Sonya's Blog - Day 183 - Volunteering in Savannah with AWWIN

Sonya’s Blog - Day 183 - December 22nd - Volunteering in Savannah with AWWIN

Blake had signed us up to volunteer today for a Christmas event that was being held at the Savannah Civic Centre. We were volunteering with AWWIN (Assisting Working Women in Need). We needed to be there by 10:15 to get checked in and help set up.

The drive to the Civic Centre was super easy and we were there within 20 minutes of leaving. Blake went upstairs to check us in for volunteering and I stood in line to pay for parking. They had a large lot, but only one parking pay station. It was super cheap parking though, 30 cents per hour. I found out when I went upstairs that I didn’t have to pay for parking because we were volunteering. Ah well, it was only a couple of bucks.

Once I got upstairs, we found out how the day was going to go. We were helping them do the finishing touches on the set up, but it was really well organized and there wasn’t much left to do. The organizing committee had done an amazing job. The event was scheduled to start at 11 AM. They had several speakers, with the Keynote Speaker being the owner for Outback Steakhouse. Outback Steakhouse was also providing the meal for everyone at the event and the staff to serve the meal. A very generous donation. After the speeches the children were going to be put on one side of the room and the mother’s were going to the other side of the room. The volunteers were to help take care of the children so that the mother’s could focus on their side of the room Then lunch would be served.

When we were done with helping out, we were introduced to several people. We talked with J’miah Nabawi. He is the storyteller that has come out today to present his story Anansi is Ananse to the kids. The story is based on an Ananse the spider, who is a traditional trickster character in Ghanaian culture. It is meant to be told in the Ananse tradition of storytelling called Anansesem. That means it is meant to be told aloud and interactively with the audience. There are many rhythmic beats and sounds in the story that are meant to be vocalized and augmented with various instruments, if possible. He will be presenting the story to the group of kids and keeping them engaged. It will be fun to watch his presentation as we had great fun just chatting to him. He taught us some Gullah phrases. I talked about the Gullah Culture when we had visited the Boone Plantation. This was the culture of some of the Black Slaves that came from certain regions of Africa, mostly Angola I think. J’miah taught us a couple of phrases. When you want someone to come and chat with you, you would say “come crack teeth with we”. Don’t say the “th” sound in teeth, it is just a t sound. When you want someone to join your group you would say “with we” not “with us”. We had fun trying to get the sounds to come out of our mouth properly, with a Gullah accent. He taught us a couple of phrases, but that is the only one I really remember (and I had to get input to get it right).

We then met the Pastor, his wife and the junior pastor (not sure if that is the right term) that had come to the event to help out and say the prayer. They were lovely and we had a good chat with them. They gave us advice about where to get a good Southern homestyle meal. We had to go to Wilkes House, so we put it on our to do list. The Pastor said that going there was like when he went to his Grandma’s house when he was little. Cool.

By this time it was time for the presentations to begin. All the speeches were very inspiring and well done.

Then it was time for the children to listen to be entertained by J’miah and the women to go to their side of the room. They needed a volunteer per table for each of the kids tables. They also needed some volunteers to help out on the women’s side. Blake and the kids stayed on the kids side of the room and I went to help out on the other side. We had to hand out forms for the ladies to fill out and then several organizations were on hand to give out information about what their organizations do and give out information packets. There were a couple of ladies that had their babies with them and one baby was fussing while her mum was trying to fill out a form. I offered to hold the baby so she could fill out the form easier. Well, much to my pleasure, she readily agreed and I was cuddling the cutest little baby. She just snuggled right in without any fussing. He older sister, Empress, was in the stroller and was getting a little ancy. I offered to take her over to the other side to see if she would want to stay there and listen to the story. She was very shy, but she soon took my hand and we wandered over to the other side. J’miah was well into his storytelling by now, he was so good. I first tried to see if Empress would sit on Blake’s lap, but she wanted nothing to do with him. There was a younger volunteer at the table, as well, and she came over and Empress went straight to her and stuck with her the rest of the morning. I walked the baby, Aya, around, back and forth between the storytelling and the ladies side and she just cuddled right in and had a nap. This worked out well for me and her mum. They had free make-overs for the mum’s if they wanted. This allowed Aya’s mum to go for a make-over and have her lunch with her three other children and I got to cuddle with a cute little baby for most of my volunteering shift.

The volunteers were welcome to have lunch as well as Outback Steakhouse had brought plenty. The Blake and kids ate, but then Blake took the baby (after much protesting from me) so I could eat my lunch. The food was fantastic, there was lots of variety and plenty to eat for everyone. What a nice surprise.

When lunch was over the organization had a table with groceries on it and the families could choose stuff they wanted. They also had a ham for each family to take home. Each of the kids had received a bag with gifts in it for them - they had many donations (toys, books, games and clothes). They each also received one of J’miah’s books and a gift basket. There was a lot of stuff to carry downstairs to their cars, but they all seemed happy to have received so much. I helped to distribute the food with Natasha. Blake and Isaac helped with the hams.

We then helped clean up as much as we could. The organizing committee was busy, busy packing everything up and cleaning up the room. We only helped out for a little bit and were told they had it under control and we could go. This was the first event of this kind that AWWIN had put on, but they are hoping to continue it every year. I thought they did a great job and was shocked it was the first one, usually those are a little more panicked and disorganized. Everything went very smoothly and the families that participated seemed pleased. We were happy to have volunteered, it was a pleasure.

It was just after 2 when we left the Civic Centre. We went back to the campground to rescue Kizmet. We gave her a good walk and then tried to decide what to do. We were going to go back to Savannah and walk around some more, but then Natasha got to facetiming with a friend and I started reading. Blake was busy booking more campgrounds and Isaac was playing games. All of a sudden it was 4 PM and too late to go into Savannah.

After supper Blake and I headed out to Walmart and the Grocery store to try and stock up for our Christmas food that we will need. It started pouring rain, but it is so warm it feels like bathwater. The shopping took forever, but we got it done. We are all set to eat our faces off over Christmas.

It was pretty late when we got back so we just called it a night.

Sonya