry and more, they began to cart them down to their cars and the volunteers helped clean up what they needed cleaned up, such as the silk bows tied to the back of each chair. Then we headed home to the dog and I FaceTimed my friend for a few hours before dinner. Peace out m8s.

#camping #savannah #georgia