This last weekend we participated in Into The Streets with GRF Magdala. The event started out with a fun series of performances. The dance group Breakfree and a drumming group whose name I can’t remember performed very well. After a speech from Ryan Lombardi, we all went our separate ways to our assignments. Ours was at the YMCA, which I assumed would be cleaning a basketball court or another indoor task. It turned out that we were volunteering in the outdoor center, which meant that it was very hands on.

Our first task involved waterproofing a vine hut. When we were first assigned the task, I thought it would be impossible. We had to thread vines through a framework to fill in the many holes, which required a lot of teamwork. Eventually we ran out of vines, so we learned all about how to find vines in the forest and pull them down. At one point, two other girls and I tried using all of our body weight to pull a vine down from a tree, but we all ended up in the mud instead. At the end of it all though, the vine hut looked so much better. The cost was that I looked so, so much worse. We were all covered in various plant matter and scratches from the work, but hopefully we’ve created something lots of kids can enjoy for years to come.

I think that is something that really motivated me to keep working on the vine hut even when it seemed to be pointless and not going anywhere. I knew that this was something that I would have loved as a kid, and now it was my turn to give back and make something for the next generation of kids to enjoy. The cost of our time and cleanliness is definitely worth it to make something kids can create memories in.