Saturday, January 14th 2017- Jill and Aaron

Today was our first day of service. The group rose early at 7am to the sound of a raucous group of large herons squawking. The birds were about 4 and half feet tall and approached our group eager to find some food. Some of the friendlier group members fed them bread. This was strangely not our only encounter with uncommon animals today.  Our service was clearing brush at Katie’s Landing in Lower Wekiwa Park. We met two friendly couples who were volunteers and helped start us off and lent us tools. It was hot but breezy and we worked until a well deserved lunch at noon by the water. Before lunch we had the amazing luck of spotting a woman walking her two parrots! She had a large multicolored Macaw named Bella and a smaller African Gray named Peanut. They were incredibly interesting and we enjoyed learning about their lives. Unfortunately the water at Katie’s Landing had sulfur in it, which gave it a pungent egg-ish smell. Although the water was unpleasant, the view at Katie’s Landing and weather made it all worthwhile. We sadly didn’t spot any alligators. After lunch we went back for an hour of service and were greeted by three funny dogs (two small, one large and a new mother) and their kid owners. It was a much needed pick up. We finished up our work and headed home around 2:30pm. Back at camp, everyone was exhausted and we showered, took naps, and explored more of our surroundings in hopes of finding bears. After struggling with lighting the coals for dinner, we ended up frying some hot dogs and hamburgers on the camp stove. Dinner was delicious. Next came reflection, and some well deserved smores. We are all looking forward to our free day tomorrow and had a great first day of service today!